180 Great and Small Game of Africa 



of the species from those parched and waterless plains. Those which had 

 reached the plains near Cape Agulhas, however, where there is plenty of 

 water, would have had no reason to move, and thus a portion of the race 

 would have become isolated, and, in course of time, differentiated from the 

 original stock. The points of difference between the blesbok and the 

 bontebok are not very great, but they are constant. The latter is a more 

 richly coloured race of the former. 



The influence of environment may possibly have had its effect in the 

 course of ages on the coloration of the bontebok, as the plains where these 

 animals live skirt the shore of the deep blue sea, and are bordered by 

 mountains of a considerable altitude, the upper parts of which are often 

 covered with a mantle of pure white snow, whilst monotony of form and 

 colour distinguishes the environment of the blesbok. The latter, when in 

 fine condition, is a beautiful animal, and in life a purply sheen plays 

 with every movement over the rich dark colouring of the neck and the 

 uniform brown of the rest of the body. This beautiful sheen is also 

 characteristic of the bontebok, and enhances the contrast between the rich 

 deep colour which extends from the neck along the lower portion of the 

 sides to the flanks, and the light lilac brown — of the back on the one side 

 and the snow-white belly on the other. In the blesbok a semicircular disc 

 over the rump above the tail is lighter in colour than the rest of the body, 

 and shows very distinctly when the animal is running end on, with the sun 

 shining on it. In the bontebok the upper part of the tail and the semi- 

 circular disc above the tail, which in the blesbok are pale brown, are snow 

 white. 



The legs, too, in the bontebok, from the knee and hock downwards, are 

 almost pure white as a rule, though in some specimens there is a good deal 

 more brown extending from the hoofs up the front of the legs than in 

 others ; whilst in the blesbok they are only white on the insides. 



The white blaze which runs down the face of both the bontebok and 



