Roan Antelope 



horned beauties. A solitary roan will be a buck, 

 and probably a big one into the bargain. 



It is really excessively difficult to make out 

 which is the big buck of the herd, because the 

 horns of the females appear much larger than 

 they are, owing to their thinness in comparison 

 with those of the bull. I have a female's head 

 now in my possession, of which the horns are 

 fully an inch shorter than those of one of my 

 male heads ; yet, even when the two are laid side 

 by side, my statement that the latter is the smaller 

 head is seldom believed. It is the thickness of 

 the bull's horns which makes the length so 

 deceptive. 



Many are the rupee bets I've won over that 

 head ! 



On my way down the Nile, at one of the 

 places where we stopped to shoot, we suddenly 

 fell in with an exceptionally large herd of roan 

 antelope on their way to water, just at the time 

 when we were wondering where to oro and what 

 to do next. The wind was in a totally wrong 

 direction, so we hastily fled to the right, and then 

 worked towards the herd under cover of a series 

 of stunted bushes, making an angle with the 

 course of their approach. Having reached a spot 

 about a hundred yards from the place where the 

 herd would cross the bushes, we sat down and 

 waited. My friend entreated and exhorted me 

 to get closer, as he thought there was loads of 



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