THE DEFASSA WATERBUCK 



pervaded by a strong and unpleasant taste, so that it is almost uneatable by 

 Europeans. 



In Uganda, where defassa waterbuck are still comparatively numerous, the 

 calves, of which there is usually one at a birth, are born from about the middle of 

 December to the latter part of February. The male calves do not develop their 

 horns till they are about eight months old, by which time the animals are 

 approximately half-grown. At all times shy and difficult to approach, waterbuck 

 are specially wary when they have calves with them. Unlike so many antelopes 

 and nearly all deer, when they take to flight at the approach of danger they 

 scarcely ever turn round, after galloping a certain distance, to gaze at the intruder ; 

 and this absence of curiosity saves many of them their lives. The calves, if taken 

 young, are easily tamed. 



Waterbuck are the biggest members of a large genus, all the representatives 

 of which are confined to Africa south of the Sahara ; the smaller species being 

 known as kobs. A well-known species is Buffon's kob (Cobus coda), a nearly 

 uniformly rufous antelope, with blackish fronts to the fore-legs, of the approximate 

 size of a fallow deer, and inhabiting tropical Africa from the west coast to Uganda. 

 Somewhat larger are the puku (C. vardoni) and the lechwi (C. leche), first discovered 

 by Livingstone in the Zambesi district ; both these being foxy-coloured antelopes, 

 without black leg-markings. In the Lake Mweru district of Barotseland there 

 exists another kind of lechwi in which the adult males become blackish brown. 

 And much farther north, in the swamps of the White Nile and the Sobat, we meet 

 with two other members of the genus, the white-eared kob (C. leucotis) and Mrs. 

 Gray's kob (C. maria), in which the old bucks are likewise nearly black, with the 

 exception of the ears, certain portions of the head and throat, and the under-parts, 

 which are white. These black kobs are highly specialised species ; although less 

 specialised than the sable antelope, in which the adults of both sexes are black. 



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