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Show 1881.] MR. F. C. SEI.OUS ON AFRICAN ANTELOPES. 761 and is very numerous in the open grassy plains which are always more or less inundated by the Tamalakan, Mababe, Machabe, Sunta, and Chobe rivers. It is also common along the upper Zambesi. In the swamps of the Lukanga river, about 150 miles to the southwest of Lake Bengweolo, which I visited in 1878, I found the Lee-gwee Antelope in large herds. After Speke's Antelope, the Lechee is the most water-loving Antelope with which I am acquainted, and is usually to be seen standing knee deep, or even up to its belly, in water, cropping the tops of the grass that appear above the surface, or else lying just at the water's edge. As is the case with Tragelaphus spekii, the backs of the feet are devoid of hair between the hoof and the dew-claws, whilst in the Pookoo, as with all other Antelopes, this part is covered with hair. In some parts of the country Lee-gwee Antelopes are very tame; in others, where they are much persecuted by the natives, excessively wild. When they first make up their minds to run they stretch out their noses, the males laying their horns flat along their sides, and trot; but on being pressed they break into a springing gallop, now and then bounding high into the air. Even when in water up to their necks, they do not swim, but get along by a succession of bounds, making a tremendous splashing. Of course, when the water becomes too deep for them to bottom, they are forced to swim, which they do well and strongly, though not as fast as the natives can paddle ; and when the country is flooded, great numbers are driven into deep water and speared. In the adult Lee-gwee the ears are of a uniform fawn-colour; but in the young animal they are tipped with black as in the adult Pookoo. In the flooded grassy plains in the neighbourhood of Linyanti ou the Chobe, this beautiful Antelope may be seen in almost countless numbers, and I have counted as many as fifty-two rams consorting together. Some of these were quite young, with horns only a few inches in length ; but there was not a single ewe amongst them. The longest pair of Lee-gwee horns that I have ever seen measured 2 feet 3 inches in length ; but it is rare to get them over 2 feet long measured along the curve. In common with the Pookoo, they appear to me to be more tenacious of life than other Antelopes. 14. NANOTRAGUS SCOPARIUS (Schreb.): Brooke, P.Z.S. 1872, p. 642. (Oribi or Oribiki of the Dutch ; Oribi of the English.) North of the Limpopo, this Antelope is only to be met with in the following districts, viz. in North-eastern Mashuna land from the river Umzweswe to beyond the river Hanvane, in the open valleys which occur between the forest belts near the watershed but to the north of the Machabe hills ; on the exposed open downs nearer the watershed, and lying between the Machabe hills and Intaba Insimbi, I never saw any. On a large flat about fifty miles to the south of the junction of the Umfule and Umniati rivers, I saw a good many Oribi in 1880. Except in this district of the Mashuna ' PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1881, No. XLIX. 49 |