74 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



built animal than the sable, standing over fourteen hands 

 at the shoulder, but his horns have not the same majestic 

 sweep, and at a distance they even catch the eye less than 

 the great tufted ears. He fully shares the pugnacious 

 qualities of. his relative. . 



The roan is a grass eater, and drinks regularly. The 

 snort uttered when alarmed is similar to that of the sable. 

 The young are very similar in colour and appearance to 

 those of the latter, and though even in very early youth 

 the face markings are slightly different, the resemblance 

 is sufficient to indicate a common ancestor of which the 

 sable is the more specialized descendant. 



Although never found in large herds such as are 

 characteristic of the sable, the distribution of the roan 

 is so very much wider, and the number of small herds 

 spread over any locality where the species is plentiful is 

 often so numerous, that the total number in Africa is 

 probably largely in excess of the total number of sable. 

 Old hunters and natives say that formerly in the eastern 

 Transvaal roan were very numerous in the middle veld, 

 and in the semi-open country about the foot hills of the 

 Drakensberg, while rarely encountered in the bush 

 country proper. Continual shooting exterminated the 

 majority of the species, and apparently drove the sur- 

 vivors to seek an environment not really natural to them : 

 for in the early days of the Game Reserve they were found 

 living in quite thick bush, which within the last six or 

 seven years they have been gradually abandoning for 

 the more open country under the hills, where they may 

 now be seen in considerable numbers. 



The most southerly representative of this group was 

 the blaaubok or bluebuck, formerly existent in the Cape 

 Colony, but exterminated by the settlers more than a 

 hundred years ago. Five museum specimens exist in 



