WATERBUCKS AND REEDBUCKS 
503 
The highland waterbuck was described recently by 
Matschie from a specimen shot by Major Powell-Cotton 
on the Thika a few miles north of the Athi Plains. It is 
distinguishable from the other races by its lighter color, with 
the exception of pallidus of Somaliland, which is the lightest 
of all the races. The general tone of the dorsal coloration 
is drab or hair-brown without any cinnamon suffusion, and 
so light that the white rump stripe and the throat patch 
are not very conspicuous. The legs are little darker than 
the body, but are much more brownish, being uniform cin¬ 
namon-brown. A specimen from the Northern Guaso 
Nyiro has been described by Lonnberg as a distinct race, 
but we fail to find any color differences in specimens from this 
locality and those from Juja Farm which represent the high¬ 
land race. Along the lower reaches of the Northern Guaso 
Nyiro completely albino specimens are occasionally seen. 
Such individuals are described as having eyes of normal 
color and to occur associated in herds with normally colored 
specimens. Some of the albino females are reported as 
breeding, the offspring being normally colored. In the 
elevated region traversed by the Northern Guaso Nyiro 
through the eastern portion of the Laikipia Plateau the 
highland waterbuck meets and associates with the defassa. 
We met the common waterbuck only in the eastern part 
of East Africa; as we went westward it was supplanted by 
its close kinsman, the defassa. In habits the two species are 
identical; there were sometimes wide differences in conduct 
and behavior between the waterbucks of one locality and 
those of another, but these differences were within the same 
species, and were parallel in the two species. Waterbuck 
are highly polygamous, one big bull having perhaps a score 
of cows in his herd. A few young bulls, yearlings, or two- 
year olds, may be allowed to stay with the herd or hang 
around the outskirts; but eventually the master bull drives 
them off, and they wander singly, or in small parties, until 
one or another grows big enough to rob of his harem 
