ROAN ANTELOPE 



297 



The following account of its distribution and habits is condensed 

 from one written several years ago by Mr. F. C. Selous, who, after 

 mentioning that he first came across the species in Griqualand West 

 in 1871, observes that it is possible "a few still survive in the same 

 district, as I know roan antelope had not become extinct there in 

 1886. Travelling northwards, I never met with the species either in 

 Bechuanaland or along the western border of the Transvaal, but 

 should imagine that it once existed throughout these regions, since, 

 according to Sir Andrew Smith, it used to inhabit the country now 



FIG. 62. A Roan Antelope at the Cologne Xoological Hardens, photographed 

 by the Duchess of Bedford. 



known as the Orange River Colony and the more northerly portion 

 of Cape Colony. In the southern part of Bechuanaland, along the 

 Notwani river and on the upper Limpopo, near the junction of that 

 river with the Marico, I have seen and shot roan antelope, and from 

 there eastwards and northwards the species used to be generally 

 distributed throughout the greater part of south-cast Africa, including 

 the northern and eastern districts of the Transvaal, as well as certain 

 tracts in Swaziland and Amatongaland, in all of which it has, however, 

 now become scarce. In the country midway between the Limpopo 

 and the Zambesi, roan antelope range farther westwards than sable, 



