The Bontebok 



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the blesbok differs somewhat in individuals of both species, some blesboks 

 having the white blaze, which is always present down the front of the face 

 from the eyes to the muzzle, only just separated by a thin line of brown 

 hair from the white patch on the forehead between the horns, whilst, in 

 the typical bontebok, the white blaze on the face below the eyes is joined 

 to the white patch on the forehead by a white streak of varying breadth. 



Whilst the horns of the blesbok are always of a greenish colour, those 

 of the bontebok are invariably of an intense black, probably attributable to 

 some chemical constituents being present in the soil near Cape Agulhas 

 which are wanting in the country farther north. In general appearance 

 these two nearly allied species bear the closest resemblance to one another, 

 being, as Harris long ago remarked, " equally robust, hunchbacked and 

 broad-nosed, and rejoicing in the same whimsical and fine venerable old 

 goatish expression of countenance." Good specimens of males and females 

 of both species can now be seen side by side in one case in the Mammalia 

 Gallery of the Natural History Museum in Cromwell Road, South Kensing- 

 ton, where the points of resemblance and the differences between the two 

 species can be studied at leisure. The bontebok is slightly larger and 

 heavier than the blesbok. The male specimen of the former now in the 

 collection of the British Museum, a fine full-grown animal in good 

 condition, weighed exactly 200 lbs. as he lay, whilst the male specimen of 

 the latter — also a very fine animal of his kind — weighed 180 lbs. as he lay 

 and 135 lbs. clean. Two other bontebok rams — apparently fine full-grown 

 animals — shot at the same time as the above mentioned specimen, weighed 

 respectively 166 lbs. and 160 lbs. as they fell. From these data, I should 

 say that, though an exceptionally fine blesbok will weigh more than an 

 ordinary bontebok ram, yet the heaviest bonteboks will outweigh the 

 heaviest blesboks. The horns in both species attain to a length of about 

 16 inches, in the males. The females also carry horns, which, though 

 nearly as long as in the males, are much slighter. The bontebok, having 



