146 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



true oryxes, attain as much as 39^ inches over the 

 curve. 



The Addax {Addax nasomaculatus] is another very 

 little known antelope, nearly allied to the oryx group, 

 but distinguished by spiral horns, strongly ringed 

 for two-thirds of their length. Good specimens of 

 addax horns measure from 32 to 39^ inches over the 

 curve. The addax stands about 3 feet 6 inches in 

 height, varies from yellowish white in summer to a 

 greyish white in winter, and is an ungainly, awkward- 

 looking beast, clothed about the neck, shoulders, and 

 forehead with a mane of longish dark-brown hair. 

 Roaming the wastes of the Sahara, Southern Tunisia, 

 and the Algerian hinterland, and found also amid the 

 deserts of Arabia, the addax is known to the Arabs 

 of North Africa as Bakr-al-Wahsh, or "ox of the 

 desert." It is a pure antelope, albeit one of the 

 clumsiest and least attractive-looking of its family. 

 Mounted Arabs hunt this animal occasionally with 

 swift hounds, but it seems rarely if ever to have 

 fallen to the bullet of the Englishman. Its habitat 

 is difficult of access, and it would be somewhat in the 

 nature of a feat if some thirst and heat-resisting 

 Briton penetrated the Sahara and shot and brought 

 out specimens of this rare antelope. At the present 

 day it is probably most accessible from Tunis or 

 Algeria, but the sportsman would have to travel far 

 south to come across it. 



