364 MAMMALIA— CHAMOIS. 



the gnu forms a graceful link between the buffalo and the antelope ; pos- 

 sessing the distinct features which, according to naturalists, are peculiar to 

 the latter tribe. The gnu exhibits at the same time, in his general aspect, 

 figure, motions, and even the texture and taste of his flesh, qualities which 

 partake very strongly of the bovine character. Among other peculiarities, I 

 observed, that, like the buffalo or the ox, he is strangely affected by the 

 sight of scarlet ; and it was one of our amusements, when approaching 

 these animals, to hoist a red handkerchief on a pole and to observe them 

 caper about, lashing their flanks Vv'ith their long tails, and tearing up the 

 ground with tlieir hoofs, as if they were violently excited, and ready to rush 

 doAvn upon us ; and then, all at once, when we were about to fire upon 

 them, to see them bound away, and again go prancing round at a safer 

 distance. When wounded, they are reported to be sometimes rather dan- 

 gerous to the huntsman ; but though we shot several at different times, I 

 never witnessed any instance of this. On one occasion, a young one, appa- 

 rently only a week or two old, whose mother had been shot, followed the 

 huntsmen home, and I attempted to rear it on cow's milk. In a few days 

 it appeared quite as tame as a common calf, and seemed to be thriving ; but 

 afterwards, from some unknown cause, it sickened and died. I heard, how- 

 ever, of more than one instance in that part of the colony, where the gnu, 

 thus caught young, had been reared with domestic cattle, and had become 

 so tame as to go regularly out to pasture with the herds, without exhibiting 

 any inclination to resume its natural freedom ; but, in consequence of a 

 tendency which the farmers say they evinced to catch, and to communicate 

 to the cattle a dangerous infection, the practice of rearing them as curiosi- 

 ties has been abandoned." 



THE CH AMOISi 



Is of a fawn color in summer and brown in winter; a dark line passes 

 through each eye. Its horns are seven or eight inches long, and hooked at 



^ * Antilope ruficapra. 



