The environs of Kurshook Ali’s Seriba abound in every variety of game. Genets, civets, zebra-ichneumons, warthogs (Phacochœrus), wild pigs, cats, lynxes, servals, caracals, and the large family of the antelopes, all find here their home.

Central African Hartebeest.

In this neighbourhood I killed my first hartebeest and a leucotis antelope. The hartebeest (Antilope caama) is common throughout the greater part of the continent, and varies in its form, its colour, and the shape of its horns, according to sex, age, and adventitious circumstances. In zoological collections two specimens are rarely seen exactly like one another.[20] Called “karia” by the Bongo and “songoro” by the Niam-niam, the hartebeest is the most frequent of all the larger game. It is generally found in small herds, varying in number from five to ten, its haunts being chiefly uninhabited tracts of wilderness. In the cultivated districts it prefers the light bush forests in the vicinity of rivers, though it is never seen actually in the river valleys. It takes its midday rest by standing motionless against the trunks of trees; and by its similarity in hue to the background which it chooses, it often eludes all observation. Throughout the rainy season its colour is bright—​a sort of yellow-brown, with a belly nearly white; but in the winter it tones down to a dullish grey. With the exception of the leucotis, its flesh is the best eating of any game in the country.

Leucotis Antelope (male).

The leucotis antelope[21] is the species that congregates in the largest number in any of the districts that have been hitherto explored. In the dry season they are often seen in the wadys in large herds, varying from 100 to 300 head; during the rains they resort to the more elevated forests. That is their pairing time, and they divide into smaller groups. These graceful animals have the same habit as the South African spring-bok; running at full speed, with outspanned legs, they often bound four and five feet high, and jump clean over one another. The female, which has no horns, in colour and size very much resembles the yalo (A. arundinacea), but it can be easily distinguished by the hair on the metatarsus being black, while in the yalo it is grey.

WATERPOOLS IN THE RED ROCK.