The Book of Antelopes, Vol. 2 (of 4)

Section I. (_cobus_).

Larger in size; fur grizzled; neck maned.

A. Nape uniform with back; horns lunate, inclined forwards.

a. With a white rump-band 58. C. ellipsiprymnus.

b. Without a white rump-band.

a^1. Ears shorter, rounded; eye-region not white.

a^2. General colour rufous 59. C. unctuosus.

b^2. General colour fuliginous. Back lighter 60. C. crawshayi. Back darker 61. C. penricei.

b^1. Ears longer, pointed; eye-region white 62. C. defassa.

B. Nape conspicuously white; horns serpentine, inclined backwards. 63. C. maria.

Section Ii. (_adenota_).

Size smaller; fur above uniform rufous; neck not maned.

A. Back of ears white 64. C. leucotis.

B. Back of ears rufous.

a. Horns shorter, not twice the length of the skull.

a^1. Fore legs black in front; hair short. Larger; white all round the eye 65. C. thomasi. Smaller; white line above the eye 66. C. kob.

b^1. Fore legs uniform rufous; hair long 67. C. vardoni.

b. Horns longer, more than twice the length of the skull; legs in front black 68. C. lechee.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XXXII.

J. Smit del & lith. Hanhart imp.

The Common Waterbuck.

COBUS ELLIPSIPRYMNUS.

Published by R. H. Porter.]

58. THE COMMON WATERBUCK.

COBUS ELLIPSIPRYMNUS (OGILBY).

Antilope ellipsiprymnus, =Ogilby=, P. Z. S. 1833, p. 47; =id.= Penny Enc. ii. p. 88 (1834); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. iv. p. 432 (1843); =id.= op. cit. v. p. 434; =Peters=, Säug. Mossamb. p. 189 (1852) (Zambesia).

Aigocerus ellipsiprymnus, =Harr.= Wild Anim. S. Afr. p. 71, pl. xiv. (1840); =id.= Wild Sport S. Afr. p. 387 (1838), ed. 5, p. 351 (1852).

Kobus ellipsiprymnus, =Smith=, Ill. Zool. S. Afr., Mamm. pls. xxviii. & xxix. (1840); =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 232 (1846); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850, p. 130; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 15 (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 99 (1852); =id.= Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 15 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. p. 86 (1873); =id.= Ann. Mag. N. H. (3) iv. p. 296 (1859) (White Nile, Petherick); =Gerrard=, Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 239 (1862); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1864, p. 101 (Uzaramo, Speke); =Fitz.= SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 176 (1869); =Drummond=, Large Game S. Afr. p. 426 (1875); =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 224, fig. (animal) (1880); =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Ost. Coll. Surg. p. 268 (1884); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 131 (1887); =id.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 159 (1892); =id.= N. L. M. ix. p. 172 (1887); =Nicolls & Egl=. Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 44 (1892); =True=, Pr. U. S. N. M. xv. p. 471 (Taveta, B. E. A.) (1892).

Antilope (Aigoceros) ellipsiprymna, =Less.= N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 180 (1842).

Kobus ellipsiprymnus, =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 159 (1843).

Aigoceros ellipsiprymnus, =A. Smith=, S. Afr. Q. J. ii. p. 186 (1835).

Cervicapra ellipsiprymnus, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1844, p. 195 (1846); =id.= Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 147 (1848).

Heleotragus ellipsiprymnus, =Kirk=, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 658 (Zambesia).

Cobus ellipsiprymnus, =Buckley=, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 284; =Selous=, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 758; =id.= Hunter’s Wanderings, p. 218 (1881); =Crawshay=, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 651 (Nyasaland); =Hunter=, in Willoughby’s E. Afr. p. 288 (1889); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1891, p. 326, 1892, p. 471, 1893, p. 505, pl. xxxix. (female from life and young), et p. 727; =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 340 (1891); =Lyd.= Field, lxxvii. p. 980 (1891); =id.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 223 (1893); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 86 (1892); =Thomas=, P. Z. S. 1893, p. 504; =Bryden=, Gun and Camera, p. 504 (1893); =Barkley=, P. Z. S. 1894, p. 131; Swayne, P. Z. S. 1894, p. 316 (Somaliland); =id.= Somaliland, p. 307; =Matschie=, Thierw. Ost-Afr. Säugeth. p. 123, fig. (animal) (1895).

Cobus, sp. inc., =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1892, p. 118 (Somaliland).

