24 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



TORA ANTELOPE of Eastern Africa resembles it in this respect, whilst its horns differ slightly in their 

 direction and size, being more divergent and slender. The Hartebeest is grey -brown, and black on 

 the outer sides of the limbs, with large, triangular white spots on the haunches ; a black line also 

 runs down the middle of the face from between the horns. 



Mr. Pringle, when writing on the Hartebeest, says of it that it " is one of the largest and hand- 

 somest of the Antelope family. ... In the nooks of the narrow ravines, through which the game 

 are wont to descend from the steep and stony mountains, for change of pasturage, or to drink at 

 the fountains that ooze from their declivities, I have frequently found fresh skulls and horns of the 

 .Hartebeest, those slight relics being all that remained to indicate that there the Lion had surprised 



BUBALIXE ANTELOPE. 



and rent his prey, and that the ferocious Hysena had followed and feasted on the fragments, devouring 

 even the bones, except the skxill and a few other unmanageable portions." 



The BLESBOK, BONTE-BOK, and SASSABY are about the size of a calf three months old. Their horns 

 are lyrate and ringed at their bases. The two former are of a purple-red colour, white faces and 

 white rumps. Of the Blesbok, Mr. C. J. Andersson remarks " It is of a beautiful violet colour, and is 

 found in company with black wilde-beests and Spring-boks in countless thousands, on the vast green 

 plains of short, crisp, sour grass occupying a central position in South Africa. Cattle and Horses 

 refuse to pasture on the grassy products of these plains, which afford sustenance to myriads of this 

 Antelope, whose skin emits a most delicious and powerful perfume of flowers and sweet-smelling 

 herbs." 



The Sassaby, or Bastard Hartebeest of the Cape colonists, stands four feet and a half in height. 

 It has strong horns a foot in length, crescentic, with the points directed inwards. Its body colour is a 

 dark purple-brown above, which changes into dusky-yellow underneath, a slate-coloured patch extend- 

 ing from the shoulder and the hip down to the knee and hock, at the same time that the rump is 

 fawn-coloured. The tail is nearly two feet long. 



