60 THL ANTELOPES. 



direction. The colour of its body is a deep tawny, with white 

 spots on the thighs. The horns are straight, about nine inches 

 long, and turned backward. 



THE WOOD GOAT, 



Which is found in the southern parts of Africa, near the Cape 

 of Good Hope, lives mostly in the woods, from whence it has 

 received its appellation. This animal is accurately described by 

 Dr. Sparman ; but as it has no such particular distinctions, as 

 can render it strikingly dissimilar to the rest of the kind, we shall 

 proceed to 



THE WHITE ANTELOPE, 



Which is supposed to be the pygarg, mentioned in the book 

 of Numbers. It is an inhabitant of Africa, and in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Cape of Good Hope, herds of several thousands 

 sometimes cover the plains. It must, however, have once been 

 an inhabitant of Palestine, or at least of Egypt or Arabia ; for 

 it is not to be supposed, that the prohibitions of the Jewish law 

 would have comprehended a quadruped, found nowhere but in 

 the torrid zone, or in the southern parts of Africa. 



The white antelope is a beautiful creature, about two feet and 

 a half high, and about three feet in length. The distance of its 

 horns, at the base, is about one inch : from thence they gradu- 

 ally expand, to the distance of five yiches, then turn inwards, 

 and approach within about three inches of each other at the 

 points : they are of a deep black, annulated about half way up 

 from the base, quite smooth towards the top, and terminating in 

 a sharp point. The predominant colour of this beautiful animal, 

 is a light brown : its breast, belly, and inside of the limbs, are 

 white, as is also the head, with the exception of a dark brown 

 stripe, extending from each corner of the mouth to the base of 

 the horns : a stripe of the same colour runs also along each side, 

 from the shoulders to the haunches, forming a boundary between 

 the snowy whiteness of the belly, and the light brown of the 

 sides : the buttocks are white, and a stripe of white, bounded on 

 each side by one of dark brown, extends from the tail, half way 

 up the back ; the tail is very slender, the lower part of it not 

 being much thicker than a goose-quill ; the hair is in general 

 fine and short, but the dark stripes consist of hair longer than 

 the rest. In the pursuit of these animals, it is equally curious 

 and pleasant, to see the whole herd bounding over one another's 

 heads to a considerable height. Some of them will take three 

 or four high leaps successively. In this position they seem sus- 

 pended in the air, looking over their shoulders, and showing their 

 beautiful white backs. They are so extremely swift, as to re- 



