408 Great and Small Game of Africa 



met with it amongst broken hilly country where there were no fairly 

 level expanses of forest and plain. It is as difficult in the case of the 

 roan antelope as it is with many other species of African animals to say 

 confidently what kind of country is best suited to its habits. In Western 

 and Southern Matabeleland and throughout the countries watered by the 

 tributaries of the Limpopo the land is almost everywhere covered with 

 either open forests or thickets of dense thorny bush. 



The roan antelope is generally distributed through these countries, and 

 any one who had only met them amidst such surroundings would pronounce 

 them to be a distinctly forest-loving species, like the sable antelope. How- 

 ever, in Mashunaland they seem to prefer the most open parts of the 

 country, and used to frequent the high open downs of that part of South 

 Africa in common with the tsessebe, the ostrich, and the blue wildebeest. 

 They were also numerous on the broad treeless turf valleys of a somewhat 

 lower level, where, in addition to the two former species, they had as 

 companions the oribi and Burchell's zebra. 



I have always noticed too, that if there are any large open spaces of 

 ground free from forest or bush in a district frequented by roan antelopes, 

 these animals are more likely to be met with in such open places than 

 anywhere else. Where I have met with them too, to the north ot the 

 Zambesi, the country has always been very open, and of the same character 

 as the high plateau of Mashunaland. I have never met with roan ante- 

 lopes in very large herds like elands or sable antelopes, but have usually 

 found them in bands of from five to a dozen, and seldom if ever seen 

 upwards of twenty or twenty-five together. 



Usually there will be only one full-grown bull with a herd, but I have 

 occasionally seen two adult males living together in apparent amity with 

 perhaps a dozen females. Old bulls are often, in fact usually, found living 

 alone. Though the two species are apparently nearly allied, I never 

 remember to have seen roan antelopes consorting together with sable 



