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The Waterbuck, which is readily known from all the allied Antelopes by 
the white ribbon which passes over the rump and is carried down to the 
thighs on both sides, has, as we shall presently show, an extensive distri- 
bution in Africa, but was first described from a specimen obtained in the 
interior of South Africa. One of the early African travellers—Steedman— 
met with it in 1832 “about 25 days’ journey north of the Orange River 
between Latakoo and the western coast.” This somewhat vague locality, 
which was given by Ogilby when he described Steedman’s specimen before 
the Zoological Society in March 1833, probably indicates some part of 
Damaraland. 
In 1840 Sir Cornwallis Harris figured this species—not, we must allow, 
very accurately—in his great work on the ‘ Game and Wild Animals of South 
Africa.” Although not found within the limits of Cape-land proper, the 
Waterbuck, Harris tells us, abounded in his days on the margins of the 
willow-grown Limpopo and its tributaries, in the “rippling waters of which 
it delights to lave its grizzled sides, immersing itself up to the chin during 
the heat of the day and rolling in its favourite soiling-pool for hours 
together.” 
Sir Andrew Smith, who visited South Africa about the same period, like- 
wise figures both sexes of this Antelope in his ‘ Illustrations of the Zoology 
of South Africa,’ and not perhaps in a more satisfactory manner. He gives, 
however, a good description of both sexes of the Waterbuck and of its 
internal anatomy, together with an account of its habits, from which we 
extract the following particulars :—‘‘ This animal, which has, from the time 
it first became known to the Cape colonists, been designated by them under 
the name of ‘The Water Bok,’ was not seen by our party till after we had 
passed to the northward of Kurrichane ; and, if we are to trust the evidence 
of the natives, it is never met with to the southward of the high lands 
which extend to the eastward of the locality mentioned. ‘To the northward, 
however, it is a common animal, and is generally found associated in small 
herds of from eight to ten individuals, near the margins of streams. We 
were struck from the first with the small proportion of males in these herds, 
and on remarking upon the circumstance to the aborigines, they gave their 
testimony in support of the accuracy of our observations. Rarely, in a herd 
of twelve, were there more than two or three males, and of these seldom 
more than one which might be regarded as mature. ‘The natives were of 
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