THE GIANT SABLE 5 



what less in the cow. The colour, except for the 

 white of the belly and inner surfaces of the limbs, 

 is black in the adult bull, and varies from brown 

 in the young male to a dark fawn in the female. 

 On the face arc two white patches, one on the jaw, 

 the other a stripe running from eye to muzzle. 

 Both sexes carry a mane and curved, ringed horns, 

 3 to 4 feet long in the bull, but much shorter in the 

 cow. 



The giant sable of Angola differs from the 

 common sable in its larger body, brighter chestnut 

 coat of the cow, and the shorter face-stripe x of the 

 bull. The most striking difference, however, lies 

 in the wondrous massive horns, which in the bull 

 sweep from head to flank in a glorious curve, 5 feet 

 in length. From European and native reports, and 

 the result of a trip in 1913, Varian described the 

 giant sable as inhabiting the watershed between 

 the Loando and Coanza Rivers ; while in 1919 

 he had shot them near the Loando. Major Odium 

 told me, some years ago, that he had seen sable 

 antelope with enormous horns near the Etosha Pan 

 in South- West Africa, just south of Angola, while 

 Selous found exceptionally long-horned sable on the 

 Chobe River, near the south- cast corner of Angola. 



My trip to Angola has determined the northern 

 distribution of this splendid antelope, but it has 

 not solved the problem of how and from where 

 the sable arrived in their present location between 

 the Coanza and Loando Rivers. Are the big- 

 horned sable seen by Selous to the south-east of 



1 This is not characteristic, as I have occasionally seen common 

 sable with short face-stripe. 



