Smith met with a Waterbuck during his recent journey. Sclater has
examined one of the heads that he brought home (see P. Z. S. 1895, p.
868) and has referred it without doubt to the present species.
In German East Africa, Herr Matschie recognizes _Cobus defassa_ as
well as _C. ellipsiprymnus_ and gives several localities for it on
the authority of Neumann and Böhm. The former met with it on the west
shores of the Lake Victoria, and the latter near Lake Tanganyika and
in Ugalla and Uganda. Böhm in his manuscript says that this Waterbuck
reminds one much of a Stag in its appearance and mode of life. It
is generally met with in largish herds in which there is only one
old male and several younger ones. Sometimes these herds are without
females in their company, and occasionally old males are seen alone.
They are very fond of water and are often seen standing deep in the mud
of the rivers. At the same time they are frequently met with in dry
forest and in open savannahs far from rivers. Like our Red Deer, they
generally retire into the wood early in the day, even before sunrise,
but on the other hand come out again into the open much earlier in the
evening. When disturbed in the open country they retire straight into
the wood.
Herr Matschie points out that the present species differs from _C.
unctuosus_ in having the face of a bright rufous colour, and is of
opinion that Dr. Noack and Dr. Pagenstecher have wrongly referred the
specimens of this species obtained by several German explorers to _C.
unctuosus_ and _C. ellipsiprymnus_.
Our figure of this species (Plate XXXVI.) was put upon the stone by
Smit from an original sketch by Wolf which is now in the possession of
Sir Douglas Brooke. Unfortunately we have been unable to make out from
what specimen it was originally prepared.
_August, 1896._
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XXXVII.
_Wolf del. J. Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._
M^{rs.} Gray’s Waterbuck.
COBUS MARIA
_Published by R. H. Porter._]
63. MRS. GRAY’S WATERBUCK.
COBUS MARIA, GRAY.
[PLATE XXXVII.]
_Kobus maria_, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (3) iv. p. 296 (1859)
(Bahr-el-Gazal, _Petherick_); =id.= Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 16
(1872); =id.= Hand-1. Rum. B. M. p. 87 (1873); =Gerrard=, Cat.
Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 239 (1862); =Petherick=, Travels in Centr.
Afr. i. p. 159 (1869).
_Cobus mariæ_, =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 91 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and
Hoofs, p. 224 (1893).
“_Adenota megaceros_, Heuglin,” =Fitz.= Sitz. Ak. Wien, xvii.
p. 247 (1855), nomen nudum; =Heuglin=, Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr.
(N. Act. Leopold.-Carol.) xxx. pt. ii. p. 14, t. ii. figs. 7,
8 (1863) (descript. satis acc.); =Marno=, Reise in der Aegypt.
Aequat.-Prov. p. 40 (1878).
_Kobus megaceros_, =Marno=, Reise im Geb. d. blauen u. weissen
Nil, p. 387 (1874).
VERNACULAR NAMES:--“_Abohk_” of the Dinkas; “_Til_” of the
Nuehrs.
Height at shoulders about 35–40 inches. General colour dark reddish
brown. Forehead and nose dark brown, as are also the inner sides of
the fore limbs and breast. Chin and a narrow band along the upper lip
white, the latter continuing upwards behind the nostrils and there
passing into brown. A spot in front of the eyes and the space between
the eyes and ears whitish. This spot is separated from the superciliary
stripe by a dark band descending from the base of the horn to the eye.
Inside of ears whitish. A white band of hair on the hinder part of the
head extends on both sides to the ears and forms a crescent-shaped
mark; it then descends the back of the neck and widens into a large
white patch above the shoulders. Middle of belly and inner sides of
the hind limbs white. Tail long, above like the back, beneath white,
tufted end black. A white line round the hoofs. Toes rather longer and
stronger than in _C. leucotis_. Hairs of the cheeks and fore
neck elongated and mane-like as in _C. ellipsiprymnus_, and
muffle broad and naked as in that species. Size between that of _C.
leucotis_ and _C. lechee_.
