QUADRUPEDS. 318 



dericus ^nobarbus, received one from the sultan of Baoy- 

 lon. Lorenzo de Medicis was also presented with a live 

 camelopard by the bey of Tunis ; and in our own times 

 they have been received by the kings both of France and 

 England from the (late) dey of Algiers. 



Africa is the country of antelopes. These creatures are 

 the most lively, graceful, and beautifully proportioned ot 

 the brute creation. Wherever known, they have attracted 

 the attention and admiration of mankind from the earliest 

 ages ; and the beauty of their dark and lustrous eyes affords 

 a frequent theme to the poetical imaginings of the eastern 

 poets. Their names are of frequent occurrence in the most 

 ancient of the eastern mythologies, and their figures occur 

 among the oldest of the astronomical symbols. Naturalists 

 are more or less acquainted with about fifty species, the 

 greater proportion of which are peculiar to the African con- 

 tinent. 



The blue antelope {Antilope leucophcea), formerly met with 

 in the Cape colony, is now so rare in South Africa, that no 

 specimen has been killed there since the year 1799. Its his- 

 tory and manners are little known. The roan antelope (A. 

 equina) is a very large animal, measuring nearly eight feet in 

 length. It was found by Mr. Burchell among the moun- 

 tainous plains in the vicinity of Lattakoo. The Caffrarian 

 oryx {A. oryx) is an animal equally remarkable for the 

 vigour as the beauty of its form. It inhabits elevated forests 

 and the rocky regions of Southern Africa, and is exceed- 

 ingly fierce during the rutting season, especially when 

 wounded. A friend of Major Smith's having fired at one 

 of these antelopes, it immediately turned upon his dogs, and 

 transfixed one of them upon the spot. They afford the best 

 venison of any of the species found in the south of Africa. 

 The small white buffalo mentioned by Captain Lyon as oc- 

 curring in the Great Desert south of Tunis, was no doubt a 

 species of oryx. Another animal of very showy aspect be- 

 longing to this tribe is the addax, recently transmitted from 

 Nubia by M. Riippell. They reside in pairs on the barren 

 deserts, and, extending over the whole Sahara, are found as 

 far west as Senegal. The white-faced antelope (A. py- 

 garga) is inferior in size to the stag of Europe, According to 

 Major Smith, this species does not seem to be known iii 



