-+> The Antelopes of Mast Africa 



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 arc: always stronger, eompacter, 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 Kast Africa is the tuft-eared kind. This 

 antelope is known to the \Vaswahili under the name ot 

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

 \Vandorobo as " songori." In the rainy season these 

 big antelopes are extraordinarily tat. 



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 lug bucks isolated. Their coloration, which matches 

 that ot the veh most wonderfully, and their peculiar habit 

 ol living tar away in solitary places, are the causes ot the 

 comparatively rare observation and destruction ot them by 

 Europeans. And even such a distinguished hunter as 

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

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

 Kast Africa. 



These antelopes otten live tor weeks at a time away 

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

 plants sometimes being sufficient tor them. It is only at 

 the heiht ot the dr season that the o to the water. 



