Part 36

“At the time I was looking for them the rainy season was on, and I think this much assisted us, for it rendered tracking easy and our movements less noisy than they would have been in the dry weather. During five days’ shooting we saw five good bucks, and secured three of them. I found that when alarmed they did not travel very far, and that by patiently following the tracks we generally came up to them within a couple of miles. All the bucks I came across were solitary, and the hinds seemed to live in small herds of from three to seven or eight. A sportsman could not wish for a grander sight than a startled Koodoo dashing off along the hillside, or standing on the look-out on some point of vantage. Their flesh is poor eating, and their hides are of little value from an ornamental point of view, but the head and neck, and the ruff, when well mounted, form a splendid trophy.”

The existence of the Kudu in Abyssinia has long been recorded, and it would appear to be found all over the wilder and more wooded parts of that country from 3000 to 9000 feet in altitude. According to Rüppell, however, who in 1835 first identified it with the Cape animal, the Kudu descends nearly to the sea-coast near Massoua. Heuglin has likewise recorded its presence in the Egyptian territories of the Atbara, Galabat, and Bogos north of Abyssinia, as well as in Kordofan and in the more elevated districts of the White Nile. Thus we see that throughout the eastern part of Africa the Greater Kudu is one of the most widely distributed of the larger Antelopes.

On the West Coast of Africa the range of the Kudu is much more limited. It occurs, no doubt, in German South-west Africa, and has been recorded by Anchieta from Angola, but we are disposed to consider its alleged existence in the Congo Valley as not yet proven. Nor are we aware of any evidence of its occurrence further north on the West Coast.

It is singular that, while its near relatives the Eland and the Bushbucks thrive in captivity, the Kudu never appears to accommodate itself well to existence in European menageries. During his long experience Sclater has had opportunities of seeing many Kudus in various Zoological Gardens, but does not recollect a single case in which such an animal appeared to be in perfect health and condition and likely to do well. The first Kudu received by the Zoological Society of London arrived in 1860 along with other animals from the Cape, presented by the late Sir George Grey. It was a female and did not live long. In June 1868 a young male, from Upper Nubia, was acquired by purchase, but was also quickly lost. Nor have the Society been much more successful with specimens acquired in 1873, 1874, 1880, and 1895, although a female purchased in 1873 lived nearly seven years in their Gardens.

The accompanying woodcut (fig. 114, p. 183) was prepared by Mr. Smit from the pair of Kudus which were living together in the Society’s Gardens from 1874 to 1879.

Wolf’s beautiful drawing of this Antelope (Plate XCVI.) was prepared some twenty-five years ago for Sir Victor Brooke, and exhibited at the Zoological Society’s Meeting in June 1875, in order to show the differences between this species and the Lesser Kudu, but we regret to say we have been unable to ascertain upon what materials it was based.

In the Gallery of the British Museum of Natural History at South Kensington there is to be seen a very fine and large mounted male specimen of the Greater Kudu, which was shot by Mr. F. C. Selous on the Macloutsi River, Upper Limpopo, in May 1890, and presented by that gentleman to the National Collection. This splendid animal stands 59 inches in height at the withers and its horns are 43 inches long in a straight line. There are also other specimens of the Kudu (skins, skulls, or horns) in the British Museum from Bogos-land, Abyssinia, the Shiré Highlands of British Central Africa, and the Cape Colony.

April, 1900.

131. THE LESSER KUDU.

STREPSICEROS IMBERBIS, Blyth.

Strepsiceros imberbis, =Blyth=, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 55; =Sclater=, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 441, 1884, p. 45, pl. iv., & p. 539; =Lort Phillips=, P. Z. S. 1885, p. 931; =Huet=, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 76 (1887); =Hunter=, in Willoughby’s E. Afr. p. 288 (1889); =Jentink=, Notes Leyd. Mus. xii. pp. 211–221 (1890); =Flow & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 348 (1891); =Inverarity=, Journ. Bombay N. H. Soc. vi. p. 465, pl. (1891); =Ward=, Horn Meas. 1892, p. 163, 1896, p. 208; =Jent.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 172 (1892); =Sclater=, P. Z. S. 1892, pp. 102, 118; =Swayne=, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 302; =Lugard=, Rise E. Afr. Emp. i. p. 537 (1893); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 252 (1893); =id.= Royal Nat. Hist. ii. p. 274 (1894); =Jackson=, Big Game Shooting, i. p. 304 (1894); =Matsch.= Säug. Deutsch-Ost-Afr. p. 137 (1895); =Swayne=, Somaliland, p. 303 (1895); =Elliot=, Publ. Chicago Mus., Zool. i. p. 134 (1897); =Pousarg.= Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. p. 81 (1897); =Jackson=, P. Z. S. 1897, p. 454; =Ghika=, Pays des Somalis, p. 182 (1898); =Matsch.= in Werther’s Die mittl. Hochländ. Deutsch-Ost-Afr. p. 255 (1898); =Trouessart=, Cat. Mamm. ii. pt. 4, p. 961 (1898); =De Winton=, P. Z. S. 1898, p. 768; =Inverarity=, in Ward’s Great and Small Game of Africa, p. 451 (1899).

Strepsiceros kudu, =Horsf.= Cat. Mamm. E. I. Comp. p. 170 (1851) (part.).