Horns strongly ringed, long and strong, projecting backwards, diverging
in the middle, and approximating again towards the tips. Length along
the curve (type specimen) about 27 inches, in a straight line from back
to point 19¼ inches, distance between tips 13¾ inches.
_Female_ similar, but hornless, and not so deep in coloration.
The dark, almost chestnut-red general colour and conspicuous
white patch on the upper back and nape render this Antelope quite
unmistakable.
_Hab._ Swamps of the White Nile and adjoining rivers.
There can be no question that the great traveller and naturalist
Theodor von Heuglin was the first discoverer of this splendid Antelope,
which is one of the most strongly marked and most brightly coloured of
the whole group. Unfortunately, however, Heuglin, though he gave it a
name in 1855, did not take the trouble to publish a description of it
until 1863, and meanwhile, as we shall presently see, it was described
and named elsewhere.
The native country of _Cobus maria_, as this Antelope must be
called, according to the law of priority now generally followed by
naturalists, is the swamps and morasses traversed by the White Nile and
the Sobat, Bahr-el-Gazal, and Lower Kir, which are its affluents on
the right bank. Here Heuglin tells us it lives in large troops. After
describing it he adds that, as in its allies, the hairs on the coat of
the male are rather long and on the neck form a kind of mane. The white
marking on the sides of the head varies much in form and extent, and is
often tinged with reddish or yellowish. The same is the case with the
ears. The long horns are twisted in a remarkable manner, so that from
the side and below they look rather cork-screw like in shape. The tail,
especially at the end, is more tufted and more strongly haired than in
other Antelopes of this genus, and reaches down nearly to the heels.
On his return to Vienna about the year 1854, besides a series of skins
and skulls, Heuglin brought with him an adult living female of this
Antelope, which was placed in the Imperial Menagerie at Schönbrunn, but
did not long survive. Its arrival was chronicled by Fitzinger in his
Report to the Academy of Sciences of Vienna upon the living animals
brought home for the Imperial Menagerie at Schönbrunn by Heuglin, and
its proposed name was given as “_Adenota megaceros_, Heuglin,”
but unfortunately no sort of description was added. Nor, so far as we
can make out, did Heuglin publish any characters of his _Adenota
megaceros_ until the appearance of his article on the Antelopes
and Buffaloes of North-east Africa, which was issued by the Imperial
Leopoldino-Carolinian Academy in 1863.
[Illustration: Fig. 33.
Head of _Cobus maria_, ♂.
(Copied from Ann. Mag. N. H. (3) iv. p. 297.)]
In the meanwhile, however, another explorer of the Nile region had
found his way home and brought with him heads of both sexes of the same
Antelope. This was Consul Petherick, who after fifteen years passed in
these districts[8] returned in 1859, and brought with him a collection
of heads and horns of animals, which were acquired by the British
Museum through Mr. Samuel Stevens, a well-known dealer in objects of
Natural History at that period. Amongst these were good heads of both
sexes of the present Antelope. The late Dr. Gray lost but little
time in preparing descriptions of these striking objects, which were
published in the ‘Annals of Natural History’ for October of that year.
We are indebted to the proprietors of that excellent journal for
allowing us to copy the wood-block (fig. 33), which represents the head
of the male brought home by Petherick. It thus came to pass that Dr.
Gray’s name “_maria_” given in honour of his wife, “who assisted
him in his studies,” takes precedence over Heuglin’s more appropriate
designation “_megaceros_.”
Consul Petherick returned to the White Nile in 1861, on a mission to
meet Speke and Grant on their journey northwards. In the first volume
of his narrative of this second expedition[9] (p. 159) he records
having killed a female of this same Antelope on June 15th, 1862, in the
country of the Kitch negroes on the White Nile, and adds a figure of
the head of the male, which was doubtless taken from the specimen sent
home on the former expedition.
