170 
SAVAGE SUDAN 
example (that ought , by theory, to have been the smallest) 
proved the biggest of the lot, both in body and horn! 
The annulations being worn nearly smooth, showed this 
(A) to be a very old animal. 
The two black bucks (as usually happens—and not with 
wild beasts only!) were not so black as they had appeared. 
Their rich, lustrous pelts were rather of a deep sable hue, 
relieved by dark chestnut points ; while the beauty of the 
whole design was accentuated by the narrow fringe of 
deeper, sheeny black that bordered the snow-white areas. 
I rides, rich dark brown. 
A typical mounted example in the African Galleries 
at South Kensington illustrates better than written 
words the extreme beauty of this species. 
My fourth white-eared cob I reserved till we had 
voyaged 200 miles further south. We landed near 
Tonga, and had walked a few miles inland over level 
plains with knee-deep grass and thin forest-belts, when a 
herd of cob was sighted. It surprised me that on such 
bare ground, devoid of covert, this troop allowed us to 
walk openly to within 300 yards. At that point we 
got a big ant-hill in line, and by simple crouching made 
good our approach. Still the herd took no notice-— 
many of them were lying down. 
We were now at a distance of 175 yards from these 
careless beauties. There were forty-four of them, but 
only one male proved conspicuously blacker than his 
fellows. So closely did they crowd that for more than two 
hours a clear shot at the champion in separate outline 
did not present itself. As often as he showed alone 
some wretched doe or young buck would move out 
and “mask” him, or (what was just as fatal) stand 
directly behind. Thus for half a morning, we (Lowe 
was with me) enjoyed delightful opportunity of 
observing them at home. Though the troop remained 
quiescent, yet there was constant shifting of individual 
positions, and a series of mild skirmishes between 
