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.