CHAPTER XIX. 



ANTELOPES. 



THE broad distinction between antelopes and deer lies 

 in the fact, that the horns of antelopes are hollow, and 

 are set upon a solid bony core as in oxen. The horns 

 are never shed, and have to last the animal through life ; 

 consequently, every now and then an antelope is shot, which has 

 one of the horns broken off, just as an elephant may now and 

 then be found with only one tusk, the other having been broken 

 off or mal-formed. Antelopes vary considerably in size, from 

 the eland, which almost approaches a rhinoceros in bulk, to the 

 tiny pah, which is not much larger than a hare. Some, as, for 

 instance, the striped koodoo and the spotted reed-buck, are very 

 handsomely marked, but the majority of antelopes have a plain 

 coat, either brown or grey. Some, like the hartebeest, have short 

 hair ; others, like the water-buck, are shaggy. The tail of the 

 wildebeest resembles that of a horse ; in the steinbok the tail is 

 shorter than in a rabbit. Both sexes of some species, as the 

 hartebeest, have horns ; but only the buck of other species, as 

 the impalla. 



The horns do not branch, yet every species has its own 

 characteristic and distinguishing variations in length and shape. 

 The African antelopes have two horns ; there are no four- 

 horned species, as in India. 



1 lie Impalla or Pallah Antelope. — By the new game-laws all 

 shooting is prohibited between the Athi river and the Kedong. 

 But it happens that the impalla is most common just outside 

 these limits. I have shot them as far south as Campi-ya-Simba 

 and as far north as the Gilgil river. 



The impalla frequents the bush. I have never seen it roam, 

 like the Thomsonii gazelle, over extensive open grass-plains. 

 The bush facilitates stalking, but it has its drawbacks. It 



