CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 9. RUMINANTIA. 



541 



THE PALLAH. 



the English colonists now universally denominate it, Spring-Buck. In point of size it is nearly a 

 third larger than the Dorcas Gazelle. The horns are rather irregularly lyrated ; they are round, 

 black, annulated within a short distance of the points, spreading first backward and widely out- 

 ward, and finally turning inward, and with an almost imperceptible twist on their own axis back- 

 ward. The hair is long on the upper parts of the body, particularly on the back and croup, but 

 smooth, sleek, and shining; it is of a beautiful light cinnamon-color on the shoulders, neck, back, 

 sides, and thighs, and of a pure snowy-white on the breast, belly, and inner sides of the limbs, 

 these two colors being separated on the flanks by a broad longitudinal band of a deep vinous-red 

 color, larger and more distinct than in any other species of antilope. The whole head, face, 

 cheeks, and chin are white, with a broad brown band on each side, from the eyes to the corners 

 of the mouth, and a mark of the same color on the center of the face, commencing in a narrow 

 point on the muzzle, and enlarging as it proceeds upward till it joins the reddish fawn-color of the 

 body on the crown of the head. The eyes are large, lively, and of a brown color; the ears long, 

 small, and cylindrical at the root, then widening in the middle, and ending in an attenuated 

 point. The neck is long and slender; the hoofs small, black, and triangular; the legs remark- 

 ably long and slender. But the most remarkable and distinctive character of this species consist> 

 in two longitudinal foldings or duplications of the skin on the croup, which commence above the 

 loins, or about the middle of the back, and run in a straight line from thence to the tail. The 

 interior of these folds is lined with long hair of nine or ten inches in length, and of the most bril- 

 liant and snowy whiteness; they are likewise under the complete command of the animal's voli- 

 tion, and are opened and shut at pleasure. When closed, which they always are when the ani- 

 mal is at rest, their lips form a narrow line along the top of the loins and croup, which, being cov- 

 ered by the long cinnamon-red hair of the back and hips, is scarcely distinguishable, or only as a 

 narrow white streak ; but when the animal leaps or runs, these folds are expanded, and form a 

 broad circular mark of the purest white, which extends over the whole croup and hips, and pro- 

 duces a most remarkable and pleasing effect. 



« The Spring-Buck is so called from its remarkable habit of jumping almost perpendicularly up- 

 ward when disturbed or excited. It resides in very numerous flocks on* the dry, arid plains 

 and karroos of the interior of South Africa, seldom approaching the inhabited districts of the col- 

 ony, unless in seasons of peculiar drought, when the pools and pastures of the interior are dried 

 and burnt up by the excessive heat, and these animals are compelled to migrate in search of a 



