241 



ANTILOPE.E. 



ANTILOPE^E. 



paler, with a broad dark streak below ; the cheat, belly, inside of the 

 legs, back edge of tarsus, and underside of feet and anal-disk, white ; 

 the face bright bay, with a broad white side-streak. Dr. Gray says, 

 " The Kevel figured by M. F. Cuvier well represents this species. 

 The Corinne of the same author, also from Senegal, well represents the 

 youug animal." The Coriune and Kevel of Buffon belong to G. Dorcas. 



Tragops 



Has short, black, lyrate horns ; a tapering face ; ovine nose ; no muffle 

 or crumen ; the fur short, pressed down ; the sides without any dark 

 streak ; the knees tufted ; the feet with large feet-pits ; the inguinal 

 pits distinct. The female has slender horns and two teats. 



12. Tragops Bmnettii (Antilope quadricornis, Blainville), the Chikara, 

 Ravine-Deer, Goat Antelope, Kalsiepie, or Black-Tail, is of a bay -brown 

 colour, and has the end of the nose and tail black ; the face streaked ; 

 chest, belly, and inside of limbs, white ; the feet are black or brown. 



The Kalsiepie, or Black-Tail, so called by the Mahrattas on account 

 of the deep black colour of the tail, and distinguished by the name 

 of the Goat Antelope by the Europeans, is found on the rocky hills of 

 the Deccan, and, according to the report of Colonel Sykes, differs from 

 many other antelopes in not being gregarious, there being rarely more 

 than three or four found together in the same company, and not 

 unfrequently a solitary individual. 



Antidorcas 



Has lyrate, short, black horns ; a tapering face ; a simple nose ; the 

 crumen moderate, distinct. On the back it has an extensive white 

 fold or streak ; the hair is pressed close ; the knees are not tufted. 

 The female has small horns, but the number of its teats are not known. 



13. A. Euchore (Antilope Euchore, Forster), the Tsebe, or Spring-Boc, 

 Prong-Boc, or Showy Goat, is perhaps the most graceful in its pro- 

 portions, and beautifully varied in its colours, of all the antelope tribe. 

 Imagination cannot conceive a quadruped more light and airy in form, 

 more delicate in its proportions, or whose movements are executed 

 with more natural ease and grace, than the Spring-Boc, or, as the 

 English colonists now universally denominate it, Spring-Buck. In 

 point of size it is nearly a third larger than the Dorcas. The horns of 

 the Spring-Buck are rather irregularly lyrated, like those of the species 

 last described ; they are round, black, annulated very regularly till 

 within a short distance of the points, spreading first backwards and 

 widely outwards, and finally turning inwards, and with an almost 

 imperceptible twist on their own axis backwards. The hair is long on 

 the upper parts of the body, particularly on the back and croup, but 

 smooth, sleek, and shining : it is of a beautiful light cinnamon-colour 

 on the shoulders, neck, back, sides, and thighs ; and of a pure snowy 

 white on the breast, belly, and inner sides of the limbs, these two 

 colours being separated on the flanks by a broad longitudinal band of 

 a deep vinous-red colour, larger and more distinct than in any other 

 species of Antelope. The whole head, face, cheeks, and chin are white, 

 with a broad brown band on each side from the eyes to the corners of 

 the mouth, and a mark of the same colour on the centre of the face, 

 commencing in a narrow point on the muzzle, and enlarging as it 

 proceeds upwards till it joins the reddish fawn-colour of the body on 

 the crown of the head. The eyes are large, lively, and of a brown 

 colour ; the ears long, small, and cylindrical at the root, then widening 

 in the middle, and ending in an attenuated point. The neck is long, 

 slender, and slightly compressed on the sides ; the hoofs are small, 

 black, and triangular ; the legs remarkably long and slender ; and the 

 tail small, round, and naked, except a ridge of stiff black hair which 

 fringes it along the upper surface, and forms a small tuft at the 

 extremity. But the most remarkable and distinctive character of this 

 species consists in two longitudinal foldings or duplications of the skin 

 on the croup, which commence above the loins, or about the middle 

 of the back, and run in a straight line from thence to the tail. The 

 interior of these folds is lined with long hair of 9 or 1 inches in length, 

 and of the most brilliant and snowy whiteness ; they are likewise 

 under the complete command of the animal's volition, and are opened 

 and shut at pleasure. When closed, which they always are when the 

 animal is at rest, their lips form a narrow line along the top of the 

 loins and croup, which, being covered by the long cinnamon-red hair 

 of the back and hips, is scarcely distinguishable, or only as a narrow 

 white streak ; but when the animal leaps or runs, these folds are 

 expanded, and form a broad circular mark of the purest white, which 

 extends over the whole croup and hips, and produces a most remark- 

 able and pleasing effect. 



