THE BLESBOK ANTELOPE l6l 



again, since a census of the blesbok surviving in the 

 Steynsburg division showed in June, 1904, a total of 

 650 individuals, being an increase of two hundred as 

 compared with 1903! A fine male specimen from 

 the Steynsburg herd is preserved in the South 

 African Museum at Capetown. Blesbok bred in the 

 Regent's Park collection in 1866, 1869, and -1870; 

 the new Natural History Museum at Paris contains 

 a blesbok calf born at the neighbouring Jardin 

 d'Acclimatation ; a pair of these animals were 

 exhibited in the Antwerp Zoo in 1869. Some ten 

 years since a young animal in the light brown coat 

 of immaturity was exhibited in Barnuni and Bailey's 

 show, and was rightly described as one of the rarest 

 antelopes then in captivity. In 1903 a blesbok was 

 exhibited in the New York Zoological Park. 



The specimens at present in the Zoo consist of a 

 female presented by the Transvaal Museum and 

 Zoological Gardens on April 8, 1903, and a male 

 from Basutoland, purchased May 24, 1906. The 

 female is impatient of captivity, charging the railings 

 with lowered horns and whisking tail ; sometimes she 

 stands listening intently, afterwards lashing her sides ; 

 or drops on her knees to slowly scrape the ground with 

 her horns. I did not see this individual plough up 

 the ground, advancing in a straight line (still on her 

 knees) as a black wildebeest will do ; the strokes 

 were directed right and left in a half-hearted fashion, 

 as if in ennui. When inspecting an object closely 