Strepsiceros kudu, var., =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 143; =id.= Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2) viii. p. 225 (1851); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 133 (1852) (part.).

Strepsiceros tendal, =Gray=, Hand-l. Rum. p. 118 (1873) (nec Fischer).

Strepsiceros kudu abyssinicus, =Fitz.= SB. Ak. Wien, lix. p. 176 (1869).

Tragelaphus strepsiceros, =Kirk=, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 195; =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 470.

Dwarf Koodoo, =Kirk=, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 441.

Vernacular Names:—Arreh ♂, Adir ♀ (Elliot); Godir (Swayne and Ghika); Kungu of the Swaheli in B. E. Afr. (Jackson).

Adult male. Height at the withers about 40 inches. Prevailing colour in the body, head, and neck deep yellowish grey, blackish on the muzzle, cheek, inter-ramal area, and belly; upper lip and chin white, one or two white spots on the cheeks and a strongly defined v-shaped mark at the base of the muzzle between the eyes; ears whitish at the base and round the rim in front. Throat with a conspicuous white patch at its base and fore extremity. A narrow black stripe running along the nape of the neck from the occiput to the withers; a white stripe passing along back from the withers to the root of the tail. Sides of the body and hind-quarters marked with from 11–14, sometimes confluent, white stripes, the first of these crossing the shoulder, the last very short and close to the root of the tail. Tail white beneath, black at the tip. Fore leg grey at the base, the rest of the limb a rich fawn-colour from above the knee to the hoofs, with a large white patch on the inner side at the base, white behind the knee, a black patch just above the knee on the inner side; cannon-bone blackish behind; pasterns black behind, marked with two, sometimes confluent, white spots in front. Hind leg on the inner side and front of the thighs down to the hock white, from the hock downwards bright fawn; front of the pastern and inner side of the fetlock white. A scanty but longish mane on the nape of the neck and withers, and a short but thick crest of hair running along the back. Hair on the sides of the neck and the throat very short, shorter than on the shoulders.

Horns of the male less divergent and with the spiral curvature much closer and less open than in S. capensis, the ridge forming a nearly straight axial line; length in a straight line about two feet, round the curve about two feet six inches. The skull of an adult male gives the following measurements:—Basal length 11·75 inches, orbit to muzzle 6·75, greatest width 4·20.

Female. Like the male, but without horns, and smaller and slighter in build; without a mane on the neck; white marks on the head and throat less pronounced; head more uniformly fawn, and body of a rich reddish fawn only tinged with grey; neck duller than the body.

Young male. Like the female, but assuming the grey coat of the adult before it reaches its full size.

Hab. Somaliland and the maritime district of British East Africa.

The late Edward Blyth, well known for many years as the zealous Curator of the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, was the first to point out that the Kudu had a smaller brother, which, though nearly allied, was specifically quite distinct from its better-known relative. Although it is probable that Blyth was wrong in some of the identifications of previous writers which he assigned to the present species, he was undoubtedly correct in his general views on the subject, and had the merit of assigning to the new Strepsiceros the appropriate name imberbis, which at once distinguishes it from its neck-maned ally.

It is singular that while the Greater Kudu, as we have just shown, has such a widely-extended range in Africa, the Lesser Kudu is restricted to a comparatively very small area, extending only, so far as is certainly known, from Somaliland in the north to the coast-region of British Central Africa in the south.

After Blyth the Smaller Kudu appears to have next attracted the attention of Sir John Kirk. Writing to Sclater from Zanzibar, where he was British Consul, in 1873, Sir John stated that he had obtained from the Brava coast a living female Kudu which appeared to belong to a smaller species than the ordinary form (cf. P. Z. S. 1873, p. 195). Two years later, in June 1875, the late Sir Victor Brooke exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London original drawings by Wolf of the two Kudus, and pointed out the distinctions between them (see P. Z. S. 1875, p. 470). These drawings are, as we have every reason to believe, the originals from which the figures (Plates XCVI. and XCVII. of the present work) were prepared by Smit.

In 1878 Sir John Kirk obtained from the Sultan of Zanzibar another specimen of what he called the “Dwarf Kudu” from the southern part of the Somali country, and sent it off to the Zoological Society (see P. Z. S. 1878, p. 441). Unfortunately, however, the animal died on its way home.

It was not, therefore, until 1884 that good specimens of the Lesser Kudu were received in Europe, and a proper comparison could be made between it and the larger and better-known species. This was done by Sclater, and the results were stated in a communication made to the Zoological Society on February 5th of that year. Sclater’s materials were mainly a pair of animals which he had seen alive in the previous October in the menagerie of his friend the late Mons. J. M. Cornély, of Château Beaujardin, Tours. The young male of this pair, having died, was kindly sent to London by M. Cornély and formed the subject of a plate, drawn by Smit, which accompanies Sclater’s article on this animal in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings.’ On the occasion of reading his paper, Sclater was likewise able to exhibit an adult head of the Lesser Kudu which had been sent home by Sir John Kirk, and a pair of horns of a rather younger male of the same animal, belonging to Mons. Cornély, which had been received by him through Mr. Hagenbeck, of Hamburg, from Somaliland, along with the living pair of animals just mentioned.