Several of the more recent travellers in the Nile districts appear to
have also met with this Antelope. Marno (‘Reise im Gebiete des blauen
und weissen Nil,’ 1874, p. 387) tells us that he saw a herd near Dabbed
Hanakhi on the Bahr Seraf, in 1872, and that it is not uncommon there,
and is called “_Til_” by the natives. In the course of his second
journey (see ‘Reise in der Aegyptischen Aequatorial-Provinz’) Marno met
with it again in the country of the Kitch negroes on the Bahr-el-Gebel,
amongst the beds of papyrus and ambatch, and gives us a figure of
its head, which, although not very well drawn, is unmistakable.
Schweinfurth in his ’Im Herzen von Afrika,’ p. 68, also claims to have
seen large herds of this Antelope on his voyage up the White Nile in
about 12° 30´ N. lat., but did not bring home any specimens. Hartmann
and von Barnem, as we are kindly informed by Herr Matschie, likewise
met with this species on the White Nile and secured a pair of horns
which are now in the Berlin Museum.
But the only perfect examples of this scarce Antelope yet obtained are
those of Heuglin, of which two (an adult male and young one) are in the
Vienna Museum, and a third (an adult male) at Berlin. Herr Matschie has
most kindly supplied us with full notes on the last-named specimen,
which has also been examined by Sclater.
In his ‘Horns and Hoofs,’ Mr. Lydekker casts some doubt as to the real
distinctness of _C. maria_ from _C. leucotis_, but on this
point we can assure him there is no room for hesitation. No one who
examines our beautiful picture of this species (Plate XXXVII.), drawn
by Smit from Mr. Wolf’s original sketch, will for a moment deny its
perfect distinctness from _Cobus leucotis_ and from every other
known species of the group.
_August, 1896._
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XXXVIII.
_Wolf del., J. Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._
The White-eared Kob.
COBUS LEUCOTIS.
_Published by R. H. Porter._]
64. THE WHITE-EARED KOB.
COBUS LEUCOTIS (LICHT. ET PET.).
[PLATE XXXVIII.]
_Antilope leucotis_, =Licht. et Pet.= MB. Ak. Berl. 1853,
p. 164; =iid.= Abh. Ak. Berl. 1854, p. 96, pl. iii. (Sobat,
Senuaar); =Schweinf.= Im Herzen v. Afr. i. pp. 213, 214, ii. p.
533 (1874) (Bahr-el-Djur); =Huet=, Bull. Soc. Acclim. 1887, p.
38; =Emin=, Reise-brief., pp. 99, 226 (1888); =id.= Transl. pp.
101, 130, 228; =Junker=, Travels in Afr. p. 441 (1891).
_Kobus leucotis_, =Gerrard=, Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 239
(1862); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 16 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum.
B. M. p. 87 (1873).
_Hydrotragus leucotis_, =Fitz.= SB. Ak. Wien, lix. 1, p. 175
(1869).
_Cervicapra leucotis_, =Baker=, Ismailia, ii. p. 531 (1874)
(Shooli country).
_Cobus leucotis_, =Ward=, Horn Meas. (1) p. 91 (1892), (2) p.
124 (1896); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 224 (1893).
_Adenota lechee_, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (3) iv. p. 296 (1859)
(Bahr-el-Gazal, _Petherick_) (nec ejusd. Knowsl. Men. 1850).
_Adenota leucotis_, =Heugl.= Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act.
Leop. xxx. pt. ii.) pp. 12, 13, pl. i. fig. 4 (head), 1863
(Sobat R.).
_Adenota kul_ et _A. wuil_, =Heuglin=, op. cit. pp. 12, 13(?).
VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Adjel_ of the Denkos; _Kul_ and _Wuil_ of
the Djengs (_Heuglin_); _Teel_ of the Shoolis (_Baker_); _Kala_
of the Niam-Niams (_Junker_).
