NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



big game from aeroplanes has once more served 

 to draw attention to the destruction of wild life 

 during the last hundred years. The subject of 

 this notice was the first of Africa's splendid fauna 

 to disappear : so early was it exterminated that it 

 has remained unknown save to a very few natural- 

 ists, and for every person who has heard of the 

 Blaauwbok there are probably thousands who have 

 heard of the Dodo and the Great Auk. The 

 museums of the world contain but five specimens, 

 two of which have been studied by the writer. 



" The Blaauwbok (Hippotragus leucophceus^ Pallas) 

 was a fine antelope which stood about 45 inches 

 at the withers : it was known as the ' blue goat ' 

 by the early settlers, in consequence of its curved, 

 scimitar-like horns and its blue-grey coat : a spot 

 in front of and below the eye was whitish, as were 

 also the lips and the belly, and the insides of the 

 limbs. Thus, although closely related to those con- 

 spicuously marked animals, the Roan and the Sable 

 antelopes, the Blaauwbok was itself of subdued 

 and somewhat indefinite coloration, a pale shadow 

 of its bigger and more gaily robed cousins. So 

 little indeed was its curious livery understood that 

 the coat was reported to change colour after death : 

 in the words of the old naturalist, Pennant, ' Colour, 

 when alive, a fine blue of velvet appearance ; when 

 dead, changes to bluish-grey, with a mixture of 

 white ' {History of Quadrupeds, vol. i. p. 74). 



" Although finally exterminated by the early 



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