20 STALKS ABROAD 



grown antlers of a stag. In his opinion the young 

 horns of an antelope are always more or less smooth ; 

 the beautiful rough excrescences which add so much 

 to the appearance of a trophy forming later. He 

 added that the old horns on a buck got very brown 

 in the spring and never regained their colour ; 

 consequently the black horns were always new. 

 Whether this theory is correct I cannot say. Burton 

 killed a fine buck with ivory-tipped horns, which 

 are much prized in the States. The tip of each 

 horn is quite white for a quarter of an inch or so, 

 and if the old man's theory is correct, their infre- 

 quent appearance may be accounted for on the sup- 

 position that they are worn away on any but very 

 new horns. Malformed heads are occasionally met 

 with, the most usual, to employ a contradiction in 

 terms, being " droopers." The horns in heads of 

 this sort droop outwards and are usually caused 

 by the core from which the horn springs being 

 damaged. I have, however, heard of heads where 

 the horns took an outward curve above the guard. 

 Old does are not infrequently found to have little 

 nubbins of horns, but they seldom exceed three or 

 four inches in length. 



Antelope trails always follow rising ground in 

 order that the travellers may have a clear view of 

 the surrounding country. It was while we jogged 

 along a trail of this kind one beautiful warm October 

 day, talking quietly in guarded tones, that Yarnall 

 suddenly reined in his pony, crying " Back, quick ! 



