“I was in a sequestered bend of the river, where the banks for several acres were densely clad with lofty reeds and grass which towered above my head as I sat on my horse’s back. Beyond the reeds and grass were trees of all sizes, forming a dense shade; this is the general character of the Limpopo, as far as I have yet seen. I was slowly returning to my camp, in anything but good humour at my want of success with the game I had just been after, when, behold, an antelope of the most exquisite beauty, and utterly unknown to sportsmen or naturalists, stood broadside in my path, looking me full in the face. It was a princely old buck of the ‘Serolomootlooque’ of the Bakalahari, or ‘Bushbuck of the Limpopo.’ He carried a very fine wide-set pair of horns. On beholding him I was struck with wonder and delight. My heart beat with excitement. I sprang from my saddle, but before I could fire a shot this gem of beauty bounded into the reeds and was lost to my sight. At that moment I would have given half what I possessed in this world for a broadside at that lovely antelope, and I at once resolved not to proceed farther on my expedition until I had captured him, although it should cost me the labour of a month.
“The antelope having entered the reeds, I gave my horse to my after-rider, and with my rifle on full cock and at the ready I proceeded to stalk with extreme caution throughout the length and breadth of the cover; but I stalked in vain; the antelope had vanished, and was nowhere to be found. I then returned to my steed and rode slowly up the river’s bank towards my camp. I had ridden to within a few hundred yards of the wagons, and was meditating how I should best circumvent the Serolomootlooque, when once more this lovely antelope crossed my path; I had been unwittingly driving him before me along the bank of the river. He trotted like a roebuck into the thick cover and then stood broadside among the thorn bushes. I sprang from my saddle, and guessing about his position, I fired and missed him; he then trotted along a rhinoceros’s footpath, and gave me a second chance. Again I fired, and before my rifle was down from my shoulder the Serolomootlooque lay prostrate in the dust. The ball had cut the skin open along his ribs, and entering his body had passed along his neck, and had lodged in his brains, where we found it on preparing the head for stuffing. I was not a little gratified at my good fortune in securing this novel and valuable trophy; he was one of the most perfect antelopes I had ever beheld, both in symmetry and colour. I had him immediately conveyed to camp, where I took his measurement, and wrote out a correct description of him for the benefit of naturalists. I christened him the ‘Antelopus roualeynei,’ or ‘Bushbuck of the Limpopo.’”
It is not, however, without considerable hesitation that we have decided to retain Cumming’s name for the form of Bushbuck that, as will be presently seen, extends from the Limpopo River northwards to British East Africa and Somaliland. Although, according to Selous, the Bushbucks that are found on the Zambesi to the east of the Victoria Falls differ from those inhabiting the Limpopo (that is to say, from the typical roualeyni) in being of a dark red colour, thickly spotted on the haunches, shoulders, and sides, and marked with three or four faint white stripes, whereas the adult of the Limpopo form is a dark brownish grey, not striped, and often without a sign of spots, we venture to think there is sufficient evidence to show that these distinctions will not hold good when more material from the two rivers has been examined. For example, a fine series of skins of bucks of various ages sent by Sir Harry Johnston from Nyasaland, and presumably identical with the form observed by Selous on the Lower Zambesi, shows considerable variation in colour. The young male is yellowish red throughout, with about half-a-dozen spots on the hind-quarters and scarcely a trace of stripes. The adult is of a richer yellowish red, brighter on the hind-quarters, and passing into black on the shoulders, belly, and base of the neck, with a few white spots on the hind-quarters, and occasionally also on the shoulder, and sometimes a row of spots along the sides above the belly. Sometimes there are about three indistinct white stripes on each side, sometimes only one; but more often there are no traces of them to be seen, the presence or absence of the stripes being apparently independent of age. As we pass northwards into East Africa from Nyasaland the stripes, judging from accounts given by sportsmen and naturalists, seem to become more persistent, and in a mounted example in the British Museum, obtained on Manda Island, opposite Witu, by Sir John Kirk, as will be seen by Mr. Smit’s figure of this specimen (Plate XC. fig. 1), they are plainly visible. This specimen stands about 32 inches at the withers, and its horns surpass 14 inches in length, so there is no doubt as to its maturity. On the whole, the most reasonable course to pursue seems to be, at least for the present, to refer all the specimens met with in Eastern Africa, from the Limpopo to the Shebeyli, to one species.
We will now say a few words as to what the principal writers who have met with this Bushbuck in the more northern portion of its range have recorded of its habits and distribution. Mr. Crawshay, one of our best authorities on the Antelopes of Nyasaland, tells us that it is the commonest of all the Antelopes of that country. From the great variety that exists in the colour and markings of the Nyasan Bushbucks, Mr. Crawshay thought at first there must be more than one species; but after carefully examining a great many of both sexes, young and old, he came to the conclusion that there is only one, of the various stages of which he gives minute descriptions.
Fig. 100.
Skull and horns of Cumming’s Bushbuck.
(Brit. Mus.)
Sir Harry Johnston, in his ‘British Central Africa,’ gives us an excellent figure of the male Bushbuck, which he says is extremely common throughout the Protectorate. He describes its flesh as without exception the most delicious eating of any mammal in the world, “surpassing in tenderness and flavour that of the best Welsh mutton, or of any kind of venison.”
In German East Africa, Herr Matschie informs us that Cumming’s Bushbuck is also found all over the country, generally in the immediate neighbourhood of water, where it resorts to the thickest bush on the banks. Herr Matschie also gives a good figure of Tragelaphus roualeyni, in which, however, no traces of transverse bands are perceptible.