Size smaller and form slenderer than in any of the species hitherto
described (height at withers about 34–35 inches). General colour dark
brownish fawn; a large patch surrounding the eyes and ears, including
the whole of the backs of the latter, another on the muzzle, chin, and
upper throat, and the whole of the chest and belly pure white, strongly
contrasting with the dark colour of the back. Front of legs blackish; a
white ring round the pasterns, just above the hoofs.
Horns slender and graceful, attaining a length of 19 or 20 inches,
though but little more than 6 inches in circumference.
_Female_ similar, but without horns.
Skull measurements (♀):--Basal length 9·75 inches, greatest breadth
4·15, orbit to muzzle 6·45.
_Hab._ Upper Nile, region of the Sobat, Bahr-el-Gazal, and
their affluents, extending into the Niam-Niam country.
The first example of this Antelope to reach Europe was transmitted
to the Royal Zoological Museum of Berlin by Werne, a well-known
German artist and traveller, from the River Sobat in Sennaar. It was
characterized as belonging to a new species by Lichtenstein and Peters
in a communication made to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin in
1853, and in the following year was carefully described and figured
by the same authors in the ‘Denkschriften’ of the Academy. The type
specimen, an adult male, remains mounted in the gallery of the Berlin
Museum (where Sclater has examined it), and is, we believe, that from
which the original water-colour drawing of Wolf for the accompanying
Plate was prepared.
The next traveller who appears to have met with the White-eared Kob
was Consul Petherick, who brought home a skin, two heads, and several
skulls of this species on his return from the Bahr-el-Ghazal in 1859.
These specimens, which are in the British Museum, were at first
incorrectly referred by Gray, in his article upon Petherick’s Mammals,
to _Cobus lechee_, which, however, is quite a distinct species and
never ranges nearly so far north.
Besides the Berlin and British Museums the only other collection that,
so far as we know, contains a perfect example of this rare Antelope is
the Royal Museum of Turin. Here, as Count Salvadori kindly informs us,
there is a fully adult male example of _Cobus leucotis_ mounted
in the gallery, and standing about 35 inches high at the withers. This
specimen was originally received alive from the Sudan, along with other
animals, by King Victor Emmanuel, and on its death was presented to the
Turin Museum.
Heuglin, in 1861, included this species in his list of the Antelopes
and Buffaloes of North-east Africa, and gave a figure of its head,
designating the Rivers Sobat and Bahr-el-Ghazal as its localities. It
is probable that Heuglin’s “_Adenota kul_” and “_A. wuil_,”
described as new in the same memoir, should also be referred to the
present species; but as the descriptions are very meagre and, so far
as we know, no specimens of these problematical species are extant,
this must remain a matter of some uncertainty.
Since Heuglin’s time several other African explorers have met with this
Antelope, but we are not aware that, with the exception of Sir Samuel
Baker, they have brought home specimens. In the Appendix to ‘Ismailia,’
Sir Samuel placed the name of the present species in the list of
animals met with in the Shooli country on the Upper Nile, and Sclater
(who examined the specimens brought home by Baker) believes that there
were some heads of this Antelope amongst them. Harnier’s description of
an Antelope obtained in March 1861, during his voyage up the White Nile
(Reise, p. 52, 1866), is apparently referable to _Cobus leucotis_.
Dr. Schweinfurth, in ’Im Herzen von Afrika,’ mentions _Antilope
leucotis_ in several places, and in his first volume gives fairly
accurate woodcuts of the heads of both sexes. On the lower flats of the
rivers of the Niam-Niam country, Dr. Schweinfurth found this Antelope
by far the commonest species in the dry season, being met with in large
herds of from 100 to 300 individuals. During the rainy season, he tells
us, it resorts to the higher forest-bushes and separates into small
troops for pairing. He also mentions as a peculiarity of this elegant
animal that when running away it springs up into the air after the
manner of the South-African Spring-buck, and shows its white rump. The
flesh of _Antilope leucotis_, he tells us, is one of the best for
culinary purposes. The female he describes as being very like that of
_Cervicapra arundinacea_, but recognizable at once by the black on
the front limbs.
