IX 



ROAN ANTELOPE 



HIPFOTRAGUS EQUINUS BAKERI 

 Sudanese : Nieli 



I HAVE had several encounters with roan 

 antelope, both on my journey down the 

 Nile and on my way back again. These 

 might almost be registered under the head- 

 ing " Battles," since the animal is very difficult 

 to get at, and is most tenacious of life ; moreover, 

 if one fires at the biggest animal in the herd in 

 the expectation that it will prove a bull, one is 

 very apt to find oneself badly left with a specimen 

 of the opposite sex. Hence it behoves the sports- 

 man never to leave his glasses behind when out 

 after roan. 



They are very large, upstanding antelopes, and 

 look one straight in the face like gentlemen. 

 They have bright, red-roan coats, exceptionally 

 large (for antelopes), long, somewhat drooping 

 ears, with a small black tuft at the extremity, and 

 thick, well-ringed horns sweeping backwards like 

 a sickle. They are met with in thin bush country, 

 in company with another smaller buck or two, 

 surrounded by their harem of ten or twenty 



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