396 Great and Small Game of Africa 



and at the present day does not extend its range in North Africa into 

 the well -watered forest country outside the Sahara Desert. It is still 

 found in the extreme south of Tunis, and in the interior of Tripoli, 

 Algeria, and Morocco ; and specimens are occasionally obtained from the 

 districts north of the Senegal River. In former days, judging from the 

 Roman mosaics and frescoes found in North Africa, the addax was a 

 common animal in what would be now called Central and Southern 

 Tunisia. 



In North Africa the Arabs pursue the addax on horseback with fleet 

 dogs — usually of the Slugi or stout greyhound breed. Owing to its 

 preference for inaccessible desert tracts, this animal is very rarely shot 

 by Europeans. In nearly all cases it will be found, when Europeans 

 bring home the easily purchased trophies of the addax, that they have not 

 shut them themselves, but have employed Arabs to do so, as in the pursuit 

 of this animal one runs the risk of losing oneself in those dangerous 

 tracts of the Sahara where the sand is incessantly shifting, districts which 

 are absolutely without water. fj. H. Johnston. 



THE SABLE ANTELOPE GROUP 



Genus Hippotragus 



This genus includes the typical and at the same time the largest 

 members of the sub-family, which are characterised by the stout and 

 heavily ridged horns rising at an obtuse angle to the plane of the face, 

 and then sweeping backwards in a scimitar-like curve. A well-developed 

 and often upright mane clothes the neck, the throat is more or less distinctly 

 maned ; the moderate tail is terminally tufted, and the pointed ears are 

 characterised by their excessive size. 



