Gnu
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Gnu. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in zoölogy, Catoblepas gnu, a species of antelope. The adult male is about 5 feet 6 inches long, and 3 feet 10 inches high at the shoulder; horns, dark tapering out sideways over the eyes, and broad, upon the summit of the head, turning up into a pointed hook. Legs long. The face is covered with black, GNU bristly hair, with white ones around the eye and on the legs ; on the neck is a vertical mane, black in the center and white at the sides; a bushy beard on the under jaw; general color of the fur deep brown, with long white hair on the tail. Female smaller; calves pure white. A gnu brought to bay or wounded turns on its assailant. chief city of the district of the same GOA (gō'ä), a maritime city of India, Portuguese settlements in India, on an name, and formerly capital of all the island of the same name , at the mouth of the Mandona, 250 miles S. S. E. of Bombay. Goa consists of Old Goa and New Goa. The old city contains some splendid churches and other specimens of architecture. New Goa, or Panjin, at the mouth of the river , is the residence of the viceroy and of the principal habitants. It carries on trade with Portugal, China and the coast of Africa, pal inand is principally engaged in the salt industry. Pop. of the district about 515,800. of Tibet.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
nu, the Hottentot name of a peculiar antelope of South Africa. The Boers gave it the name of wildebeest. The head of both sexes is armed with two enormous horns which curve downward, forward, and upward in front of its face. A long flowing tail and a crest-like mane and a zebra-like body have given it the name of "horned horse." It has cloven hoofs, however, and chews the cud, like other animals of its kind; yet it is said that a herd seen at a distance flying over the plain can be distinguished with difficulty from wild zebras which inhabit the same locality. The flesh is palatable. The gnu kept company with the zebra and giraffe. Like them it is now to be found only in remote localties. There are two species. See Antelope ; Zebra
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's 1921 filed the gnu under the genus Catoblepas; it is now placed in Connochaetes, with two species recognised — the black wildebeest (C. gnou), the animal both accounts describe, and the blue wildebeest or brindled gnu (C. taurinus). Aiton's 1910 remark that the gnu "is now to be found only in remote localities" was accurate and nearly became final: the black wildebeest was shot out of most of its range in the nineteenth century and survived only because a few Free State farmers kept herds on private land, from which it has since been restocked across South Africa and Namibia. The blue wildebeest went the other way after the cattle plague rinderpest was brought under control by vaccination in the 1960s; Serengeti–Mara numbers rose to roughly 1.3 million, and their annual circuit is now the largest land mammal migration on earth. Rinderpest itself was declared globally eradicated in 2011, and the wildebeest is today a wildlife-tourism mainstay rather than, as Aiton noted of its flesh, palatable game.
Written for this edition, 2026.