THE ANTELOPES 231 
ravages amongst all the tragelaphine antelopes that it is to be feared the inyala can now no 
longer be found anywhere in any considerable numbers. Where I met with these antelopes 
some years ago, in the country to the south of Delagoa Bay, I found them living either alone 
or in pairs like. bushbucks. They frequented dense thickets in the immediate neighbourhood 
of a river or lagoon, and I never saw one in anything like open country or far away from 
water. Their tracks showed me that at night they were accustomed to feed in open spaces in 
the bush, but they always retired to the jungle again at daylight, as they had become very 
wary and cunning through constant persecution at the hands of the natives. 
Closely allied to the bush-antelopes of the present group are the swamp-haunting 
SITATUNGAS. Three species of these have been described, —one from East Africa, named after 
Captain Speke; another from tropical West Africa; and a third from Lake Ngami and the 
Chobi River, named after the present writer. 
There is very little difference between the adult males of these three species, except that 
in the West African form the coat is of a darker colour than in the other two. The main 
difference consists in the fact that, _ 
whereas the female of Selous’ sitatunga P 
is light brown in colour like the male, 
and the newly born young are very 
dark blackish brown (the colour of a 
mole), beautifully striped and spotted 
with pale yellow, the female and young 
of the other two forms are red in 
ground-colour, with white spots and 
stripes. However, personally I am of 
opinion that there is only one true 
species of sitatunga in all Africa, 
and that the differences between the 
various forms are superficial, and 
would be found to grade one into the 
other, if a sufficiently large series of 
skins of all ages and both sexes could 
be gathered together from all parts 
of the continent. In the Barotse 
Valley, on the Upper Zambesi, my 
friend Major R. T. Coryndon informs 
me that both red and brown female 
sitatungas are met with. On the 
Lower Chobi and Lake Ngami region 
the females are never red, but always of the same brown colour as the males, whilst on the 
Congo all the females are red. 
The male sitatunga stands about 3 feet 6 inches at the shoulder, and varies in general 
colour in different localities from light to dark brown. The adult females are either red with 
a few faint stripes and spots, or light brown, only retaining very faint traces of any stripes or 
spots. The young are, both in tropical West and Central East Africa, red, striped, and spotted 
with white; but in South-west Africa dark blackish brown, with spots and stripes of yellowish 
white. The hoofs are excessively long, and the skin which covers the back of the pastern is 
hairless, and of a very thick and horny consistency. The males alone carry horns, which are of 
the same character as in the inyala, but more spiral and longer, having been known to attain 
a length of 28 inches in a straight line and 35 inches over the curve. 
The sitatunga is an inhabitant of the extensive swamps which exist in many parts of the 
interior of Africa. It may be said to live in the water, as it passes its life in flooded beds of 
reeds and papyrus, into the muddy bottoms of which its long hoofs, when splayed out, prevent 
Photo by Mr. HW. Rau} delphia 
A PAIR OF YOUNG PRONGBUCKS 
From the fact that the horns of the males are annually shed, the prongbuck is 
assigned to a group apart from the Antelopes 
