NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



fifteen Bontebok and Blesbok mixed are flourishing 

 and interbreeding. 



" The open plains on which these antelopes are 

 preserved are becoming very valuable for cultivation 

 and grain growing, and it is possible they may 

 eventually become quite extinct. If it were not 

 for the careful preservation by the few landowners 

 already mentioned, they would have been extinct 

 long before now. 



" The Bontebok stands about 3 feet 6 inches high 

 when full grown, and weighs up to 200 Ibs. It is 

 of a rich dark brown in colour with white legs reach- 

 ing up to the rump ; the lower parts and the 

 forehead are white. At a distance it looks brown 

 and white, hence the name Bontebok. It frequents 

 the open places, and does not seek shelter or cover 

 to conceal itself from its pursuers. Its preservation 

 lies in its keen eye, and the great swiftness with 

 which it can ply its strong and tapering legs when 

 once started by its persecutors. 



" These antelopes went about in small herds, but 

 were also seen in troops of up to 100. 



Sometimes it drops its young, which is of a rich 

 cream colour, in September and October, and it 

 begins to change from fawn into the colour of the 

 adult in March and April, but is not at its best 

 before it is about three years old, when the male is 

 of a slightly darker colour than the ewe. 



" Nature has supplied it with the instinct to kill 

 or drive from the herd those which are sick, feeble 



12 



