the most brilliantly coloured of all
antelopes; the ornamentation taking the form of vertical white lines and
rows of spots. Usually the sexes differ in colour. Whereas most of the
species have hoofs of normal shape, in some, such as the nakong, or
situtunga (_Tragelaphus spekei_), these are greatly elongated, in order
to be suited for walking in soft mud, and these have accordingly been
separated as _Limnotragus_. The last-named species spends most of its
time in water, where it may be observed not infrequently among the reeds
with all but its head and horns submerged. The true or smaller
bushbucks, represented by the widely spread _Tragelaphus scriptus_, with
several local races (fig. 1) are sometimes separated as _Sylvicapra_,
leaving the genus _Tragelaphus_ to be represented by the larger _T.
angasi_ and its relatives. The genus _Strepsiceros_ is represented by
the true or great kudu (_S. capensis_ or _S. strepsiceros_), fig. 2,
ranging from the Cape to Somaliland, and the smaller _S. imberbis_ of
North-East Africa, which has no throat-fringe. The large and brightly
coloured bongo (_Boocercus euryceros_) of the equatorial
forest-districts serves in some respects to connect the bushbucks with
the elands, having horns in both sexes, and a tufted tail, but a
brilliant orange coat with vertical white stripes. Still larger are the
elands, of which the typical _Taurotragus oryx_ of the Cape is uniformly
sandy-coloured, although stripes appear in the more northern _T. o.
livingstonei_, while the black-necked eland (_T. derbianus_) of
Senegambia and the Bahr-el-Ghazal district is a larger and more
brilliantly coloured animal. The small horns and bluish-grey colour of
the adult bulls serve to distinguish the Indian nilgai (q.v.),
_Boselaphus tragocamdus_, from the other members of the subfamily.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Female Bushbuck (_Tragelaphus scriptus_).]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Male Kudu (_Strepsicero capensis_).]

The second group, which is mainly African, but also represented in
Syria, is that of the _Hippotraginae_, typified by the sable antelope
(_Hippotragus niger_) and roan antelope (_H. equinus_), but also
including the oryxes (_Oryx_) and addax. These are for the most part
large antelopes, with long cylindrical horns, which are present in both
sexes, hairy muzzles, no face-glands, long tufted tails and tall thick
molars of the ox-type. In _Hippotragus_ the stout and thickly ringed
horns rise vertically fro