CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 9. RUMINANTIA. 



531 



measuring upward of eight feet in length, and being four feet high at the shoulder. The 

 horns of the male are particularly magnificent ; they are nearly four feet long, and beauti- 

 fully twisted into a wide-sweeping spiral, surrounded by a prominent wreath which follows all 

 their windings. They spread boldly and widely outward, and are carried crouched on each 

 side of the back, on account of their great weight The whole make of this animal is heavy, 

 and the external appearance more resembling that of an ox than of an antilope. The ground- 

 color of the back and sides is a light fallow-brown, with a narrow white ribbon along the spine, 

 and eight or ten similar bands descending from the back, and passing obliquely down the sides 

 and hips ; the belly and under parts are pale silvery-brown. On the neck and withers is a thin, 

 spare mane, of a brown color ; the chin, throat, and breast are furnished with similar long hairs, 

 forming a species of beard. 



This magnificent animal inhabits the woody parts of Caffraria, and the contiguous country, 

 principally along the banks of rivers, to which it readily takes when pursued, and swims well. 

 It lives in small families of four or five individuals. When taken young they are readily do- 

 mesticated, and show no inclination to regain their original freedom. The females produce one 

 young at a time. The large antilope called Aggergeen by Pearce, in his account of his "Residence 

 in Abyssinia," has been supposed to be the same as the koodoo of South Africa. 



THE OREAS CAKNA, OR ELAND. 



The Oreas Canna or Eland, Antilope Oreas of Pallas, called by the various names of Impoo- 

 foo, Cape Elh^ <fcc, is considerably the largest of all the antilopes, being the size of a good horse, 

 and measuring eight feet two inches in length, and full five feet in height at the shoulder. The 

 horns of the male are one and a half feet in length, very thick and heavy, almost straight till 

 within three inches of the tips, where they bend outward, attenuated at the points, and surrounded 

 throughout the greater part of their length with a thick spiral wreath, which passes twdce com- 

 p'etely round them, and finishes by becoming indistinct near the points. Those of the females 

 are longer and smaller, and the spiral wreath is, in some specimens at least, scarcely to be seen. 



