SABLE ANTELOPE 291 



suffice, therefore, to state that the shoulder-height of the buck is about 

 54 inches (4^ feet) ; and that a single horn in the Florence Museum 

 measures 61 inches in length, the next best specimen being 5 2|- inches. 

 The foxy-coloured calves show the same face-markings as their sable 

 parents, and are thereby at once distinguishable from those of the roan 

 antelope. 



Blackness in animals is what naturalists term a specialised feature ; 

 and from this point of view (as is demonstrated by the fact that the 

 young are chestnut or tan coloured) the sable antelope is a highly 

 specialised creature. Its great specialisation in this respect is indicated 

 by the fact that the sable livery is assumed by both sexes, instead of 

 being, as in Mrs. Gray's and the white-eared kob, confined to the adult 

 males. The species is, in fact, unique among antelopes in this 

 particular. On the other hand, the retention of the gazelline face- 

 markings common to the members of the gemsbuck or oryx group, 

 the relatively moderate size of the ears, and the small development 

 of the eye-tuft, point to the conclusion that the sable antelope is in 

 these respects a far less specialised animal than its less handsomely 

 coloured relative, the roan antelope. 



Discovered in the year 1837 by the great hunter Sir Cornwallis 

 Harris in the hills of the Magaliesberg district of the Transvaal, 

 the sable antelope ranges thence northwards to Nyasaland and the 

 neighbouring parts of south-eastern and eastern Africa. South of the 

 Zambesi the range of the species appears, indeed, to have been confined 

 to the eastern half of the continent, except for a western extension 

 along the valley of the Limpopo and the southern bank of the Chobi. 

 Northern Mashonaland seems to have been the district in which it 

 most abounded, and where it is said to have been the commonest of all 

 antelopes ; but the eastern part of that country, and thence towards the 

 coast, were also favourite localities. Northward of the Zambesi it was 

 always less common, although the Batoka plateau is one of its present 

 strongholds ; and it was never abundant in the Mozambique province. 



From ten to twenty is the usual number of individuals in a herd 

 of sable antelope, although occasionally the total may be as many as 

 forty or fifty, while in one herd the number has been estimated at 

 eighty. Very rarely, however, is there more than a single adult bull 

 in a herd, no matter how large. In the districts to the south of the 

 Zambesi adult cows are nearly as black as the bulls, but to the north- 

 ward of that river the former are stated to be in most cases reddish 

 brown. With regard to the object of the black colouring of this and 

 other sable species, it has been suggested that the dark livery is a 



