THE GRYS-BOK AND OUREBI. 



643 



The GRYS-BOK, two females of which animal are represented in the accompanying 

 illustration, is a native of Southern Africa, and is about the same size as the preceding 

 animal, its height at the shoulder being between nineteen and twenty inches. 



It is not very often found on the plains, but prefers to inhabit the wooded portions 

 of the mountainous districts, and is an especially wary and vigilant creature, and en- 

 dowed with great powers of speed. The color of the Grys-bok is ruddy chestnut, large- 

 ly intermixed with white hairs, which give it a stippled appearance, and have caused 

 the Dutch Boers to term it the Grys-bok, or Gray-buck. The under portions of the body 



QRVS-BOK.Calotragus melanotis. 



are not white, as is so often the case among the Antelopes, but are of a reddish-fawn. 

 The ears are more than four inches in length, and from their conspicuously black tips 

 have earned for the Grys-bok the scientific title of Melanotis, or black-eared. The 

 hoofs are peculiarly small, sharp, and black, and the tail is so short that it barely pro- 

 trudes beyond the hair of the hinder quarters. 



The OUREBI is another of the many Antelopes which inhabit Southern Africa. For 

 the following graphic description of its appearance and habits I am indebted to the 

 kindness of Captain Drayson. 



" Whilst many animals of the Antelope kind fly from the presence of man, and do 

 not approach within a distance of many hundred miles of his residence, there are some 

 few which do not appear to have this great dread of him, but which adhere to partic- 

 ular localities as long as their position is tenable, or until they fall, victims to their 

 temerity. It also appears as if some spots were so inviting, that immediately they be- 

 come vacant by the death of one occupant, another individual of the same species will 

 come from some unknown locality, and re-occupy the ground. Thus it is with the 

 Ourebi, which will stop in the immediate vicinity of villages, and on hills and in val- 

 leys, where it is daily making hair-breadth escapes from its persevering enemy man. 



When day after day : a sportsman has scoureci the country, and apparently slain every 

 Ourebi within a radius of ten miles, he has but to wait for a few days, and upon again 



