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.”
Mr. Ernest Gedge has kindly favoured us with the following notes on this Antelope:—“My experience of these animals has been but small, owing to their extremely local distribution. I first encountered them in Upper Kavirondo, to the west of Mumia’s, in the vicinity of the Nzoia River, in the month of November. On another occasion I saw them near the Nile, when on an elephant-hunting expedition in Uganda, and again in the province of Buddu to the N.W. of the Victoria Nyanza.
“As far as my experience goes it would seem that these are water-loving animals, and not to be found except in the vicinity of swamps and rivers.
“The times at which specimens may best be secured are the early morning and towards sundown, when the animals leave the shelter of the high reeds and thickets (in which they appear to lie up during the heat of the day) and come to their feeding-grounds. Four or five is the greatest number I have ever seen at one time, more generally they are met with singly or in pairs.
“They are not very difficult to stalk, as they are generally near covert, or on broken ground of some kind, favourable to the hunter, and, moreover, they have not the shy, suspicious nature of the Hartebeest, unless some of the latter happen to be in their vicinity, in which case they become more difficult to approach.
“Their tenacity of life is very great, and unless disabled at once the chances are against the hunter, the impenetrable nature of the swamps and jungles to which they fly when wounded precluding all hope of pursuit.