BLESBOK 125 



often permit a cart and horses to be driven much nearer before taking 

 alarm. They seemed, indeed, to know that no danger was to be 

 apprehended from outside the fence, for I saw three stand and calmly 

 watch a cart which was being driven along the road outside the fence 

 within 100 yards of them. When alarmed, they ran against the wind 

 with great speed and endurance, and when pressed lay flat to the 

 ground, with their heads held so low that their noses appeared almost 

 to touch the grass." 



THE BLESBOK 

 (Damaliscus albifrons) 



Blesbok, CAPE DUTCH ; Noni, BECHUANA AND BASUTO ; 

 Inoni, KAFIR 



(PLATE v, fig. 5) 



The blesbok, which stands from 40 to 42 inches at the shoulders, 

 differs from its cousin the bontebok by the presence of a brown line 

 between the eyes dividing the white frontal blaze, the absence of a 

 white rump-patch, the wholly brown tail, and the yellowish summits 

 of the rings on the horns ; the horns themselves also showing a 

 greenish tinge, instead of being entirely black. The record horn- 

 length is 1 8^ inches. 



The species, now on the verge of extermination, formerly inhabited 

 the northern plains of Cape Colony, the Orange River Colony, the 

 Transvaal, Griqualand West, and Bechuanaland in herds comprising 

 thousands of individuals. According to Mr. H. A. Bryden, the 

 northern limit of the blesbok's range appears to have been practically 

 formed by the Molopo river, which is mainly the frontier of British 

 Bechuanaland ; neither does the species seem to have ranged in 

 Bechuanaland very far to the westward of the Transvaal border. 

 This is the more remarkable seeing the physical character of the 

 adjacent Kalahari desert is very similar to that of much of British 

 Bechuanaland. A similar circumscribed and apparently capricious 

 distribution appears to have obtained in the northern plains of Cape 

 Colony, where there is no evidence that the species ever wandered 

 much to the westward of the Colcsberg district. From the Cape, 

 blesboks appear to have vanished some forty years ago ; and about 

 the time of the South African war they were remaining, chiefly in a 

 partially protected condition on farms, in certain parts of the Orange 



