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Show 754 MR. F. C. SELOUS ON AFRICAN ANTELOPES. [June 21, reed-beds at night, it is scarcely ever to be seen. In 1879 I tried hard to shoot some of these animals on the Chobe, searching for them in a canoe amongst the reed-beds at early dawn and after sunset; but though I disturbed several, and heard them splashing away amongst the reeds and papyrus, I only saw one female alive, though one morning I found a fine ram lying dead that had evidently been killed fighting with a rival during the night. The head and feet of this animal I preserved. The female that I saw was standing breast deep in the water, in the midst of a bed of reeds, feeding on the young shoots that just appeared above the water. When she saw us she at once made off, making a tremendous splashing as she plunged through the water. The natives told me that very often when these Antelopes are met with under similar circumstances they do not attempt to run, but, sinking down in the water, submerge their whole bodies, leaving only their nostrils above the surface, and trusting that their enemies will pass them unobserved ; they (the Kafirs) then paddle close alongside and assegai them from the canoe. As all the Situtungas the skins of which I saw had been killed with assegais, and not shot, I have no doubt that this statement is correct. Another way the natives have of killing them is by setting fire to the reeds when they become quite dry, and then waiting for the Situtungas in their canoes in one of the channels of open water by which the marsh is intersected. Driven forwards by the advancing fire, the Antelopes are at last obliged to swim across the open water to gain the shelter of the reeds on the further side ; and the natives are thus often enabled to cut off and assegai some of them in mid stream. I may here remark that it is a curious zoological fact that the Situtungas found on the Lower Chobe do not possess the power of being able to sleep beneath the surface of the water, or even of diving-such as is stated to be enjoyed by the same Antelopes met with by Major Serpa Pinto only about 200 miles further up the course of the same river. A n adult male Situtunga Antelope is just about the size of a male Lee-gwee, with a thick-set heavy body and very powerful neck. The hair is longer and more silky than in any other species. The longest pair of horns I have seen measured 2 ft. 1 in. in a straight line from point to base. The hoofs grow to a great length, and sometimes become white ; and, as in the Lee-gwee, the space between the back of the hoof and the dew-claw is devoid of hair. In 1877 I obtained the skin of a foetus Situtunga. The ground-colour was of a dark blackish brown, something the colour of an English mole's skin. This skin was very plainly striped and spotted with bands and spots of yellowish white, the stripes and spots being arranged as they are in the adult Bushbucks found along the southern bank of the Chobe. I had another skin of a very young animal, killed shortly after birth. This skin was already of a lighter groundcolour than that of the foetus ; and the stripes and spots had become much fainter. The skin of the adult animal is of a uniform greyish brown and altogether devoid of either spots or stripes. Like its |