ANTELOPES 101 



look through, and so become accustomed to the life of the 

 station ; and, having seen that a plentiful supply of food 

 and water has been provided, we withdraw, giving strict 

 orders that no one is either to enter the enclosure, or to 

 pause outside to stare at the animals. The best way to 

 instil confidence at first is to take no notice whatever 

 while passing and repassing. At present they are standing 

 huddled up in one corner of the enclosure ; but on visiting 

 them in the morning we see that they have both eaten 

 and drunk, and each successive day finds an improvement 

 in this respect and a larger degree of confidence. 



Full-grown females, and males up to at least one year 

 old, soon become tame in captivity, and at the end of 

 about a couple of weeks will readily accept food from 

 the hand through the fence. One ram of about ten 

 months old would jump backwards and forwards over a 

 stick held out in front of him, the height of which was 

 gradually raised, until he would readily take the leap at 

 the level of a man's extended arm. Old males, on the 

 other hand, when captured, do not readily become 

 reconciled to new conditions, and often savagely attack 

 their companions in captivity. On the morning following 

 the capture of a full-grown ram, it was found that he had 

 both gored and trampled the two young males and the 

 ewe which had been shut in with him. Once confidence 

 in man has been established, the animals are not easily 

 upset. We have found that after a month or two of care 

 and attention at the station, the twelve hours' journey 

 on a railway trolley to Komati Poort, followed by some 

 twenty-four hours in the train to the farm or zoo for 

 which they were designed, amidst continual bustle and 

 noise, hardly affected the animals at all, either in appetite 

 or condition. The boxes used for travelling on these 

 occasions must, of course, be well padded, and so narrow 



