THE 
BLUE WILDEBEEST OR BRINDLED GNU 
CONNOCHCETES TAURINUS 
T HE blue wildebeest is a much larger and heavier animal than 
its black relative, a big bull standing about four feet four or 
five inches at the shoulder. This species was not met with by 
the early South African hunters and travellers until the Orange 
River had been crossed. It never seems to have been numerous 
on the bare open plains of either the Orange Free State or 
the Transvaal, and probably only migrated into such districts from the 
west at certain times of year, as throughout South Africa the blue 
wildebeest is usually a bush -frequenting species, although in the dry 
season it will collect in large herds on certain circumscribed areas of open 
grass lands, which are, however, always completely surrounded or skirted 
by tracts of forest or bush. In Western South Africa the range of the blue 
wildebeest extended through Bechuanaland and the Kalahari, to Damara- 
land, Ovampoland and Angola. In the bushveld of the northern and eastern 
Transvaal, Zululand, Matabeleland and Mashonaland, it was commonly 
distributed, its range also extending through Portuguese East Africa, 
British Central Africa, North-Eastern and North-Western Rhodesia as far 
north as Kilimanjaro in German East Africa. In certain districts of Nyassa- 
land, south of the Lake and east of the Zambesi, the blue wildebeests have 
very commonly a white mark across the face below the eyes, but as this 
white mark occurs also not infrequently in wildebeests met with in Portu- 
guese East Africa to the south of the Zambesi, and as animals possessing 
such a white face mark differ in no other way either in habits or general 
appearance from their all -black -faced fellows, there seems to be no reason 
to separate such animals into a species distinct from the type form. The 
blue wildebeest of South-East Nyassaland, with a white mark across the 
face, has, however, been recognized as a distinct local race by Dr P. L. 
Sclater, under the name of Connochcetes taurinus Johnstoni. 
In the blue wildebeest the general colour is a dark grey, with a number 
of vertical blackish stripes on the neck and shoulders, which give it a 
distinctly brindled appearance. The neck is very heavy, though not arched 
as in the black wildebeest, and is topped with a black mane which reaches 
to beyond the withers and falls over on each side. The throat is fringed 
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