353 



M A M M A L I A — S P R I N G B O C K . 



gazelle among the rest. No sooner does the tame animal approach, than 

 the males of the herd instantly sally forth to oppose him ; and in butting 

 with their horns, are caught in the noose, when both struggling for some 

 time, fall together to the ground ; till at last the hunter comes up, disenga- 

 ges the one, and kills the other. 



Upon the whole, however, these animals, whatever be the arts used to 

 pursue them, are very difficult to be taken ; for, as they are continually 

 subject to alarms from carnivorous beasts, or from man, they keep chiefly 

 in the most solitary and inaccessible places, and find their only protection 

 from the dangerousness of the spot whither they retreat. 



THE SPRINGBOK. i 



The predominant color of this animal is a pale yellowish brown ; the belly, 

 breast, and inside of the limbs, are white ; as is also the head, excepting a 

 dark brown list, which passes from each corner of the mouth, over the eyes, 

 to the base of the horns. From the tail, half way up the back, is a stripe 

 of white, bounded on each side by a dark brown list, and a stripe of the 

 same color extends on each side, from the shoulders to the haunches, form- 

 ing a contrasting boundary between tbe snowy whiteness of the belly, and 

 the rusty color of the sides. The tail is very slender, not being thicker 

 than a goose quill at the lower part, which reaches to nearly the first joint 

 of the leg ; the ears are of an ash color, tipped on the edges with fine light 

 gray hairs. The hair in general is short and fine ; but the dark line which 

 borders the white consists of longer hairs, which the animal is able to ex- 

 pand at pleasure, to the breadth of eight or nine inches, particularly when 



1 Ant Hope euchure, Desm. 



