THE SPORTSMAN IN SOUTH AFRICA. 39 



vango Rivers it is still quite common.* It is never found more than 

 a couple of hundred yards from the water, and during the day lies 

 closely in the thick cover afforded by a species of sharp spear-pointed 

 flagger-like plants (which only flourish in the shade of the forest 

 in the immediate vicinity of the rivers), from the fibre of which the 

 Makobas and Masieuvias make their fishing nets. The emigrant 

 Boers call this plant "ballstikker." As it is next to an impossibility 

 to get this antelope to break cover, the shot-gun with a charge of 

 buck-shot is much preferable to the rifle. 



The Inyala {Tragelaplms angasi). Fig. 28, Plate VIII. 



\Height of adult male about 2 fret J inches. General colour .^ a 

 dark greyish brown^ mingled with white hairs about the neck; long 

 thick fringe of shaggy dark brown hair commencing at chin, ex- 

 tending down the throat and breast, between the forelegs, ending in 

 the middle of the belly; patches of same on the u-pper front of each 

 of the hind legs; some traverse whitish streaks on the back and 

 sides; half-a-dozen spots of same colour on each thigh, with half 

 band over upper portion of the nose under eyes; tail long and lifted. 

 Females, smaller in size, light red in colour, with numerous white 

 spots along the sides; about a dozen well marked even traverse 

 stripes over back and sides. Horns of male widely annulated and 

 scarcely distinguishable from those of the Nakong (Tragelaphus 

 spekei), averaging about 22 inches. Females hornless. Spoor re- 

 sembles the two other varieties of Bushbuck, about 2)i inches in 

 length^ 



This is the largest of the true South African Bushbuck, its range 

 being now limited to the dense bush of a few of the coast districts 

 of Zululand and about Delagoa Bay, being everywhere there very 

 scarce. It is, however, said to be more plentiful in the independent 

 native territories of some of the maritime regions North of the 

 Limpopo. Its habits and characteristics are almost identical with 

 those of the smaller variety {Tragelaphus sylvaticus) found in the 

 Cape Colony, and it bears an equal reputation for savageness of 

 disposition. 



