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them the Boers at the Cape were in the habit of hoisting a scarlet 

 cloth at the top of a long pole. At sight of this the gnus would, 

 according to Pringle, a well-known and trustworthy writer in the early 

 part of last century, " caper about, lashing their flanks with their long 

 tails, and tearing up the ground with their hoofs as if violently 

 excited, and ready to rush down upon us ; and then, all at once, when 

 we were about to fire, they would bound away, and again go prancing 

 round us at a safer distance." 



Reference has already been made to the association in the old days 

 of gnus and quaggas ; it should be added that the party was completed 

 by ostriches. Similarly the brindled gnu displays the same partiality 

 for the company of the bonte-quagga ; the ostrich in this case, too, 

 frequently forming a third member of the apparently ill-assorted party. 



In speed the gnu is well capable of holding its own among other 

 members of the African fauna ; and as it has also great staying 

 capacity, it is a difficult animal to ride down. It had, however, a 

 remarkable partiality for one particular piece of country, so that if 

 driven off one day, it might be found in its own haunts a short time 

 afterwards. Of late years the species appears to have obtained a very 

 good idea of the distance to which it is safe to allow a human being 

 to approach ; so that on the Boer farms, before the war, it was almost 

 impossible to procure a good head except by stalking. 



Gnu venison (both that of the present and the brindled species) 

 lacks the gamy taste characteristic of the flesh of so many South 

 African antelopes, and is compared to very inferior beef. Calves, 

 however, afford a somewhat more palatable dish. In old days gnu 

 and quagga were chiefly shot by the Boer farmers as food for their 

 Hottentot servants, they themselves eating more tasty venison, such 

 as that of springbok, hartebeest, or gemsbok. The hides of the gnus 

 were used for harness, whips, ropes, and other farm-gear. Even under 

 this system the game in Cape Colony was soon decimated, but when 

 skin-hunting became the vogue, the fate of the gnu was soon sealed. 



Some twenty years ago Mr. Piet Terblans had, according to Mr. 

 H. A. Bryden, more than a couple of hundred head of gnu on his 

 farms, and there were at that time two other farms in the Orange River 

 Colony on which the species was preserved. Even then the number 

 of head living in South Africa was estimated at not more than 600 

 or 700, and it is now infinitely less. A few have been imported into 

 Europe, where, as in the Duke of Bedford's park at Woburn, they 

 have in some instances bred ; and there is Mr. Rudd's herd in Cape 

 Colony, of which mention has been already made. But the species is 



