128 ANTELOPES 



patch on the rump, for a semicircular disc above the tail is lighter 

 in colour than the rest of the body, and shows very distinctly when 

 the animal is running end-on, with the sun shining on it. 



THE TSESSEBE OR SASSABY 



{DanialiscHS lunatus) 



Bastard OR Zulu Hartehecst, Dutch Boers ; Mzansi, SwAZi AND 

 Matonga ; Inkolomo, Matabili ; Tsessebe, Bechuana ; Inkalo- 

 -cvane, TRANSVAAL Basuto. 



(Plate v, fig. 6) 



From the other members of the genus Danialiscus the bastard 

 hartebeest of the Boers — the tsessebe or sassaby of the Bechuanas — is 

 distinguishable at a glance by the absence of a white chevron or blaze 

 on the face, and the form of the horns. The latter, which are relatively 

 small (the record being only i6|^ inches), incline at first obliquely 

 upwards and outwards at an angle of about 45°, and then bend 

 upwards and backwards in a single lunate curve, their short smooth 

 tips inclining slightly inwards, and being separated by a wide interval. 



Standing from 46 to 48 inches at the shoulder, an adult bull 

 sassaby is of a rich chestnut-colour, with reflections, in certain lights, 

 of purple and even orange, and the whole coat presenting that satiny 

 sheen found in so many members of the hartebeest group. A contrast 

 to the general red tone is formed by the broad blackish blaze down 

 the front of the face, and the patches of the same colour on the 

 shoulders, hips, and upper portions of the limbs. The margins of the 

 ears and the groin are white, while the tail-tuft is black. The young 

 are yellowish red. 



In its face- markings a sassaby resembles a young blesbok or 

 bontebok ; and there is little doubt that the assumption by the adults 

 of the two latter of a white blaze has some connection with the 

 gregarious habits of those species. 



Sassaby are widely distributed throughout South Central Africa 

 and in the country westwards in the direction of Lake \ Ngami. 

 They are specially common in Mashonaland, the eastern Transvaal, 

 Gazaland, and the Pungwi district of Portuguese East Africa, where 

 their range appears to overlap that of Lichtenstein's hartebeest. 

 They frequent open downs or tracts of thin forest, but are never 

 seen in densely forested districts. 



