248 ANTELOPES 



the ocean to rush madly in and greedily drink salt water naturally 

 with fatal effect. On the occasion referred to, it is stated on trustworthy 

 authority that for a distance of more than thirty miles the shore was 

 literally piled with the carcases of defunct springbuck. 



When a springbuck indulges in the leaps or bounds from which it 

 takes its name, the long slender legs are quite stiff and rigid, while the 

 hoofs strike the ground simultaneously at the conclusion. The leap is 

 frequently from 8 to 10 feet in height, and may be repeated at least 

 half-a-do/.en times in succession, after which the creature speeds away 

 like an arrow from a bow. During the leap the white " fan " is erected 

 and expanded. 



Formerly springbuck-shooting was an excellent and easily obtained 

 sport ; but the enclosure of a great part of the country with wire 

 fencing has rendered this kind of shooting different from what it was, 

 although before the late war there were vast numbers of buck on 

 some of the farms. Among the districts where springbuck were 

 recently to be met with in considerable numbers (as they probably are 

 at the present day) may be mentioned Ngamiland and the northern 

 part of the Kalahari Desert, where the numerous salt-licks on the plains 

 bordering the Botletli river formed favourite resorts. 



Owing to the open character of these plains it is, however, difficult 

 to get within less than three hundred yards of the game, and a spring- 

 buck at that distance offers a comparatively small mark. By the aid 

 of a stalking-horse a much nearer approach can be made ; while some- 

 times the same end can be effected by the aid of grazing oxen. 



THE DORCAS GAZELLE 



(Gazella dorcas] 



Rhozal OR Hemar, ALGERIAN ARABIC ; Ghasala, SYRIAN ARABIC 

 (PLATE ix, figs. 2 and 3) 



The elegant antelopes commonly styled (from an Arabic name 

 of the present and typical species) gazelles are so well known and 

 so generally similar to one another, that they are one of the 

 easiest groups to recognise. Lacking a fold of skin in the back, 

 and with six pairs of lower cheek-teeth, they have a neck of average 

 length, and horns (in the African species common to both sexes) with 

 the basal three-fourths of their length convex in front. Generally the 

 colour is sandy above and white below, and in all the African species 



