THE SPRINGBOK 



(Gazella euchore) 



THE Gazelles and their allies form a numerous group of Antelopes in 

 which, as a rule, the delicacy and grace which one usually associates 

 with these animals reach their most typical development ; and the 

 Springbok of South Africa is the most notable of all for its rich 

 colouration and peculiar habits, to say nothing of its familiarity as 

 the commonest of South African Antelopes, which has led to its name 

 being a household word as the title of the well-known Colonial foot- 

 ball team. 



The most noteworthy point about the Springbok is the peculiar 

 fold of skin along the hinder part of the back, lined with white hairs 

 five or six inches long. In the ordinary way one only notices a white 

 streak along the hind-quarters, but when excited the animal expands 

 this fold, making a startling display of a great white fan of fur; at 

 the same time it springs perpendicularly into the air for a height of 

 three or four yards, an action it repeats again and again. This is 

 called "pronking" by the Boers, and such a striking habit has of 

 course always called attention to this pretty creature. Like most 

 Gazelles, the Springbok is not a large animal, being of the size of 

 an ordinary Goat about two and a half feet at the shoulder. The 

 buck's horns are usually about fifteen inches measured along the 

 curves, but may occasionally be more ; the doe's are not so large. 

 Young ones are at first of a duller colour than the parents, being 

 yellowish grey with the side stripes indistinct. 



The home of the Springbok is Africa south of the Zambesi, but 

 it ranges up to Mossamedes on the West Coast. It frequents, like 

 Gazelles in general, dry open country, and is very gregarious and 

 migratory, "trekking" at times in large herds, though the enormous 

 masses which were the wonder of travellers half-a-century ago are 

 hardly any longer to be seen. These hosts of Springbok, deserting 

 in their countless thousands the barren haunts where subsistence had 

 failed them, used to swarm down into the cultivated lands, devouring 



