490 
AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 
Waterbucks 
Kobus ' 
Kobus A. Smith, 1840, Illus. Zoology S. Africa, pt. VII, pi. XXVI; type 
K. ellipsiprymnus. 
The waterbucks form a well-marked genus of large¬ 
sized antelopes having long, heavily ringed horns sweeping 
backward, with a slight forward curve at the extreme tips. 
The withers are low and the body is covered by a coat of 
long, coarse hair. In size and carriage they resemble the 
European stag or the American elk, but in habits they 
are more permanently gregarious and less forest-haunting. 
They are approached closely in size within the subfamily 
only by the lechwis from which they are at once distin¬ 
guishable by the difference in horn shape, and the well¬ 
haired nature of the feet, the back of the pasterns being 
hairy. Waterbuck have a peculiar odor due to a glandular 
excretion from the skin. The skull is distinguishable by 
the flatness or depressed condition of the interorbital area, 
the large, hypsodont teeth, and the large sinuses in front 
of the orbit between the nasal bones and the lachrymal. 
Several fossil species are known from the Pliocene of India, 
China, and Algeria. The genus to-day occurs only in 
Ethiopia, or Africa south of the Sahara. It is found from 
Senegal and the Abyssinian highlands south throughout the 
whole continent as far as the Limpopo River, but is un¬ 
known in the Cape Colony proper. Two closely allied 
species, separable only by coloration differences, are com¬ 
prised in the genus. 
Key to the Species of Kobus 
Posterior surface of hind quarters white, in sharp contrast to the dark 
coat; tail tuft and legs from knee and hocks blackish seal- 
brown; coat often suffused with reddish; body size larger 
defassa 
Posterior surface of hind quarters marked on sides of rump by a wide, 
white, elliptical-shaped stripe, connected below with the 
white of the posterior surface of hind quarters but meeting 
