THE ROAN ANTELOPE 63 



was secured, but a fairly accurate and quite recog- 

 nisable description of the animal has been left by 

 Truter, who says : " the animal appeared to be 

 near five feet high, the colour a cinerous blue, and 

 shape not unlike the nilghau of India, the 

 Antilope picta. Its mane is black, long and 

 flowino- over each shoulder : its beard is lone and 

 pointed : the tail short and naked : the horns from 

 fifteen to eighteen inches long, pointing backwards, 

 and bent into a circular curve, embracing about a 

 fifth of the whole circumference, annulated from 

 the root to about two-thirds the lencrth." The 

 natives near Leetakoo (Kuruman), where Barrow's 

 party saw the animal, called it the Tackhaitsie, 

 and stated it to be very fierce and dangerous. 



Daniell's volume of sketches, containing a figure 

 of the Tackhaitsie, is still extant, though rare. 

 Unfortunately the animal has been represented as 

 of a very uncompromising blue-grey colour : the 

 mane is not only wrongly figured as drooping 

 instead of erect, but is further shewn as pendent on 

 both sides of the neck : the " beard " is shown as 

 long and pointed, and strictly confined to the chin ! 

 Daniell's figure well illustrates the difficulty of 

 accurately representing a new species without first 

 securing a specimen : had the party succeeded in 

 shooting a tackhaitsie instead of staring at it, such 

 a ridiculous figure would never have been published. 

 It is to be feared that Daniell hindered rather than 



