THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
rufous colour, and the absence of the elliptical white ring over the rump, 
many other local races of water bucks are found all over the well -watered 
districts of Africa to the westward of the range of the typical Cobus 
ellipsiprymnus. In all these races the white rump ring of the common 
waterbuck is replaced by a large and continuous area of white over the 
hind quarters below the root of the tail. These races of waterbucks are 
generally known as Defassa waterbucks, from the Abyssinian name for 
that animal. The typical “defassa” waterbuck ( Cobus defassa typicus) is 
the race found in Western Abyssinia, which extends from thence down 
the Blue Nile, up the White Nile, and throughout Central and Western 
Africa. The waterbucks found in Uganda (C. d. ugandoe) and in the 
Gambian region (C. d. singsing) appear to be merely local races of this 
species. All these waterbucks are of a much more rufous coloration than 
is the common waterbuck of South and East Africa, and the front of the 
face is darker, with more white round the eyes and the muzzle than in that 
species. In the country between Lake Mweru and the Zambesi there is a 
race of waterbucks (C. d. crawshayi ), in which the coloration is dark grey, 
as in the common waterbuck, but in which the rump is white as in the 
typical defassa; whilst in Southern Angola, to the south of Benguella, is 
found another dark race of waterbucks (<7. d. penricei ), in which the 
broad white elliptical rump mark is also replaced by a continuous area 
of white. It always appeared to me that the rufous defassa waterbucks 
I met with on the Nzoia River, near Mount Elgon, were larger and heavier 
animals than the common waterbucks of South Africa. Their horns were 
also very heavy and of good length (from twenty-eight to thirty-two 
inches). On the White Nile and the Bahr-el-Ghazal and its tributaries very 
fine waterbuck heads are sometimes obtained, though I have not heard of 
any horns from these districts measuring over thirty-three inches. 
The finest waterbuck heads in Africa, however, come from Toru and the 
western side of Lake Albert. In these districts the horns of the local race of 
the defassa waterbuck appear to ordinarily exceed thirty inches in length, 
whilst several magnificent specimens have been obtained of from thirty - 
five to thirty -seven inches. In the near neighbourhood of Nairobi, in 
British East Africa, the ranges of the common and the defassa waterbuck 
would seem to meet, as Mr A. Blaney Percival, the assistant game warden 
in that territory, informs me that he has seen the two species running 
together in one herd. 
All species or races of waterbucks, wherever they may be met with in 
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