54 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



is a true blaauwbok. The horns, longer and more 

 slender than those of the roan, bear twenty-eight 

 rings : there is no black area on the face, nor any 

 anteocular switch of hair : the scanty mane is 

 directed forwards. The specimen is much 

 elongated, from faulty stuffing ; and it has also 

 been badly cut on one shoulder (perhaps from 

 carelessness in skinning it) : in spite of these 

 blemishes, however, it has a remarkably fresh 

 appearance, and certainly does not "look its age," 

 for even the famous bluish-purple tint yet lingers 

 on its century-old hide. The label bears the 

 inscription : 



" Hippotragus leucophaeus Pall : 

 Delgorgue. Afrique Australe." 



13. In 1799 a leucopheus was shot and sent to 

 Berlin. Dr. Lichtenstein described it in 1814, 

 and it is fortunate that he did so, as it seems to 

 have since been lost perhaps destroyed by some 

 person ignorant of its priceless value, like the dodo 

 in the museum at Oxford. When the doctor 

 wrote his account of this specimen (only a few 

 years after it had been shot) the whole blaauwbok 

 race had already disappeared from the face of the 

 globe " blotted from the book of life," as Harris 

 expressed it long afterwards. 



14, 15, 1 6 ? " Some " were shot in 1800, accord- 

 ing to Lichtenstein, and their skins were sent to 

 Leyden, but nothing more is known about them. 