Emin, in his ‘Reise-briefen,’ refers in several passages to _Antilope
leucotis_ as met with on the Upper Nile. Dr. W. Junker, in his
‘Travels in Africa,’ records the capture of a “Kala Antelope,
_Antilope leucotis_,” as far south as the Upper Welle (about 3°
30’ N. lat.), near Mount Madyanu, and gives a figure of it in his text.
Looking to this and to what Dr. Schweinfurth has told us, we must
assume that the present Antelope extends beyond the water-parting of
the Nile and Congo down to the banks of the Welle.
_December, 1896._
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XXXIX.
_J. Smit del. & lith._ _Hanhart imp._
Thomas’ Kob.
COBUS THOMASI
_Published by R. H. Porter._]
65. THOMAS’S KOB.
COBUS THOMASI, NEUMANN.
[PLATE XXXIX.]
_Kobus leucotis_, =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1864, p. 103 (nec auctt.)
(Uganda, _Speke_).
_Kobus kob_, =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 91 (1892); =Lugard=, E.
Africa, i. p. 538 (1893) (Buddu and Kavirondo); =Jackson=, Big
Game Shooting, i. p. 296 (1894); =Scott Elliot=, P. Z. S. 1895,
p. 341 (Albert-Edward Lake).
_Adenota kob_, =Matschie=, Säug. Deutsch Ost-Afr. p. 126 (1895).
_Adenota koba_, =Matschie=, op. cit. p. 147 (1895).
“_Cobus thomasi_, Neumann,” =Sclater=, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 868
(Kavirondo); =Ward=, Horn Meas. (2) p. 128 (1896).
_Adenota thomasi_, =Neumann=, P. Z. S. 1896, p. 192.
_Cobus kob_, =Scott Elliot=, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 341 (Lake
Albert-Edward).
VERNACULAR NAME:--_Nsunnu_ or _Nsunu_ of the Waganda (_Speke_,
_Lugard_, _&c_.).
Size about as in _C. leucotis_, but form thicker and heavier
(height at withers of an adult male 35½ inches). General colour rich
fulvous. Area round eyes and another round bases of ears whitish; back
of ears fulvous, with an indistinct tipping of black; hairs of inner
surface of ears white. Muzzle, lips, chin, chest, belly, and inner
sides of forearms and thighs white. Front of fore legs from middle of
forearms downwards with a strongly defined black line, which broadens
at the knees and pasterns; hind legs with a similar black mark, but
only reaching up from the hoofs halfway towards the hocks. Remainder of
limbs fulvous, an indistinct whitish ring just above the hoof; back of
pasterns thickly hairy.
Horns thick and strongly curved, attaining a length of about 17 or 18
inches.
_Female_ similar, but without horns.
Skull measurements (♂):--Basal length 10·4 inches, greatest breadth
4·6, orbit to muzzle 6·3.
_Hab._ Kavirondo and Uganda.
Thomas’s Kob, as it has been lately proposed to call the representative
of this group of Antelopes in Kavirondo, Uganda, and the adjoining
districts of Africa, after one of the authors of the present work, has
been known for many years; but it has been unfortunately confounded
with _Cobus leucotis_, _C. vardoni_, and _C. kob_, and has only been
recently recognized as a distinct species. Although not unlike the
White-eared Antelope, it is really much more nearly allied to the Kob
of West Africa, of which it is in fact a larger form. From the Poku
(_Cobus vardoni_) it is at once distinguishable by its black legs.
The first specimens of Thomas’s Kob that reached England were two heads
brought home by Speke on his return from his celebrated East-African
expedition in 1863. These were examined by Sclater, and in his
report on the Mammals of the expedition (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 103) were
erroneously referred to _C. leucotis_. But a re-examination of one
of the specimens, which is now in the British Museum, has convinced us
that it is undoubtedly referable to the present species. Speke remarks
that this Antelope, of which the native name is “Nsunnu,” is “found in
Uganda, Unyoro, and Madi, but never south of those countries. They roam
about in large herds in the thick bush and grassy plains, but never go
far from water.”