VERNACULAR NAMES:--Waterbuck of the English at the Cape and elsewhere; Kringgat or Waterbok of the Dutch; Tumoga of the Bechuanas; Sidumuga of the Amandebele; Ee-tumaha of the Makalakas; Ee-kulo of the Masubias; Umkulamdumbo of the Makubas; Mukulo of the Batongas; Gwelung-gwelee of the Masaras (according to Selous); Nakodzwi or Nyakodzwi of the Ajawa and of the Anyanja; Ipiva of the Angoni; Chuzu of the Achewa, Atonga, Atembuka, Ahenga, and Anyika; and Lipuwa of the Ankonde in Nyasaland (Crawshay); Kulu, Kuru, or Kuro of the Swahilis (Neumann); Balanka of the Adone Negroes; Balango of the Somalis (Swayne).

Height about 39 inches; length of body 43 inches. Fur long and coarse, on back blackish, hairs whitish at the base; paler on the flanks, and passing into white on the middle line of the belly and on the inner sides of the hind limbs. A conspicuous white line across the rump reaches down to the inside of the flanks on both sides. Feet dark brown, with a white line round the hoofs and across the upper edge of the false hoofs, which are distinct. Sides of face and forehead dark brown, nose black; muffle moist, naked, black; line round the nose, lips, and chin, and line over the eye extending in front of eye, white. Irregular line round the neck greyish white. Ears hairy, inside white, outside black, brownish at the base, about 7½ inches long. Tail dark brown, beneath white, about 11 inches long, hair beyond 4 inches.

Horns large and strong, lengthened, sublyrate, inclined backwards and then forwards at the tips; strongly ringed in front for three-fourths from their bases.

Female similar, but hornless; teats 4.

Hab. South Africa, from the Limpopo northwards, and along the coast through Nyasaland to German and British East Africa and to the Shebeyli River in Somaliland.

The Waterbuck, which is readily known from all the allied Antelopes by the white ribbon which passes over the rump and is carried down to the thighs on both sides, has, as we shall presently show, an extensive distribution in Africa, but was first described from a specimen obtained in the interior of South Africa. One of the early African travellers--Steedman--met with it in 1832 “about 25 days’ journey north of the Orange River between Latakoo and the western coast.” This somewhat vague locality, which was given by Ogilby when he described Steedman’s specimen before the Zoological Society in March 1833, probably indicates some part of Damaraland.

In 1840 Sir Cornwallis Harris figured this species--not, we must allow, very accurately--in his great work on the ‘Game and Wild Animals of South Africa.’ Although not found within the limits of Cape-land proper, the Waterbuck, Harris tells us, abounded in his days on the margins of the willow-grown Limpopo and its tributaries, in the “rippling waters of which it delights to lave its grizzled sides, immersing itself up to the chin during the heat of the day and rolling in its favourite soiling-pool for hours together.”

Sir Andrew Smith, who visited South Africa about the same period, likewise figures both sexes of this Antelope in his ‘Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa,’ and not perhaps in a more satisfactory manner. He gives, however, a good description of both sexes of the Waterbuck and of its internal anatomy, together with an account of its habits, from which we extract the following particulars:--“This animal, which has, from the time it first became known to the Cape colonists, been designated by them under the name of ‘The Water Bok,’ was not seen by our party till after we had passed to the northward of Kurrichane; and, if we are to trust the evidence of the natives, it is never met with to the southward of the high lands which extend to the eastward of the locality mentioned. To the northward, however, it is a common animal, and is generally found associated in small herds of from eight to ten individuals, near the margins of streams. We were struck from the first with the small proportion of males in these herds, and on remarking upon the circumstance to the aborigines, they gave their testimony in support of the accuracy of our observations. Rarely, in a herd of twelve, were there more than two or three males, and of these seldom more than one which might be regarded as mature. The natives were of opinion that the sexes were produced in about that proportion, and even made use of the assumed fact in support of the propriety of polygamy as it exists among uncivilized men, asserting that a like disproportion occurred in the human species.

“When Cobus ellipsiprymnus is feeding it has the appearance of being a clumsy and unprepossessing animal; but, on the contrary, when excited, it is elegant and stately. At such times it holds its head high, and assumes a lively and spirited position. Its pace is a gallop, and generally all the individuals of the herd rush off at the same time, each making the best of its way without endeavouring, as some other of the Antelopes do, to follow in the train of a leader. When disturbed they generally fly from the places where they are discovered towards the higher grounds of the neighbourhood, and if unable to reach them, without passing through water, they manifest neither fear nor disinclination to plunge into the stream--hence the origin of the name by which they are designated by the colonist. Their flesh is in little repute, even with the aborigines, though it is not quite rejected; the dislike to it arises from its being of a hard and stringy texture, and from exhaling a strong urinous odour.”

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