THE LELWEL HARTEBEEST 
BUBALIS LELWEL 
T HE typical Lelwel hartebeest, which I have myself shot in the 
East-Central districts of the Bahr-el-Ghazal province, is 
distinguished from the typical West African species principally 
by the length of the pedicle above the eyes, upon which the 
horns stand, and the more upright growth of the horns, which 
are also much less deeply ringed. But when in Khartoum in 
1911 I saw two pairs of hartebeest horns, said to have been brought 
from the Bahr-el-Ghazal province, which were exactly intermediate 
between typical examples of the horns of the two species. These specimens 
probably came from the western part of the Bahr-el-Ghazal province, 
possibly from the neighbourhood of Dem Zubeir , and I cannot help thinking 
that further research in the vast wastes which lie between Senegambia 
and Nigeria and the Bahr-el-Ghazal will show that there are intermediate 
local races of hartebeests connecting Buhalis Major with Bubalis Lelwel. 
In the latest work on the fauna of Africa, “ The Game Animals of Africa,” 
by Mr R. Lydekker, it is stated that the typical race of Lelwel hartebeest 
{Bubalis Lelwel typica), which inhabits the Bahr-el-Ghazal, Upper Nubia 
and Kordofan, has a dark face blaze. I only shot two of these animals 
myself — an old bull and an old cow — in the Bahr-el-Ghazal province, some 
150 miles west of the Nile; but I saw several other headskins of recently 
killed animals of the same species, and also examined carefully a good 
many living hartebeests through my glasses, and in none of these examples 
which came under my notice was there a trace of black or dark brown 
on the face. A black face blaze seems to be a feature which occurs with 
some frequency amongst the local race of Lelwel hartebeests which 
inhabits the country to the west of the Victoria Nyanza Lake, and in the 
nearly-allied Cape hartebeest {Bubalis cama) it is always present. 
In the horns of all the races of Lelwel hartebeests there are very great 
individual differences. In some the points beyond the backward crook 
turn inwards, in others outwards, whilst in others again they grow parallel 
to one another. Also the angle at which they grow beyond the crook varies 
very greatly. All these differences are also found in the Cape hartebeest. 
Where I met with Lelwel hartebeests in the Bahr-el-Ghazal province, 
I found them running in small herds of from four or five to fifteen 
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