THE LEGHWI 
COBUS LECHE 
T HIS handsome species was first discovered by Dr Livingstone 
in 1849 on the Botletlie River, to the south of Lake N ’garni, 
and thirty years later I found it still fairly numerous in the 
same locality. From there northwards it is found in the 
neighbourhood of all the rivers and lakes of Central and South - 
Central Africa wherever there are large expanses of inundated 
country, or in which shallow lagoons exist. To the south of the Zambesi it 
used to be particularly numerous in the open grass plains, which were 
periodically inundated by the overflow from the Okavango, Tamalakan, 
Machabi and Chobi Rivers. In the Barotsi Valley it was also very common, 
as well as on all the swampy rivers flowing into the Upper Zambesi 
from the east, such as the Lumbi and the Majili. Further north it was and 
is still very abundant on the Kafue River and its tributaries, as well as in 
the neighbourhood of Lakes Mweru and Bengweolo. Personally, I have 
never met with lechwi antelopes except in flooded ground or the immediate 
neighbourhood of such ground. They appeared to spend the greater part 
of their time knee-deep in water, grazing over flooded meadows, or in 
shallow lagoons, where the young reeds were not entirely submerged. I 
have often seen large herds of lechwi lying resting in shallow water, or 
just on the edge of such water. A glance at their feet is sufficient to show 
their aquatic habits, for although the hoofs of the lechwi are not as long 
as in the situtunga, they are much longer than in any other of the kobs 
except their near ally, Mrs Gray’s kob, which is equally aquatic in its 
habits. In both the lechwi and Mrs Gray’s kob, as also in the situtunga, 
the skin of the feet is devoid of hair at the back of the main hoofs up to the 
lateral hoofs; whilst in the waterbuck and all the dry -ground frequenting 
kobs, this portion of the feet is covered with a thick growth of hair, as, 
indeed, is the case with all other African antelopes. 
A male lechwi will stand about forty inches at the shoulder, and carries 
very beautifully shaped horns, which, after first curving backwards, bend 
very sharply forwards, much more so than in the waterbuck. In length of 
horn the lechwis found in the neighbourhood of Lake Bengweolo seem to 
far surpass those inhabiting the swamps of the Chobi and Central Zambesi, 
as in the latter localities twenty-eight inches over the curve is about the 
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