THE LEUCORYX ANTELOPE. 



" In densis etiam ssevissima bestia sylvis 

 Trux stabulatur oryx." 



Oppian. 



A sheltered rocky valley in the African wilderness. 

 A feeble stream trickles through a struggling tangle 

 of acacia and terebinth, which rear their scrubby 

 heads from a sullen soil covered with flints and 

 adorned with brightly coloured pebbles. A pair 

 of little black and white birds desert chats flit 

 briskly from stone to stone, undeterred by the 

 awful silence, and uttering now and then a chacking 

 note. Two or three jerboa rats, long-legged and 

 wide-eared, sit sleepily basking at the entrance to 

 their burrow. Coiled up like an ammonite shell, a 

 cerastes viper lies half buried in the sand. A cloud 

 of insects dance in playful gambol above the .heated 

 earth ; skink lizards, alert and glittering, flash 

 amongst the pebbles like streaks of fire. A group 

 of large antelope (sandy white and rufous in colour, 

 and armed with long horns) take their siesta in 

 peace a party of leucoryx very much at home. 



Evening. The nocturnal life of the oasis begins 

 to show itself. An incessant hum of insects rises 

 from the scanty herbage ; jerboas run in dozens over 

 the sand, croaking as they go ; a jackal howls in the 

 distance. The leucoryx begin to lick their coats ; 

 rising one after another they stretch themselves, 

 and stand with powerful figures and sweeping horns 



