CHAP. vm. ANECDOTES OF ANTELOPES. 379 



already done, ample amends are made by the graceful 

 beauty of the antelope and the magnificence of its skin. 

 Its horns almost exactly resemble those of a koodoo of 

 eighteen months or two years old, though if anything, 

 they have rather a broader spread. 



Only one of the antelopes already mentioned are to be 

 found in the colonies at the present day, and some of 

 them, it is probable, never existed there. There are, 

 however, at least ten distinct species, which, though 

 inhabiting other parts, are nowhere found in greater per- 

 fection, both as regards numbers or single specimens, 

 than in the colony of Natal. These ten may be said 

 to naturally divide themselves under three headings, 

 viz., those existing only in the forests, those which live 

 entirely in the open, and those which, although not 

 found in the forests, will occasionally take refuge in them, 

 and are fond of lying in small patches of thicket, and in 

 the thorn scrub, as well as in the open. 



The first-mentioned consists of three species, which 

 never leave the shelter of the forests, unless occasionally 

 to feed on their edges at early dawn, or to cross from one 

 to another, viz., the great bush buck, the red buck, and 

 the tiny blue buck. The former of those, the male of 

 whom is known as the " nkonka," and the female as the 

 " imbabala," and which differ so greatly that experience 

 is necessary to teach one that they are of the same 

 species, is undoubtedly the finest in every way of all the 

 antelopes, whether found in the colonies or interior, that 

 are known to the hunter as " small game." In size it 

 resembles a full-grown fallow buck, weighing, according 

 to age and condition, from nine to thirteen stone ; its 



