THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
bulls in the country now known as Southern Rhodesia. Thus fairly 
measured, only one of these animals would have stood five feet ten inches 
at the shoulder when alive. Several others stood five feet nine inches. 
These fine animals were all of immense bulk, however, and the girth of 
their necks and bodies behind the shoulder commonly exceeded the same 
measurements given of the giant eland shot in the Sudan by Captain R. J. 
Collins. Early in 1903 I met with large numbers of elands near the Voi 
River, in British East Africa, and the big bulls struck me as being some- 
what less bulky than the animals I had been accustomed to see to the 
south of the Zambesi. But at that time elands were on the protected list 
of East African game, and I was not able to shoot and examine one of them. 
In 1910, however, I carefully measured three full-grown eland bulls shot 
on the Gwas N’gishu plateau, in British East Africa, and made the height 
of all three as near as possible five feet five inches at the shoulder; and 
though these animals were in good condition, they were far less bulky 
and would certainly have weighed much less than an average eland bull 
of South Africa. 
But although there would appear to be some doubt as to the justice of 
the title of “ giant ” which has been given to the Derbian eland, this species, 
owing to the great size of its horns, its large rounded ears and the rich 
coloration of its head and neck, is certainly by far the handsomest member 
of the genus to which it belongs. 
The range of this magnificent antelope extends from Senegambia to 
the neighbourhood of Lado on the Nile. To the east of that river it is 
unknown, its place being taken by elands similar in appearance to, if not 
identical with, those found in East Africa. 
The Derbian eland frequents forested country, which during the dry 
season becomes very parched and arid, and I was told by the natives of 
the Bahr-el-Ghazal that it only drank water at infrequent intervals. My 
experience was that although the animals I hunted there wandered through 
more or less open forest during the night, they passed the day in thick 
leafy bush, where it was impossible to obtain a clear view of all of them 
at one time. Under such conditions, it must always depend a good deal on 
luck whether one gets the chance of a shot at a big bull. The large rounded 
ears of the Derbian eland, in shape like those of the koodoo or bushbuck, 
seem to show that it has always been a true forest species. It browses 
habitually on the leaves of trees and bushes, and when following the tracks 
of a herd of these animals one day I noticed five different kinds of trees on 
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