THE WHITE-EARED KOB 
COBUS LEUCOTIS 
T HIS very beautiful antelope is found in abundance on both 
banks of the White Nile to the south of Renk, as well as along 
the Sobat, Bahr-el-Zaraf and Bahr-el-Ghazal Rivers. To the 
eastward its range extends up the Sobat to beyond the con- 
fluence of the Baro and Pibor Rivers (which together form the 
Sobat), whilst to the west of the Nile it is very plentiful on all 
the rivers flowing through the northern and central districts of the Bahr- 
el-Ghazal province, such as the Lau, Naam, Gell, Tonj, Jur and others. 
The white-eared kob is often spoken of as a swamp -haunting species; 
but although during the rainy season it may in some parts of its range be 
forced to live at times in swampy places, it certainly prefers to keep its 
feet on dry ground, and in this respect resembles the Puku, and Thomas’s 
and Buffon’s kobs, and differs widely from the only two really aquatic 
species of the genus, the lechwi and Mrs Gray’s kob. Where I have myself 
met with white-eared kobs on the Naam and Gell Rivers, in the east-central 
portion of the Bahr-el-Ghazal province, I found them frequenting both 
the open grass lands on either side of the rivers, and also the open bush 
tracts beyond the grass lands. They were always on dry, hard ground, and 
never more than a mile away from the river. As is well known, in the typical 
white -eared kob of the White Nile and Sobat Rivers, the female and young 
males are of a uniform dark red colour , with the exception of the white areas 
round the eyes, and on the throat, chest and belly, and the black markings 
on the front of both the fore and hind legs. But in the adult male the whole 
body, together with the front and sides of the face, becomes nearly black, 
with the exception of the muzzle, throat, and the areas extending from 
below the eyes to the base of the horns and the ears, which are pure white. 
The ears themselves are, I believe, always white in both sexes. In the more 
westerly portions of the range of the white-eared kob I think it is doubtful 
whether the adult males ever become of so deep a black in colour as on the 
White Nile and the Sobat, and from my own observations in the former 
country I have been led to believe that the dark coloration is there seasonal, 
as the first two male kobs I shot on the Naam River on March 4 and 5, 
1911, were entirely red with the exception of a black mark down the 
nose. Six weeks later I saw a great many kobs on the Gell River, some 
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