The Spring-Buck is so called from its remarkable habit of jumping 

 almost perpendicularly upwards, apparently without any other motive 

 than for its own amusement. It resides, in almost innumerable flocks, 

 on the dry arid plains and karroos of the interior of South Africa, 

 seldom approaching the inhabited districts of the colony, unless in 

 seasons of peculiar drought, when the pools and pastures of the 

 interior are dried and burnt up by the excessive heat, and these 

 animals are compelled to migrate in search of a more abundant 

 supply. On these occasions they are said to unite into flocks which 

 often consist of from 10,000 to 50,000 individuals, spreading over the 

 face of the whole country like a swarm of locusts, devouring every 

 vegetable oubstance that they meet with, and scarcely deviating from 

 their direct path to avoid the men and dogs which endeavour to turn 

 ihfin into another direction. These vast flocks, according to Mr. K. 

 1 1. ( nmming, will continue streaming along in an unbroken compact 



WAT. HIST. DIV. VOL. I. 



phalanx for two or more hours. This migration is called at the Cape 

 a Trak Bokken. So great are their numbers in these migrations that 

 those which happen to get into the rear of the troop are lean and half- 

 starved before the migration is concluded, from the advanced ranks 

 cropping the scanty pastures almost bare, and thus leaving them 

 nearly destitute of food ; but when the journey is concluded, and the 

 troop begins to retrace its steps northward, those which formed the 

 van during the advance are necessarily in the rear returning, soon lose 

 their plump condition, and are in their turn subjected to want and 

 starvation. During these migrations they are closely followed by lions, 

 panthers, hysenas, and wild dogs, which destroy great numbers of 

 them. There is perhaps no object in nature finer than a flock of these 

 beautiful antelopes enlivening the dreary brown karroos of South 

 Africa with their graceful motions; now leaping perpendicularly 

 upwards to the height of six or seven feet, displaying at the same 

 time the snowy-white marks on their croups, and anon flying over the 

 desert with the speed of a whirlwind. It is only when disturbed or 

 otherwise excited that they make those extraordinary springs from 

 which they have derived their name ; nor do they ever display the 

 white mark on their rump except on these occasions. They are said 

 to be particularly affected by the change of the weather, and are 

 observed to leap more than usual before the setting in of the south 

 wind, which, at the Cape of Good Hope, generally betokens stormy 

 weather, and is always violent and tempestuous. When taken young, 

 the Spring-Buck is easily tamed, and soon displays all the petulance 

 and familiarity of the Common Goat, butting at every stranger that 

 approaches it, and warding off stones or other objects thrown at it 

 with its horns. 



jEpyceros 



Has black lyrate horns, elongate, wide-spreading, curved outwards 

 from the base, then backwards and upwards at the tip ; the face taper- 

 ing ; the nose simple ; no tear-bag ; the knees not tufted ; the feet with. 

 a tuft of black hair near the pasterns ; the female has two teats. 



14. ,&. melampus (Antilope melampus, Lichtenstein), the Pallah, or 

 Rooye-Buck, the Betjuan of the Kaffirs, is a magnificent species of 

 South Africa, discovered by Professor Lichtenstein during his travels 

 in Kaffraria, and since found in the Betchuana country on the elevated 

 plains of Latakoo, by Trutell, Somerville, and Burchell. It is 

 upwards of 44 feet in length from the nose to the origin of the tail, 

 and 3 feet high at the shoulder ; the horns have an irregular lyrate 

 tendency, bending first forwards and very much outwards, then with 

 a large circular sweep inwards, and finally pointing forward again, 

 approaching within three inches of one another at the tips, after being 

 nearly a foot distant in the middle : they are about 20 inches long 

 in adult animals, and surrounded for two-thirds of their length with 

 irregular rings, often splitting into two, and forming prominent knobs 

 on the front of the horn, but frequently obliterated, and always less 

 strongly marked on the sides, which are slightly compressed. In the 

 beautiful drawing of this animal given in Daniel's ' African Scenery,' 

 the horns are represented with an unnatural angular bend, which has 

 misled many describers, and caused even Colonel Smith to describe 

 them as forming an obtuse angular bend, though he has himself given 

 an accurate drawing of the pair which we have here described, and 



The Pallah (&. melampuf). 



which certainly exhibit no appearance of the sudden angle attributed 

 to them; which probably arose from the particular position in which 

 Mr. Daniel's figure was drawn. The horns for a third of their length 

 towards the points are black, smooth, and polished. The head, back, 

 flanks, and outer surface of the legs and tail are of a deep rufous 

 colour ; the lips, eye-brows, interior of the ears, breast, belly, interior 



B 



