SOUTHERN AFRICA, — QUADRUPEDS. 105 
diately recognised by the superior size of its ears. When 
to these we add the hippopotamus, we comprehend the 
largest quadrupeds in the creation. 
(148.) But the innumerable herds of antelopes con- 
stitute the chief peculiarity in South African zoology, 
and they appear occasionally in such vast herds that their 
numbers are almost incredible. 
The springbok (Ant. Euchore, 
Forst., fig. 46.), in particular, 
often congregates in troops of 
between 2000 and 3000 ; the 
name of springing antelope 
has been given to them, from 
their habit of springing over 
bushes and rocks which im- 
pede their running ; and this 
they often do to the height of 
™, four or five feet, clearing at a 
~ single bound ten or twelve 
feet of ground. The variety 
of species is no less remark- 
able ; and naturalists already enumerate nearly thirty 
different sorts, from the size of a goat to that of a horse: 
the gradation, in fact, by which nature passes from the 
delicate and graceful springer, or blue antelope, to the 
heavy and unwieldy ox and buffalo, may almost be 
traced among the animals of Southern Africa alone. 
Several of these, no doubt, range over the uninterrupted 
line of sandy deserts bordering upon the equator, and, 
geographically, may be viewed as animals equally in- 
habiting the two more southern districts of African 
zoology ; but by far the largest number have only been 
detected within, or on the borders of, the Cape Colony, 
and thus illustrate, in the most forcible manner, the 
peculiar distribution of animals belonging to the southern 
extremity of this continent ; while, on comparing these 
antelopes with the species of Northern Africa, not one 
has hitherto been found common to both regions. 
(149.) The zebras, of which three species are now 
recognised, belong more to the plains of Southern Africa 
