508 
AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 
No flesh measurements of specimens are available. The 
race is smaller somewhat than the highland form, the skull 
measuring only 14 inches in length. Horns average 23 
inches in length. 
The Kobs 
Adenota 
Adenota Gray, 1850, Proc. Zool. Soc., p. 129; type Kobus kob. 
The kobs are easily distinguishable from the reedbucks 
and waterbucks by the peculiar S-shaped curve assumed 
by the horns. The horns near the base are bowed back¬ 
ward, but the tips are recurved forward and inward giving 
them the shape of an elongated “S” when viewed from 
the side. The back of the pasterns and the border of the 
hoofs are well haired as in the waterbuck. The tail is short, 
usually less than fourteen inches in length, and does not 
reach the hocks. The tip has a distinct tuft of long hair. 
All of the races, with the exception of the white-eared, are a 
uniform tawny-yellow color on the dorsal surface without 
any very bold markings, with the exception of the black 
leg stripes present in most races. The nearest allies of the 
kobs are the lechwis, which have somewhat similarly shaped 
horns, but differ decidedly by having the whole posterior 
surface of the pasterns and a narrow border surrounding the 
hoofs and false hoofs bare or hairless. The tail is also much 
longer, usually reaching to the hocks, and bearing at the tips 
a distinct tuft of long hair. The length of this member aver¬ 
ages four inches longer than in the kobs. The horn length 
is considerably greater in the lechwi, in which the horns are 
wider-spread, sublyrate, and less S-shaped. The skull is 
distinctly longer-snouted in the kobs, and is without the 
prominent swelling in the supraorbital region which is char¬ 
acteristic of the lechwi. The genus includes two species, 
vardoni , of the Zambesi region, which lacks the black leg 
stripes, and kob , of the equatorial region. 
The kobs range from the Zambesi watershed northward 
through the central lake drainage area to the Nile Valley; 
east to British East Africa, and westward through Nigeria 
to Senegal. 
