ANTELOPES. 



147 



So well are the springboks, in particular, fitted 

 for thus changing from the rear to the front, even by 

 bounding over each other, that it is from their con- 

 stant practice of the upward leap, even when there 

 does not appear to be much occasion for it, that the 

 Dutch boors have given them their vulgar name. It 

 is said that they appear to take these upward bounds 

 for mere amusement ; but an animal never uses for 

 amusement any action which is not given to it for 

 some important purpose in its economy. The frisk 

 of the lamb becomes the power of leaping the fence 

 in the sheep ; the gambol of the kid, the faculty of 

 bounding from ledge to ledge of the cliff in the goat ; 

 and, in like manner, as the springbok does not 

 inhabit the cliffs or the thickets, we may conclude that 

 it leaps in advance so as to get its share of the food. 



The BLISSBOK, or BLAESBOK, from its white mark 

 on the face (A. pygargu), is another species of the 

 plains, which, like the springbok, was once very 

 numerous, but it is now rare, even in the northern 

 parts of the colony. This species bears some resem- 

 blance to the springbok in its form, but it is larger 

 and more stoutly made. The full-grown specimens 

 .are rather more than five feet and a half in length, 

 and stand fully three and a half at the shoulders. 

 The horns are lyrated, annulated to very near the 

 tips, and about a foot and a quarter long in the male ; 

 in the female they are shorter, and not so stout, but 

 they are of the same form. 



The Blissbok. 



The colours are so strikingly contrasted, that the 

 animal is sometimes called by the epithet " painted." 

 The face, from the muzzle to the eyes, is white, from 

 the top of which there is a narrow stripe of the same, 

 continued to between the bases of the horns. The 

 rest of the head and the neck are a deep reddish-chest- 

 nut, and so are the bases of the hairs on the back ; 

 but the points of these are of a dull whitish straw- 

 colour, which, with the chestnut below, produces a 

 mixed and very peculiar tint. This colour is bor- 

 dered on each side by a broad band of brownish pur- 

 ple, which is continued over the lower part of the 

 haunches ; behind that there is a patch of white pass- 

 ing up the posterior sides of the hips, and encircling 

 the root of the tail. The tail is dark coloured, nearly 

 naked for eight inches from the root, and there end- 

 ing in a thick tuft of black hair, about four inches in 

 length. The whole extends along the belly and 

 breast, and the insides of the fore-legs ; the outsides 

 of the legs are blackish or purplish-brown, and there 

 are no knee tufts. The head of the animal thus shows 

 two strongly contrasted colours, and the body three, 

 all well defined, and not blending with each other. 



These are the colours of the adults ; but the young 



are so different, that they have sometimes been de- 

 scribed as another species; and as we are not well 

 acquainted with the changes of colour with age in any 

 of those antelopes, of which a specimen is seen only 

 now and then, the mistake in this species renders it 

 possible that there may have been similar mistakes 

 in others ; and that those described species, between 

 which the only or the chief distinction are differences 

 in size and in colour, are, in reality, the mature and 

 the young of the very same species. Great caution, 

 at least, is necessary in speaking of animals, the num- 

 bers of which are very great, but of which only a 

 straggling specimen is found now and then, the more 

 so, that some gregarious animals have a disposition 

 to expel from the herd any individual that is pecu- 

 liar in appearance. If there is but one black sheep 

 in a flock, it is generally found at the outside, or even 

 at a little distance ; and if there are a few such they 

 are usually found together. This may, to a certain 

 extent, account for the origin of coloured varieties in 

 gregarious animals. 



In former times the blissboks were much more 

 resident within the colony at the Cape than the spring- 

 boks ; and though they are now more restricted to 

 the interior than they were formerly, they still come 

 more to the south than that species. They are more 

 showy in their colours, but not nearly so lively in 

 their motions ; and they are not now found in such 

 large flocks as the springboks are when they do make 

 their appearance. They do not appear to have the 

 same sensibility to the weather as the springboks ; 

 and indeed it is a general law of nature that the more 

 migrant any animal is, it is the more sensitive to 

 changes of the weather. This might be inferred from 

 the fact of migration, without any observation to con- 

 firm it ; because it is sensitiveness to the weather 

 which is the immediate cause of migration ; but ob- 

 servation confirms this theory. The springboks, 

 even in a state of domestication and confinement, 

 show great restlessness, and frisk about when the 

 south wind blows ; and in the country of the Cape, 

 the south wind is the dry wind, so dry as to wither 

 the vegetation in a very short time ; and therefore it 

 is the signal for the migrant antelopes generally, and 

 especially for that, apparently the most migrant of 

 all the species, to escape to more northerly regions, 

 where there is still verdure on the face of the country. 

 How far this dry wind of the southern monsoon may 

 extend into the interior of the country, has not been 

 stated, and indeed the country has not been suffi- 

 ciently explored for that purpose ; but there is no 

 doubt that, to the full extent of its range, it carries 

 the drought along with it, and renders the migrations 

 of the grazing animals necessary. On the other hand, 

 when the monsoon turns, which it does as soon as 

 the southern parts become intensely dry, the rains 

 begin ; and as the south wind is first contended with 

 in the interior, and so gradually more and more 

 southerly, and as the rain always falls at the place of 

 contention between the two winds, the progress of 

 the rain, and of the vegetation and consequent mi- 

 gration of the aninr-ds, is towards the south, and ter- 

 minates in the territory of the Cape. The most pro- 

 bable theory in a case like this, where, though there 

 are analogies there are no facts, is, that the plains 

 which are ranged by the migrant antelopes extend to 

 the mountains south of Abyssinia, usually called the 

 Mountains of the Moon ;"and that the wind from 

 them to the plain at their base, when that begins to 

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