THE LIVING WORLD. 607 
it an unwelcome addition to the domestic herd. It is usually dark brown or 
black, except the mane and tail, which are white. 
The Brindled Gnu ( Catoblephas gorgon ) has no mane on its chest, is 
taller, always moves in single file, and is striped with gray. 
The Yakin (. Budorcina taxicolor) is found on the steeps of the Himalayas, 
and exhibits a nose which might properly belong to a sheep, and a tail which 
seems to have been borrowed from a goat. 
The Blue Gnu ( Catoblephas taurina ) is still found in Zululand, and the 
black stripes on the neck and shoulders, its long and flowing mane as well, 
together with its black tail and symmetrical form, render it quite a sightly 
creature to behold. Suspicious, timid, curious about strange objects, and 
exceedingly irritable, their performances, when startled, are indescribably 
ludicrous. Its curiosity is frequently fatal to the gnu, for, at the sight 
of a strange object, it will gallop about it in constantly decreasing circles, 
until it brings itself within reach of the hunter who then kills it at his 
leisure. A blue gnu was being harried by two of Sir Samuel Baker’s 
hunting dogs, when it used its ox-like horns and spitted the younger 
and more venturesome dog. The other dog would run away until it 
exhausted the patience of its pursuer, when it would turn and begin its work 
all over again. Baker says that he was so much interested that nothing but 
presence of 
mind and a 
'quick and 
1 ucky shot 
made it possi¬ 
ble for him to 
live to tell the 
tale, for the 
gnu suddenly 
charged upon 
the hunter. 
The gnu is a 
stoic, for on 
one occasion, 
in spite of a 
broken shoul¬ 
der-blade and 
a broken hind 
leg, a gnu ran 
six miles be¬ 
fore the hunter 
succeeded i n 
killing it. A 
blue gnu , or gnus. 
wildebeest , was 
found, which while fighting had got one of its legs over one of its horns, 
and was compelled to wander around in a manner at once uncomfortable, 
awkward and comical, until an African traveller relieved its discomfort by the 
application of a bullet. 
