The Sable Antelope 403 



beautifully curved, though in this respect they vary greatly, some being 

 much less curved than others. They are always flattened on the sides and 

 ringed to within a few inches of the points. An average length is about 

 38 to 40 inches over the curve, though horns measuring 42 and 43 inches 

 are not uncommon. 



Anything over this latter length is unusually fine, and in all my 

 experience I have not seen more than seven or eight pairs of sable 

 antelope horns which taped over 44 inches in length. The longest pair 

 I have ever seen in Africa was shot by a Boer in 1895 on the Sebakwe 

 River in Mashunaland, and sold by him to a gentleman connected with 

 some mining company in Matabeleland. I measured this remarkable pair 

 of horns carefully, and found that the right-hand horn taped within a 

 fraction of 48 inches and the left horn 47^; inches. I have also seen two 

 pairs measuring 46 inches, and three or four others that reached a length 

 of 45 inches, but I have never shot a sable antelope myself whose horns 

 measured much over 44 inches. The horns of sable antelope cows are 

 rarely much curved, and, except in very exceptional cases, stand very straight 

 up from the head compared with the horns of a bull. Pictures repre- 

 senting a herd of sable antelopes, amongst which there are several with 

 strongly curved horns, are therefore not true to life, though they are 

 common in works on South African sport. The average length of sable 

 antelope cow horns is about 30 inches, and anything over 34 inches is very 

 uncommon, whilst a pair that is both very long and at the same time 

 perfectly symmetrical is an exceedingly rare trophy. I have one such 

 head of a sable antelope cow which I shot a good many years ago in 

 Mashunaland. The horns, which are strongly curved and perfectly 

 symmetrical, measure 39-L inches in length. Out of the many thousands 

 of sable antelope cows I must have seen, I have only come across two 

 others with similar heads. The one I might easily have shot, but did not 

 like to do so, as I was well supplied with meat at the time. The other I 



