64 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



helped science by his unfortunate effort : certainly 

 for years afterwards naturalists did not recognise 

 that the roan antelope was the true tackhaitsie of 

 Barrow. 



The first specimen of the roan antelope to reach 

 the museums of Europe appears to have been 

 the example received at Paris from an unknown 

 locality, and described by Desmarest in 1804 as 

 the " antilope osanne." The first specimen brought 

 to England was the rufous-gray animal, shot in 

 December, 1812, at the "little Klibbolikhonni 

 fountain in the Transgariepine," and presented to 

 the British Museum by Dr. Burchell : it was figured 

 by Landseer in " Griffith's Animal Kingdom, "and 

 the horns are still in the National Collection. 



Burchell searched in vain for the "tackhaitsie " 

 as represented by Daniell : and Sir Andrew Smith 

 in 1836 took up the quest with the same result. 

 He even provided himself with a copy of Daniell's 

 figure, which he showed to the natives : but 

 though many of them had grown old in the very 

 region it was said to inhabit, none of them recog- 

 nised the animal, nor will anyone who compares 

 Daniell's figure with an accurate drawing of H. 

 equinus wonder at it. Sir Andrew finally 

 recognised that the tackheitsie and the roan 

 antelope were one and the same animal ; and in 

 his account of the roan, in his " Illustrations of 

 South African Zoology," expressly states that it is 



