THE BEISA ANTELOPE I 29 



forehead ; it is connected by a narrow black line 

 with the apex of a much larger triangle, reversed as 

 it were to meet it, covering the greater part of the 

 face ; a black stripe runs through the eye towards 

 the edge of the lower jaw. The general body colour 

 is tawny ; a black line runs along the back, and 

 another separates the tawny of the body from the 

 white under-surface. The forelegs are banded with 

 black above the "knee" and a longitudinal black line 

 runs down the cannon bone ; the hind legs are uniform 

 whitish, not banded, and the cannon bone is unstriped. 

 The average length of beisa horns is about 30 inches 

 in the bulls, the cows bearing longer and thinner 

 weapons ; maximum recorded length 36 inches (bull) 

 and 37 inches (cow). 1 



Distributed throughout Somaliland, with part of 

 British East Africa, and once occurring as far north 

 as Suakin on the Red Sea, the southern range of this 

 fine oryx is limited by the Tana River, beyond which 

 it is replaced by the fringe-eared beisa, and yet 

 further south by the splendid gemsbok of the Cape. 

 A true desert animal, it often occurs far from water, 

 feeding morning and evening on the harsh bamboo- 

 like grass of the steppes, and finding in the fleshy 

 tissues of various succulent plants (and perhaps also 

 in the night dew) sufficient moisture for its needs. 

 Beisa go in herds of from half a dozen to fifty 



1 . 39 inches is the record now given of a female obtained in Somaliland 

 by Mr. E. P. Hare. 