So far as we know, the next example that reached Europe of the present
species was that of an adult male received by the British Museum from
Mr. F. J. Jackson in 1891, from which our figure (Plate XXXIX.) has
been taken. This specimen was mounted and placed in the Mammal gallery,
and named at first _C. vardoni_, and afterwards _C. kob_.
Other examples of the same Antelope were subsequently received at South
Kensington from Mr. Gedge, Capt. Lugard, and Mr. Scott Elliot, and
referred to the Kob. Mr. Gedge’s specimens were obtained in Uganda,
Capt. Lugard’s on the south-west coast of the Albert Nyanza, and Mr.
Scott Elliot’s near the Albert-Edward Lake.
In the autumn of 1895, Herr Oscar Neumann, the distinguished German
traveller and naturalist, came to the British Museum for the purpose
of examining the Mammals in the collection, and of comparing them with
the specimens he had himself obtained during his journeys through
German and British East Africa in 1892–5. Herr Neumann, who visited
the Musée d’Histoire Naturelle at Paris for the same purpose, found
during his researches at these places that the so-called “Kob” of
East Africa was essentially different from the true Kob of Western
Africa. Thomas in this country, and M. Poussarges in France, had also
come to the same conclusion: Thomas from an examination of specimens
of the true _Cobus kob_ recently obtained by Capt. Lugard on
the Niger, and M. Poussarges from a comparison of a specimen of the
present Antelope procured by M. Decle in Uganda with the original types
of Buffon’s “Kob.” Herr Neumann therefore proposed to call the new
Eastern species after Mr. Thomas, and designated as its type Mr. Scott
Elliot’s specimen from Uganda, to which he affixed the specific name
_thomasi_ in MS. But the preparation of Herr Neumann’s description
was unfortunately delayed, and was not transmitted to the Zoological
Society of London for publication until January 1896. In the meanwhile,
Sclater, supposing from the delay that the description in question
might have been sent to some periodical in Germany, had exhibited a
mounted head of the same Antelope (obtained by Mr. E. Gedge on the
eastern shores of Lake Victoria, as hereafter mentioned) and had given
its name as “_Cobus thomasi_, Neumann, MS.” This, therefore,
was actually the first publication of the species under its present
name, and it may possibly be a moot point for experts in questions of
priority whether Mr. Gedge’s specimen ought not really to be considered
the “type.” It is satisfactory, however, that both the possible “types”
are in the British Museum, so that no international complications can
arise from such a controversy.
The “Kob” of Uganda, as Mr. F. J. Jackson in his excellent chapter on
Antelopes in “Big Game Shooting” calls this species, following the then
prevalent opinion as to its identity, “is first met with in British
East Africa near Mumia’s, in Upper Kavirondo. Here I saw a small herd
on three consecutive days on the banks of the Nzoia, quite near to the
same place. As I was after Hippos at the time, and never got near the
Antelopes, I mistook them for Impalas, and paid no further attention to
them, until one day Mr. Gedge brought in the head of one he had shot,
and I at once recognized my mistake. On going out specially to get one
or two I found them plentiful. This beast is rarely seen more than 300
or 400 yards from water. It is very shy, and unless found in long grass
(about the only covert there is, excepting ant-heaps, in the places it
haunts) is very difficult to stalk. It is extraordinarily tough, and
requires a great deal of killing. When wounded it takes to the reeds
along the river-banks and in the swampy hollows, but when only alarmed
prefers to keep to the open for safety. This Antelope is evidently
plentiful near the shores of Victoria Nyanza, as nearly all the
Waganda canoes are ornamented on their high projecting prow with its
frontlet and its horns. These beasts are usually found in small herds,
consisting of a buck and three or four does. I have also seen one herd
of some twenty-five, consisting entirely of bucks.”