3 o8 ANTELOPES 



marked on the body with white stripes, and having white streaks on 

 the face, a black neck, and black-gartered legs, to one in which the 

 whole colour (except the face) is pale tawny while the ears are 

 narrow ; this latter type being evidently adapted to a semi or complete 

 desert existence. In the matter of gradation (with one gap) from one 

 type of colouring to another as we proceed from north to south 

 (irrespective of whether this gradation is or is not complete), eland 

 present us with a condition exactly paralleled by that which occurs 

 respectively in the cases of the giraffe and the bonte-quagga. Three 

 such parallel instances occurring in the same country are assuredly 

 sufficient to demonstrate that protection is the main factor in the 

 evolution of the colouring of great game animals. 



The following account of eland in South Africa is condensed and 

 slightly modified from the one by Mr. F. C. Selous in Great and Small 

 Game of Africa : 



After referring to the extinction of the species over the greater 

 part of its southern habitat, the author refers to the report that " a few 

 eland survive amongst the fastnesses of the Drakensberg mountains, 

 where that range divides Basutoland from Natal ; but with this excep- 

 tion I doubt whether any are to be found within the borders of Natal, 

 Zululand, Swaziland, Cape Colony, British Bechuanaland, the Orange 

 River Colony, Griqualand West, or the Transvaal. From all these 

 territories they have been driven long ago ; but throughout the desert- 

 tracts which lie to the west of the southern portion of Bechuanaland r 

 and thence northwards through the western and northern districts of 

 Khama's country, and eastwards through the northern part of Matabili- 

 land and Mashonaland, and indeed throughout the whole of south- 

 eastern Africa from the Transvaal border to the Zambesi (except 

 where European settlements have been formed), eland are, or were 

 recently, to be met with, and often in considerable numbers. In the 

 northern Kalahari between Khama's town of Shoshong and the 

 Botletli river, they wander in small herds, which sometimes collect 

 into great droves, and migrate eastwards as far as the waggon-track 

 leading from Shoshong to the Zambesi. These migrations take place 

 towards the close of the rainy season, in February and March, when 

 eland collect in large numbers in order to eat the berries of a certain 

 small shrub of which they are very fond. In the dry desert country 

 through which the Chobi runs, I always found eland abundant on 

 both sides of the river. 



"In eastern Mashonaland, before the advent of Mr. Rhodes'^ 

 pioneers in i 800, eland were particularly numerous ; and I have often 



