SOUTHERN AFRICA. QUADRUPEDS. 



105 



diately recognised by the superior size of its ears. When 

 to these we add the hippopotamus, we comprehend the 

 largest quadrupeds in the creation. 



(148.) But the innumerable herds of antelopes con- 

 stitute the chief peculiarity in South African zoology, 

 and they appear occasionally in such vast herds that their 

 numbers are almost incredible. 

 The springbok (Ant. Euchore, 

 Forst., y?</. 46.), in particular, 

 often congregates in troops of 

 between 2000 and 3000 ; the 

 name of springing antelope 

 has been given to them, from 

 their habit of springing over 

 bushes and rocks which im- 

 pede their running ; and this 

 they often do to the height of 

 four or five feet,, clearing at a 

 single bound ten or twelve 

 feet of ground. The variety 

 of species is no less remark- 

 able ; and naturalists already enumerate nearly thirty 

 different sorts, from the size of a goat to that of a horse: 

 the gradation, in fact, by which nature passes from the 

 delicate and graceful springer, or blue antelope, to the 

 heavy and unwieldy ox and buffalo, may almost be 

 traced among the animals of Southern Africa alone. 

 'Several of these, no doubt, range over the uninterrupted 

 line of sandy deserts bordering upon the equator, and, 

 geographically, may be vie.wed as animals equally in- 

 habiting the two more southern districts of African 

 zoology ; but by far the largest number have only been 

 detected within, or on the borders of, the Cape Colony, 

 and thus illustrate, in the most forcible manner, the 

 peculiar distribution of animals belonging to the southern 

 extremity of this continent ; while, on comparing these 

 antelopes with the species of Northern Africa, not one 

 has hitherto been found common to both regions. 



(149.) The zebras, of which three species are now 

 recognised, belong more to the plains of Southern Africa 



