48 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



antly proclaim it to be distinct from the blaauwbok. 

 An examination of my photograph of the fine 

 leucophczus now at Leyden will surely convince 

 anyone that the blaauwbok cannot be identical 

 with the roan. If an immature roan, why are the 

 horns so well developed, in proportion to the size 

 of the animal ? If adult, though dwarfed, why is 

 not the face marked with black, a pigment which 

 begins to appear in mere calves ? 



The matter, however, is now settled beyond 

 doubt. Several of the blaauwbok still in pre- 

 servation have been found to agree in their 

 measurements ; and all the scientific world admits 

 the leucophea as a true species, endorsing the 

 dictum of Sundevall " Minime animal fictum ut 

 credidit A. Smith, sed fere certe, at docuit Lich- 

 tenstein, in fine soeculi prioris extinctum" 



A further argument were one needed may be 

 adduced in favour of the blaauwbok as a distinct 

 species. Its habitat is widely sundered from that 

 of the roan antelope. The leucophaeus, always 

 confined to the province of Swellendam, was finally 

 lost in 1 800 ; the roan antelope was not even 

 discovered till December ist, 1801, when Sir John 

 Barrow's party met with it near Leetakoo (Kuru- 

 man), in Bechuanaland, under the name of the 

 tack haitsie. Certainly Sir Andrew Smith mentions 

 the roan as formerly occurring in northern Cape 

 Colony, but it is not known to have been common 



