1 62 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



the animal snuffs air rapidly into the nostrils; a 

 strong sweet bovine scent is very noticeable. 



No account of the blesbok would be complete 

 with some mention of the closely allied bontebok. 

 Handsomer than its cousin, the bontebok (Damaliscus 

 pygargus] is a blesbok but more so, the characters of 

 the latter horns, humped back, pied coloration 

 being appropriated, adapted, and accentuated. The 

 bontebok stands about 40 inches at the shoulder 

 and tapes about 6 feet in extreme length ; the horns 

 are black instead of greenish. Smarter than the 

 blesbok, the bontebok has the silvery blaze down 

 the face continuous throughout, instead of being 

 interrupted about the level of the horn bases by a 

 brown hiatus ; the belly, the disc above the tail, and 

 the upper part of the tail itself are pure snowy -white ; 

 the same remark applies to the legs, both inside and 

 cut. The rich purple brown of the neck, the lilac of 

 the back, and the posterior direction of the crest on 

 the tail are common to both species. In the bontebok 

 at the Natural History Museum there is a much 

 richer, darker purple gloss on the body, below the 

 lilac "saddle," than in the blesbok exhibited in the 

 same case. The record bontebok horns tape 

 i6% inches. 



Unlike the blesbok, the bontebok has always 

 been a rare animal ; it was already scarce when first 

 described by Pallas in 1766. The old colonists 

 made no distinction between the two species. The 



