SPRINGER. 345 



which runs down part of the shoulders . tail 

 reaehes to tin- first joint of the- leg; the upper 

 part is white, the lower black, and furnished with 

 longhair; the under side appears nearly naked : 

 buttocks white; and from the tail half May up 

 the luck i> a stripe of white, expansible at pica- 

 re. 



" This elegant species weighs ahout lifty pounds, 

 and is rather le.ss than a Roebuck : inhabits the 

 Cape of (ioocl Hope: called there the .S/>r///if- 

 Back, from the prodigious leaps it takes on the 

 sight of any body. When alarmed it has the 

 power of expanding the white space about the tail 

 into the form of a circle, which returns to its 

 linear form when the animal is tranquil. They 

 migrate annually from the interior parts in small 

 herds, and continue in the neighbourhood of 

 the Cape for two or three months; then join 

 companies, and go oft' in troops consisting 

 many thousands, covering the great plains for 

 several hours in their passage. Are attended in 

 their migrations by numbers of lion.s, hyaenas, 

 and other wild beasts, which make great destruc- 

 tion among them. Are excellent eating, and, 

 with other Antelopes, arc- the venison of the C'aje. 

 Mr. Ma-sson informs us, that they also make pe- 

 riodical migrations, in seven or eight years, in 

 IK ids of many hundred thousands, from the north, 

 a.s he supposes, from the interior parts <; de 



Natal. They are compelled to it by the exces- 

 sive drought which happens in that region, when 

 sometimes there does not fall a drop of rain for 



