516 
AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 
brown or black coat assumed by some of the old males, 
which is a color change not met with in any other kob. 
The female is distinguishable from the other races by the 
greater amount of white about the eye, which is continued 
forward on the snout as a preocular stripe, and also by the 
light color of the leg stripes which are hair-brown instead 
of seal-brown, 
A male in the dark phase has the dorsal surface of the 
head and the body uniform dark seal-brown. The sides are 
somewhat lighter, being bone-brown, and sharply defined be¬ 
low from the white of the under-parts. The nape of the neck, 
the crown, and the hinder surface of the thighs are mixed with 
tawny hairs. The upper surface of the tail is pure ochra- 
ceous-tawny, only the tip being black. The ears are wholly 
white as well as a broad area at the base. The orbital 
region is extensively white, the light color extending forward 
as a preocular stripe toward the muzzle. The chin, throat, 
lips, and margin of nostrils are white. There is a small white 
spot on the cheeks below the ear. The white of the chest 
extends far up the throat, leaving a rather narrow band of 
seal-brown across the throat. The rest of the under-parts, in¬ 
cluding the inside of the legs to the hoofs, and the whole of the 
pasterns are white. The white stripe on the hind legs covers 
the front surface from the hocks, the hinder part of which 
is brown like the body. 
At the northern limit of kobs in the Nile Valley the 
old males usually assume deep seal-brown or black upper 
parts similar to the adult livery of the sable antelope. 
Some individuals, however, do not assume this dark coat 
except to a slight degree, that is, only upon the sides of the 
throat, the shoulders, and the legs and flanks and snout. 
Such rufous-colored individuals were described as a new 
race, nigroscapulata, by Matschie in 1899. More recently, 
in 1906, Lydekker applied the name vaughani to similarly 
colored specimens from the same region. Both of these 
races are based on either immature or adult rufous-colored 
individuals of the white-eared kob with which they agree in 
having the ears white or cream-buff on the outer surface, 
and the lower parts of the legs, half-way to the knees, 
whitish. Some of these rufous individuals show, by the 
worn condition of their teeth and the obliteration of most 
of the sutures in their skulls, that they are really aged 
