- The Antelopes of Kast Africa 



gaze //a) of the Cape, an animal which, according to 

 the latest reports from German South-West Africa, has been 

 decimated within recent years. In this species, moreover, 

 the splendid horns are at their finest and longest. 

 These horns are always stronger, compacter, and shorter 

 in the males than in the females. A cow which I killed 

 in 1900 had only one horn; the other had been broken 

 off. This antelope reminded me curiously of the English 

 heraldic animal, the unicorn. The prevailing species of 

 oryx in German East Africa is the tuft-eared kind. This 

 antelope is known to the Waswahili under the name of 

 " chiroa," to the Masai as " ol' gamassarok," and to the 

 Wandorobo as " songori." In the rainy season these 

 big antel"opes are extraordinarily fat. 



Before I hunted oryx in the Masai country, little was 

 known of them there ; but I found them extremely 

 numerous, living in herds of as many as sixty, but more 

 often in smaller groups, and, as with most antelopes, the 

 old big bucks isolated. Their coloration, which matches 

 that of the velt most wonderfully, and their peculiar habit 

 of living far away in solitary places, are the causes of the 

 comparatively rare observation and destruction of them by 

 Europeans. And even such a distinguished hunter as 

 F. C. Selous spent, as I am told, several fruitless weeks, 

 some years ago, trying to bag the ''chiroa" in British 

 East Africa. 



These antelopes often live for weeks at a time away 

 from any water, the night-dew and the water-retaining 

 plants sometimes being sufficient for them. It is only at 

 the height of the dry season that they go to the water. 



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