266 NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



chestnut ears to the middle of the back. The head, 

 which tapers towards the muzzle, is surmounted by 

 magnificent scimitar-shaped horns (measuring from 

 thirty-five inches to forty-six inches over the curve 

 in the male), which are deeply annulated for three- 

 quarters of their length, and terminate in sharply- 

 pointed tips. When wounded and brought to bay, 

 this antelope — perhaps the most courageous and 

 determined of its family — uses its horns with deadly 

 effect; and Selous mentions having seen four dogs 

 killed and four wounded by a sable wielding 

 these terrible weapons.^ Ever a lover of the bush 

 veldt, or of the wildest and most remote mountain 

 country, the Zwart-wit-pens, if pressed on to the 

 flats, can, despite its robust frame, run with con- 

 siderable fleetness and staying power. The female 

 lacks the jetty mantle of her lord, yet is her 

 colour — a rich dark chestnut — in its way almost 

 equally eiffective. Alike in size and in length of horn, 

 the female is smaller than the male. Viewed in its 

 native fastnesses — perhaps grazing in some flowery 

 kloof, where the glossy blackness of its hide is inten- 

 sified by the blood-red aloes amid which it feeds, or 

 perchance proudly standing higher up the mountain, 

 showing boldly against the ruddy splashes of lichen 



1 Mr. J. G. Millais, hi A Breath from the Veldt, has a great 

 deal of interesting and recent information concerning this 

 noble antelope. 



