THE OUREBI. 537 



and white on the abdomen, the lips, breast, and a circle round the eyes. The outer sides of 

 the limbs, together with the front of the feet and the end of the tail, are nearly black. Some 

 of the oldest and most powerful males are so deeply colored that their coats are tinted with the 

 two contrasting hues of black and white, the fawn tint being altogether wanting. The height 

 of this animal is about two feet six inches at the shoulder. 



The Grys-bok is a native of Southern Africa, and is about the same size as the pre- 

 ceding 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 endowed with great 

 powers of speed. 



The color of the Grys-bok is ruddy chestnut, largely 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 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 protrudes beyond the hair of the hinder quarters. 



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



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 particular 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 become vacant by the death of one occu- 

 pant, 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 valleys, where it is daily making hair-breadth escapes from its 

 persevering enemy, man. 



When day after day a sportsman has scoured 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 taking 

 the field he will find fresh specimens of this gracefiu little Antelope bounding over the hills 

 around Mm. 



It is generally found in pairs, inhabiting the plains, and when pursued, trusts to its 

 speed, seeking no shelter either in the bush or the forest. Its general habitation is among 

 the long grass which remains after a plain has been burned, or on the sheltered side of a hill, 

 among rocks and stones. 



Its mode of progression, when alarmed or disturbed, is very beautiful. It gallops away 

 with great rapidity for a few yards, and then bounds several feet in the air, gallops on, and 

 bounds again. These leaps are made for the purpose of examining the surrounding country, 

 which it is enabled to do from its elevated position in the air. Sometimes, and especially 

 when any suspicious object is only indistinctly observed in the first bound, the Ourebi will 

 make several successive leaps, and it then looks almost' like a creature possessed of wings, and 

 having the power of sustaining itself in the air. If, for instance, a dog pursues one of these 

 Antelopes, and follows it through long grass, the Ourebi will make repeated leaps, and by 

 observing the direction in which its pursuer is advancing, will suddenly change its own course, 

 and thus- escape from view. In descending from these leaps the Ourebi comes to the ground 

 on its hind feet. In his description of this animal, Captain Drayson gives the following 

 account of some of its habits : — 



" When first started, the Ourebi pursues over the ground a course somewhat similar to 

 that which a snipe follows in the air. It dodges from side to side, leaps and rushes through 

 the grass or over the plain with a lightning-like speed, and almost before the sportsman can 

 get his gun ready, the Ourebi is scudding away at a distance of a hundred yards or so. Some 

 sportsmen shoot this animal with buckshot, and by walking through the long grass, and 



