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Show 752 MR. F. C. SELOUS ON AFRICAN ANTELOPES. [June 21, the Zambesi, it is found in the neighbourhood of every river I have visited except in those places where the natives have exterminated it. It is usually partial to hilly country covered with dense thickets ; but hills are by no means necessary to its existence, as it is common in the thick bush along both banks of the river Chobe, where there are no hills whatever, and it is also plentiful in the wait-a-bit thorn-jungles on the lower Molapo just on the edge of the flat and sandy Kalahari desert. The ground-colour of female Koodoos and young males is a reddish or greyish brown, with eight or nine white stripes on each side ; but the old males become a deep blue-grey, which is owing, I think, as in the case of the Eland, to the colour of the skin showing through the scanty hair. The longest pair of Koodoo horns I have ever seen measured 3 ft. 8| in. in a straight line from point to base. A pair the owner of which I shot in the Mashuna country last year measure 3 ft. 5 in. in a straight line from point to base and 5 ft. 4 in. along the curve. 3. TRAGELAPHUS SYLVATICUS. (Boschbok of the Dutch; Bushbuck of the English ; Inkonka (male), Imbabala (female) of the Zulus; SeroloButuku of the Bamangwatos; ImBaBala (male and female) of the Amandebele, Batongas, and Masubias ; Ungurungu of the Makubas.) In speaking of this Antelope, I include all the Bushbucks that I have met with in different parts of the country ; for, although those found on the banks of the Chobe are very different at first sight, both as regards size and colour, from those met with in the Cape Colony, I believe all to be specifically identical. This Antelope is found everywhere in the belt of bush which runs along the coast-line of the Cape Colony and Natal, and which in some places extends to a considerable distance inland. Along the Limpopo and some of its tributaries it is also found, but does not extend its range far up the latter. Then, if we cross the watershed between that river and the Zambesi, we again meet with it on the banks of the latter river and on the lower part of some of its tributaries, such as the Gwai and Sanyati. In certain districts along the southern bank of the Chobe it is more common than anywhere else. It is, however, never met with except in places where dense bush comes right down to the water's edge; and on the Chobe, where I have seen most of these Antelopes, I have never found one at a distance of 100 yards from the river. From the Cape Colony to the Chobe all the Bush-bucks I have seen have a bare place round the neck, as if they had worn a broad collar that had rubbed off all the long hair, leaving nothing but a soft velvety down. It is worthy of remark that the North-African Bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus) has not this hare place round the neck. In the Cape Colony the adult Bushbuck rams are of a deep dark brownish-black colour, with only two or three small white spots on the haunch and one or two on the shoulder. The adult females are of a light reddish brown, with white spots on the haunches and sometimes a few between the shoulder and the flank. The young rams are of a reddish brown more or less spotted. |
