144 



ANTELOPES. 



The addra is fully a foot longer and half a foot 

 higher than the m'/iorr. Its proportions and the form 

 of its horns are exactly the same. It does not appear 

 that there is more difference in the colours than is to 

 be met with in the gazelle and in other species. There 

 does not appear to be half the difference between the 

 two, which may be seen in the cattle of the uplands 

 and lowlands of any county in England, having con- 

 siderable diversity of surface. 



The KOBA, or KOB (A. Koba), is another species, or 

 probably two species, inhabiting to the westward of 

 the former, in the interior of the country upon the 

 Senegal and Gambia. One, the Grande vache brune of 

 the French settlers in that part of Africa, is known 

 as a menagerie animal ; but of the other, which the 

 same settlers call the Petite vache brune, we have not 

 even that knowledge ; and we know little or nothing 

 of the natural history of the first. The "great brown 

 cow" (koba) is almost five feet long ; the head is long, 

 the ears long, the horns are said to be twenty inches 

 long, annulated and lyrated. The legs are shorter 

 than in most of the antelopes, and stout. The hair 

 on the body is shaggy. The general colour on the 

 upper part of the body is dull purplish-red, the face 

 and legs (which have the hair shorter) dark brown ; 

 the nose, and a streak in front of each ye, white. Its 

 manners and mode of living are unknown. Analogy 

 would lead us to suppose that it lives in the small 

 fertile plains which alternate with wood and bush, 

 and that it is not much of a migrant. 



The BUSH ANTELOPE ( A. gylvicuUrui), is found in 

 the woods or bushes in the vicinity of Sierra Leone, 

 and by the English residents there called "bush 

 goat." It is a dull heavy animal, lurking in the 

 thickets during the day, and resorting to the open 

 spaces in the mornings to feed. Its back is arched, 

 its legs short, and it has altogether a " pig-like" shape; 

 but its flesh is much better than that of the more 

 handsome antelopes. The length is about five feet, 

 and the height three. The horns are not longer than 

 the ears, nearly straight, divergent, and slightly turned 

 back. The hair is smooth and glossy, dark brown on 

 the back, paler on the neck and flanks, gray on the 

 thighs, and yellowish on the breast. There is a line 

 of silver-gray down the back. 



The Bush Antelope. 



The GUIB ( A. scripta}. This is another species of 

 Western Africa, and, from the little that is known of 

 it, it appears to inhabit still nearer the coast than the 

 former ; and, by inference, in pastures still more 

 broken by wood and brush. The guib is of the mean 

 dimensions, or four feet and a half in total length, 

 and two and a half high at the shoulders, but rather 

 higher at the croup. The horns are straight, but 



wreathed with two prominent ridges in the form of a 

 double screw, prominent at the base, but becoming ob- 

 literated near the tip. The general colours are fawn 

 and white variously marked. In general, the head is 

 reddish-fawn, with a darker spot on the forehead, and 

 three white spots on each side of the face, diverging 

 from the bases of the horns, so that one is in front of 

 the eye, the next under it, and the last farther back 

 on the cheek. The fawn colour on the neck and 

 body is darkest in the middle, becomes paler as it 

 descends, and on the breast ends in white. The 

 ridge of the back is marked with a longitudinal stripe 

 of white and black mixed. From this, a greater or 

 smaller number of white streaks pass herring-bone 

 ways backwards and downwards, and they are crossed 

 by longitudinal ones of the same colour, nearly 

 parallel to the ridge of the back. The parts which 

 these stripes do not reach are marked with white 

 spots. The insides of the legs are white ; but ex- 

 cepting part of the breast, the rest of the under side 

 is brown. Both sexes have these markings ; but it 

 would be contrary to our experience in the case of all 

 other animals to suppose that, when the colours are 

 so much broken, there should not be great differences 

 between one individual and another. 



The writer of this article once saw a stuffed skin 

 of a very small specimen from that part of Africa. It 

 was without horns, had the shape and general colours 

 of the guib, but it was dappled with white spots on 

 the fawn-colour, not above twenty inches long, and 

 small in proportion in all its other dimensions. As 

 there was merely the skin, it is impossible to say 

 whether it was a young guib or some other species. 

 The probability ns that it was a specimen of the 

 GCEVI, or HUEBI (A. pyg7Jiea),of which there are cer- 

 tainly varieties differing much in size. As is the case 

 in Abyssinia at the eastern part of the line, these 

 small antelopes of Senegal appear to keep much 

 more in the hilly grounds than the larger ones ; and 

 if the accounts can be relied on, they are as numerous 

 in some places as hares in a preserve. The place 

 wants thoroughly exploring however, and for various 

 reasons, physical and others, that is no easy or Isafe 

 matter. 



The guibs associate in small flocks, in the openings 

 of the woods near the larger rivers ; and they are, of 

 course, not migratory to any distant part of the coun- 

 try. Indeed, the discovery of the course and termi- 

 nation of the Niger, has taken the district which it 

 and the Senegal circumscribe, and also as much of 

 the country on the outside as their influence keeps in 

 a state of continual verdure, out of the range of those 

 general causes which may affect the rest of the con- 

 tinent. This portion of Africa, which may, as respects 

 the rest of the continent, be regarded as peninsular, is 

 of a lozenge form, extending on the average about 

 1500 miles from east to west, and half as much from 

 north to south. This large and important tract has 

 its own central mountains, from which streams de- 

 scend in all directions. There is to be sure, a sum- 

 mit level or " water shed" inosculating with the desert 

 toward the north, between the sources of the Senegal 

 and those of the Niger ; but the sources of the most 

 northerly branch of the Senegal, which flows parallel 

 to the line of the desert, are understood not to be 

 twenty miles distant from the Niger, after it has de- 

 cended from the mountains, and is flowing slowly 

 hrough the plains of Nigritia. Therefore, the 

 migration of any animals, except birds, must be very 



