520 
AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 
east of the Bahr el Zeraf. Limits of range not known, but 
reported as far north asTaufikia opposite the mouth of the 
Sobat, and as far south on the Bahr el Ghazal as Wau. 
Soon after the discovery of this antelope by Heuglin in 
1853, and the accidental description of it by Fitzinger, it was 
described as Cohus maria by Gray from specimens received 
from Consul Petherick taken on the White Nile. Under this 
name it has since been known to naturalists, owing to Fitz- 
inger’s description being considered inadequate. Fitzinger’s 
name, however, is accompanied by a mention of its large 
horns and its general distinctness from the kob, and is more¬ 
over founded on a specimen still preserved at Vienna which 
was a few years later fully figured and described by Heuglin, 
so that the name is well founded. Fitzinger mentions 
Heuglin’s intention of describing the species under the name 
Adenota megaceros , and refrains on that account from describ¬ 
ing it beyond giving the horn characters and the history and 
locality of the specimen. Heuglin not only collected several 
specimens of the Nile lechwi, but brought back to Vienna 
with him a live female specimen, which, however, lived at 
the Zoological Gardens but a short time. This is the only 
specimen which has ever reached Europe alive. Inasmuch 
as the rigid rules governing modern scientific nomenclature 
sometimes give rather absurd results, it is a relief that in 
this case they do justice, and enable us to substitute an 
appropriate name, given to this fine riverbuck by its dis¬ 
coverer, for an inappropriate name subsequently given to it 
by a closet naturalist who had nothing to do with its dis¬ 
covery. 
This interesting animal ought to be called waterbuck, 
for in its habits it is emphatically a buck of the water, 
whereas the true waterbuck merely lives in the neighborhood 
of water, on dry land. We found this lechwi on the flooded 
ground along Lake No and the mouth of the Bahr el Ghazal. 
It was first discovered by Heuglin, and for the fifty 
years intervening between his discovery and the date of our 
visit has been shot by various sportsmen and travellers, and 
