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So far as we know, only two examples of this Sitatunga have ever reached 
Europe alive. Both of these are now living, in good health, in the Zoological 
Society's Gardens in the Regent’s Park. The first arrival was a young female, 
received as a present from Mr. James A. Nicolls, F.Z.S., of Belmont House, 
Navan, Ireland, on October 14th, 1890. In a footnote to Nicolls and 
Eglington’s ‘Sportsman in South Africa’ we are informed that the animal in 
question was captured by Mr. Nicolls alongside the dead body of its dam, 
which had been shot by him in the Taoke swamp, forty miles from Lake 
Ngami. 
On referring to Mr. Nicolls’s articles in the ‘ Field’ newspaper, in which 
his “Travels and Sport along the Botletle River and round Lake Ngami” are 
narrated, we find the occurrence in question described as follows :— 
“ At midday (in August 1887) we arrived at Ku-Ku’s. A native missionary, who 
has spent several years in this country representing the London Missionary Society, 
informed us that his efforts towards converting the Western Bamangwato tribes and 
Makobas to Christianity had up to the present proved unsuccessful. From him we 
also received intelligence that the Nakon waterbuck was very plentiful in the Taoke 
swamp, a distance of twenty miles off. This was indeed very joyful news to me, as 
I had always been most anxious to shoot a specimen of this animal, a prize which, I 
understood, had not previously been obtained by any white man, at least south of the 
Zambesi. However, Ku-Ku strongly advised me not to go shooting in the swamp till I 
had seen Moremi and obtained his permission to do so, on account, Ku-Ku said, of that 
chief being very unwilling to allow any strangers there, the district being used by his 
people as a place of refuge in case of another attack by the Matabele. I adopted his 
advice, which, as it turned out afterwards, was rightly given. 
“TJ arrived at De Nokane, Moremi’s town (a distance of 537 miles 680 yards from 
Khama’s). The station occupied by the chief is situated on a small river which issues 
from the Okavango, and finally gets lost in the vast Taoke swamp. 
« At midday I came to a large Makoba village, built on a small piece of rising ground 
adjoining the swamp. To the left, right, and front, as far as the eye could reach, there 
was nothing visible but vast patches of tall reeds ; here and there, on portions of more 
rising ground, little groves of dwarf fan-palms; and occasionally, as if a godsend to 
relieve the monotony of such a dreary landscape, a towering palm waved its feathered 
head to the uncertain breeze. 
“‘ As T had still a long distance to walk before arriving at the spot most frequented by 
the Nakon, and as I desired to be there at least an hour before sundown (this, or shortly 
after daylight in the morning, being the only time at which a fair chance of a shot 
could be obtained), without making any delay, I at once entered the swamp, and for the 
first half-hour waded knee-deep in water, caused by a late overflow from the Taoke river, 
and my progress, although very tiring, was at least endurable. Resting for about 
twenty minutes on a small dry knoll, overgrown with fan-palms, my Makoba guides, of 
