132 ANTELOPES 



In former days the gnu appears to have ranged over the karoos, 

 or open plains, of Cape Colony as far east as the Kei river, whence it 

 extended northwards as far as the Vaal or northern branch of the 

 Orange river, which formed approximately its boundary in this direc- 

 tion, although some of the older travellers report having seen a few of 

 these animals on the Chonapas, or Mooi, river, some twenty or thirty 

 miles to the northward of the Vaal. Griqualand West and the plains 

 of the Orange River Colony were districts in which the gnu formerly 

 swarmed, and at the time of the Boer war the latter territory was 

 apparently the only district where it survived in anything approaching 

 a wild state. Even there it remained only in the shape of a few small 

 herds preserved on enclosed farms, and most of these were probably 

 dispersed or destroyed during the war. Mr. C. D. Rudd has, however, 

 an imported herd at Fernwood, Newlands, near Cape Town, from 

 which the owner a few years ago presented a cow and calf to the 

 British Museum, where they are now mounted for exhibition. In 

 southern Bechuanaland the species seems to have been unknown. 



In their palmy days gnus associated with quaggas, whose fate 

 they are only too rapidly sharing. The strange antics in which it 

 indulges form one of the most striking traits of this strange species. 

 In the account of his travels in 1843-44, Gordon Cumming writes as 

 follows in connection with this habit : — 



" Wheeling about in endless circles, and performing the most 

 extraordinary variety of intricate evolutions, the shaggy herds of these 

 eccentric and fierce- looking animals caper and gambol round the 

 hunter on every side. While he is riding hard to obtain a family shot 

 at a herd in front of him, other herds are charging down wind on his 

 right and left, and having described a number of circular movements, 

 they take up positions upon the very ground across which he rode 

 only a few minutes before. Singly and in small troops, the old bulls 

 may be seen standing motionless during a whole forenoon, watching 

 with a philosophic eye the movements of the other game, eternally 

 uttering a loud and snorting noise, and also a short sharp cry which is 

 peculiar to them. When the hunter approaches they begin prancing 

 and capering, and pursue one another at the utmost speed. Suddenly 

 they all pull up together to overhaul the intruder, when two bulls will 

 often commence fighting in the most violent manner, dropping on their 

 knees at every shock ; then, quickly wheeling about, they whirl their 

 tails in a fantastic flourish and scour across the plains enveloped in a 

 cloud of dust." 



Like bulls, gnus are violently excited by red, and when hunting 



