ANTELOPES. 



277 



bed of reeds, feeding on the young shoots that just appeared above the water. 

 When she saw us, she at once made off, making a tremendous splashing as she 

 plunged through the water. The natives told me that very often when these 

 antelopes are met with under similar circumstances they do not attempt to run, but, 

 sinking down in the water, submerge their whole bodies, leaving only their nostrils 

 above the surface, and trusting that their enemies will pass them unobserved. 

 They (the Kaffirs) then paddle alongside, and assegai them from the canoe. 

 Another way the natives have of killing them is by setting fire to the reeds when 

 they become quite dry, and then waiting for the sititunga in their canoes in one 

 of the channels of open water by which the marsh is intersected." Further up the 

 Chobi River it is stated that these antelopes are in the habit of diving, and even 

 sleeping beneath the water with only their nostrils exposed. 



Guit>. 



MALE AND FEMALE GUIB ( T 'j liat. size). 



The guib (T. scriptus) is the last representative of the harnessed 

 antelopes, and differs from all the others by its inferior size, being 

 about equal in dimensions to an ordinary goat. The average length of the horns 

 is about 12 inches, but specimens of 14 inches and one of 16| inches have been 

 recorded. This species has a wide distribution, ranging from Abyssinia to the 

 Cape ; and it exhibits such variations in colour that it was originally split uj? into 

 four distinct species, now regarded as varieties. In the Abyssinian variety, which 

 is shorter and stouter than the others, the general colour is yellowish, and the 



