The gnus are of large size, and at first sight appear to have the head of a buffalo, the tail of a horse, and the limbs and hoofs of an antelope. Their heads are very massive, with broad muzzles and widely separated, hairy nostrils; their necks are maned, tails long and bushy, and both sexes carry horns. They are known as "wilde beeste," or "wild cattle," to the Dutch colonists of South Africa.
Photo by Miss E. J. Beck.
RED-FLANKED DUIKER.
The duikers are for the most part diminutive and graceful antelopes, with simple, spike-like horns.
The White-tailed Gnu, or Black Wildebeest, as it is more commonly called, was once found in great numbers on the karroos of Northern Cape Colony, and throughout the vast plains of the Orange River Colony, Transvaal, Griqualand West, and British Bechuanaland. Its range, in fact, was coequal with that of the blesbok. Even as lately as in 1875 and 1876 I personally saw very considerable herds of these quaint animals in the Orange River Colony and the Western Transvaal. When the present war broke out in 1899, there were only two herds of black wildebeest left alive. These animals numbered some 500 head altogether, and were protected by Dutch farmers. There are probably very few of them left to-day, and it is scarcely possible that this most interesting animal will long escape complete extinction.
Black wildebeests, before they had been much persecuted, were so inquisitive that, in the words of Gordon Cumming, they would "caper and gambol" round a hunter's waggon or any other unusual object, and sometimes approach to within a couple of hundred yards, when, whisking their long white tails, they would gallop off with loud snorts. They were always, however, very keen-sighted, and soon became extremely wary and almost impossible to approach on foot in the open plains they frequented, whilst their powers of endurance and fleetness of foot were such that they could only be overtaken by a well-mounted hunter. In spite of these advantages, however, the value of their skins, and the ever-increasing number of hunters, armed with long-range rifles, practically brought about the extermination of this species of gnu in a few decades.
The Brindled Gnu is a larger animal than the last-named species, standing 4½ feet and upwards at the shoulder. This animal once ranged from the Vaal River northwards, throughout Eastern and Central Africa, to the north of Kilimanjaro, where its range overlaps that of a closely allied form, the White-bearded Gnu, which is only found in certain districts of Eastern Africa. In general habits these two varieties seem to be identical.
In the interior of Southern Africa, both north and south of the Zambesi, I have met with very large numbers of Blue Wildebeests. They usually run in herds of from ten to twenty individuals, but towards the end of the dry season collect in droves of 200 or 300. They are often found in company with zebras and sassaby antelopes. Their flesh resembles coarse beef, and, to my thinking, is not ill-flavoured.
