-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.