BUFFON’S KOB 
COBUS COBA 
T HERE now only remain to be mentioned the dark -red kob 
antelopes with buff-coloured ears, whose range extends from 
West Africa to the N’zoia River in British East Africa. The 
eastern race, which has been named Cobus thomasi , after Mr 
Oldfield Thomas, of the British Museum of Natural History, 
appears to be a larger animal with, on the average, somewhat 
finer horns than the typical West African form, which ranges from the 
Gambia to Lake Tchad, but in the intervening country, no doubt, 
intermediate forms exist. The coloration of both the western and the 
eastern races of Buffon’s kob is a rich red brown, with black markings 
on the front of both fore and hind legs. In both, the backs of the ears are 
of a general pale fawn colour, becoming whitish near the base on the 
outside margin. At no period of the year, as far as is known, do the males 
of either the eastern or western race of Buffon’s kob assume a black or 
dark -brown coloration; but it is said that red kobs are found on the 
northern shores of Lake Albert, which are not subject to any seasonal 
change in colour, but in which the ears, as well as the muzzle and a large 
area round each eye are white. It is possible that the red kobs found in the 
south and south-western districts of the Bahr-el-Ghazal province may 
belong to this variety, and that they may merge into the race in the northern 
part of that province in which the adult males would appear to change 
colour to a very varying extent, some becoming black or dark brown all 
over, whilst others only assume a partial darkening of the hair on the 
face, lower part of the neck and shoulders. The animal described by 
Dr F. Matschie as Cobus coba , nigroscapulatus , probably belonged to this 
intermediate race. This specimen was obtained in the Bahr-el-Ghazal 
Province between 6 deg. and 7 deg. N. latitude. 
The length of the record pair of horns of the typical race of Buffon’s kob 
is twenty-one and three-quarter inches, and this measurement is not 
often exceeded in the most easterly districts to which the species ranges. 
But specimens have been obtained in Uganda where the species would 
seem to attain to its maximum size, in which the horns measure 
twenty -four inches. Where I have met with the eastern race of Buffon’s 
kob on the N’zoia River in British East Africa, I found this species similar 
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