ROAN ANTELOPE 181 
ROAN ANTELOPE (Hippotragus equinus). 
Never very plentifully distributed, the great Roan Antelope—a good 
bull has been known to stand 14 hands at the shoulder—is yearly 
becoming scarcer in South Africa. At the present time it is most 
plentiful in the remoter parts of Eastern Mashonaland, and thence 
towards Portuguese territory on the south-east coast. Mr. G. W. Penrice 
has lately opened up a new locality for this magnificent antelope, as 
well as the Sable, in the country behind Benguella, in Portuguese West 
Africa. Here, however, the bush is so dense and impenetrable, and 
the difficulties of hunting are so great, that the European hunter is 
not likely to flock to this region in overflowing numbers. The Roan 
can be more easily run down upon horseback than the Sable, but has, 
nevertheless, plenty of pace and bottom. In Gordon Cumming’s time 
this antelope was found and shot by that great hunter, in Griqualand 
West, just across the Orange River. Like the Sable Antelope, it is 
extremely savage when wounded, and ought to be approached 
with care. 
HEIGHT at shoulder, adult male, 4 feet 9 inches. 
Distributzon—South-Western Matabeleland ; sparsely in the Transvaal ; 
thence to the Zambesi, Mashonaland, Manicaland, Nyassaland, 
British East Africa, Abyssinia ; also in the Gambia and Angola 
Territory in West Africa. 
Length on | Circum- ae | ‘ 
front curve. ference. Vip to Tip. Habitat. Owner. 
33 North Matabeleland | A. C. Fountaine. 
2 10 133 | Mashonaland . | Capt. A. St. H. Gibbons. 
