632 UNGULATA. 



native term chouk, a leap, which has been given to the animal in allusion 

 to its habit of making lofty bounds. 



The front pair of horns are very short, and are placed just above the 

 eyes, the hinder pair being much longer, and occupying the usual posi- 

 tion on the head. The females are hornless. The color of the Chou- 

 singha is a bright bay above, and gray-white below, a few sandy hairs 

 being intermixed with the white. The length of the hinder pair of horns 

 is rather more than three inches, while the front, or spurious horns as 

 they are sometimes termed, are only three-quarters of an inch long. 

 The height of the adult animal is about twenty inches. 



The Alcephalin^e form a sub-family divided into two genera, both 

 inhabiting Africa, and Northeast to Syria. 



GENUS ALCEPHALUS. 



Of the nine species of this genus Ave will mention only the most im- 

 portant and typical, for all these antelopes are very much alike in habits 

 and mode of life. 



The Hartebeest, Alcephalus caama, may be easily known by the 

 peculiar shape of the horns, which are lyrate at their commencement, 

 thick and heavily knotted at the base, and then curve off suddenly 

 nearly at a right angle. Its general color is a grayish-brown, diversified 

 by a large, nearly triangular white spot on the haunches, a black streak 

 on the face, another along the back, and a black-brown patch on the 

 outer side of the limbs. It is a large animal, being about five feet high 

 at the shoulder. Being of gregarious habits, it is found in little herds 

 of ten or twelve in number, each herd being headed by an old male who 

 has expelled all adult members of his own sex. 



Not being very swift or agile, its movements are more clumsy than 

 is generally the case with Antelopes. It is, however, very capable of 

 running for considerable distances, and if brought to bay, becomes a 

 very redoubtable foe, dropping on its knees, and charging forward with 

 lightning rapidity. The Hartebeest is spread over a very large range 

 of country, being found in the whole of the flat and wooded district be- 

 tween the Cape and the Tropic of Capricorn. 



The SASSABY, Alcephalus lunatus, is reddish-brown, with a blackish- 

 brown stripe down the middle of the face. It lives in herds of six or ten 



