66 2 



THE BONTE-BOK. 





body is washed with a bluish-gray. It lives in small herds of six or ten, in the flat 

 districts near the tropic of Capricorn, and is a most welcome sight to the wearied hunter 

 when perishing with thirst. There are many Antelopes which are almost independent 

 of water, and can quench their thirst by means of the moist roots and bulbs on which 

 they feed. But the Sassaby is a thirsty animal, and needs to drink daily, so that when- 

 ever the hunter sees one of these animals he knows that water is at no great distance. 

 It is rather persecuted by the hunters, as its flesh is in great esteem ; but as it soon 

 becomes shy and wary, is not easily to be killed, 



BONTE -BOK. Damalie pygarga. 





Concerning one of these animals, Gumming gives the following curious anecdote. 

 " Having shot a Sassaby as I watched the water, he immediately commenced choking 

 from the blood, and his body became swelled in a most extraordinary manner : it con- 

 tinued swelling with the animal still alive, until it literally resembled a fisherman's float, 

 when the animal died of suffocation. It was not only his body that swelled in that ex- 

 traordinary manner, but even his head, and legs down to his knees." The poor animal 

 must have been shot through the lungs in such a manner that the air was forced by 

 its efforts at respiration between the skin and f(esh, until it assumed that puffy aspect. 



THE regulary lyrate horns of the BONTE-BOK, or NUNNI, serve to distinguish it from 

 its congener and sassaby. 



The color of the Bonte-bok is a purplish-red, the outside of the limbs deepening into a 

 rich blackish-brown, and contrasting strongly with the white hair which appears upon the 

 face, the haunches, and front of the legs. From the vividly contrasting tints of the coat 



