ANTELOPES AND DEER 113 



tory behaviour excellently in that long account of the animal as he 

 saw it on the Upper Missouri in 1843, which so enriches his great 

 work on American quadrupeds. 



"This disposition is a mark of the high intelligence of the 

 animal, whose wits have been sharpened by generations of life in 

 the midst of danger. Judge Caton came to have a very high idea 

 of their brain power after keeping them in his park. ' When taken 

 young/ he says, 'it soon acquires the attachment of a child for 

 the human species, and when captured adult in a short time 

 becomes so tame that it will take food from the hand and follow one 

 by the hour, walking through the grounds. One that was in the 

 constant habit of following me soon became disgusted with the Elk 

 which chased him, so that whenever he saw me going toward the 

 gate which opened into the Elk park, he would place himself in 

 front of me and try to push me back.' Thornaday warns us, 

 however, from his experience in zoological gardens, that as the 

 bucks grow older they become dangerously rough in their play." 



SABLE ANTELOPE. This fine Antelope (Fig. 86) is an African 

 animal, and although a prominent resident of South Africa is also 

 an inhabitant of other parts of the great continent. It was first 

 found in the Transvaal by Harris, and although it has now become 

 extinct in that colony, the name of the discoverer is perpetuated by 

 some of our own kith and kin, the animal being sometimes called 

 the " Harrisbuck." Its general coloration may be presumed from 

 the fact that the Boers call the beast "Zwart-wit-pens," meaning 

 black-white-belly. 



The Sable Antelope is considered by many as the finest Antelope 

 of all, and it has been chosen as the subject for the coloured plate 

 to represent this section. Its size is equivalent to that of a full- 

 grown Pony ; it possesses an elegant and pleasing carriage, and 

 its general form and colour cannot fail to commend it to those who 

 take an interest in these wild creatures. 



Whilst the female (or cow) is not so dark-coloured as the male 

 (or bull), she may be distinguished by the shorter, more slender 

 and less strongly-curved horns. The horns of the bull attain a 

 length of more than thirty-six inches. The light markings on the 

 face are well shown in both the photograph (Fig. 86) and the 

 coloured plate, but the young ones are characterized by the absence 

 of these face-marks and are light-brown in colour. It is of sociable 

 disposition and inhabits open country well above sea-level and where 



