THE BLUE WILDEBEEST OR BRINDLED GNU 
with coarse black hair, as is the long tail on each side to its root, the long 
hair at its end being also thick and black. The horns are more buffalo -like 
than in the black wildebeest, as they grow out at right angles to the head, 
crooking sharply inwards and forwards, after reaching their greatest 
span, which sometimes, though rarely, may reach 32 or 33 inches. The 
horns of the blue wildebeest are, however, neither so broad nor so massive 
at their bases as in the black species. 
In Africa, to the south of the Zambesi, blue wildebeests are usually found 
in bush country during the rainy season and the early part of the dry 
season; but later on, after the long summer grass has been burnt off, they 
gradually collect on the more open tracts in search of young grass, and 
on certain large open areas which occur here and there amidst the 
generally forest and bush -covered wastes of the northern portions of the 
Bechuanaland Protectorate, I have seen very large herds of blue wilde- 
beests collected together during the latter part of the dry season. On the 
Mababi Plain, to the north-east of Lake N’gami, I saw herds of two or three 
hundred blue wildebeests during the latter part of 1879, and again in 1884. 
North of the Zambesi, in what is now North-West Rhodesia, it struck me 
that blue wildebeests lived more in open country than they are accustomed 
to do to the south of the river. In 1891 and 1892 I found blue wildebeests 
very plentiful in the country between the Pungwe River and Lake Sungwe, 
and in this district the horns of the bulls are much finer on the average than 
they are in any other part of South Africa. As I had not a sufficient number 
of porters to carry the heads of common animals, I only shot a few blue 
wildebeest bulls for meat, and without paying any attention to the size of 
their horns before shooting, but on measuring them, they all proved to 
span over 29 inches, and one was over 31 inches in width; whilst on the 
neighbouring high veld of Southern Rhodesia, where I have shot many 
blue wildebeests in my time, I have never seen a bull whose horns spread 
more than 28 in. In North-Western Rhodesia also the horns are small. 
In the blue wildebeest, as with the black species, the female is very 
similar to but smaller than the male, with smaller horns. She has four 
teats. 
Blue wildebeests are very sharp-sighted, and when on open ground are 
very difficult to stalk, though, being such large animals, they fall easy 
victims to sportsmen armed with modern long-range rifles. In the bright 
light of Africa a very ordinary shot, as soon as he has got used to judging 
distance fairly well, ought to be able, if he can rest his rifle on the side of 
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