72 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



cerned was the brilliantly coloured Senegambian 

 roan and its surroundings were the artificial 

 adjuncts of the Antwerp Zoological gardens. Dur- 

 ing 1900 the West African roan before mentioned 

 was turned out like the rest of the animals to 

 graze in its paddock : in spite of its great size and 

 rufous coat it was quite inconspicuous when 

 standing under the trees, the black of the face 

 and legs merging insensibly into the shadows cast 

 by the overhanging boughs, whilst the blazing 

 sunlight streaming through the interstices of the 

 foliage merely revealed the sleek body of the 

 antelope as a large surface of uniform coloration. 

 These points may be readily observed by examin- 

 ing the photograph of the individual taken at the 

 time : probably in its natural state the animal 

 would have been still better concealed. 



The northern form of the roan antelope — 

 Baker's antelope of some naturalists — (abou aroof 

 of the Arabs) has by some been regarded as a 

 separate species under the name of Hippotragus 

 bakeri. Very little is known of it, however, and 

 Sir Samuel Baker, who discovered it in 1861 on 

 the confines of Abyssinia, did not himself obtain 

 a good specimen, but only the battered remnant 

 of an individual which had been killed by a lion. 

 A few living bakeri have been brought alive to 

 Europe. There was a young bull of this form in 

 the Royal menagerie at Turin in 1867, a second 



