424 Great and Small Game of Africa 



eighteenth centuries, and more recently figured by Sir Cornwallis Harris 

 from specimens obtained in 1837 in what is now British Bechuanaland and 

 the Western Transvaal, was of a uniform pale fawn-colour from birth, though 

 the coats of the older animals gradually became so thin that the dark colour 

 of the underlying skin showed more and more through the scanty hair, giving 

 them a general grayish appearance, the old bulls often looking a bluish- 

 black in deep shade, and being described by the colonists as " blue bulls." 



On the other hand, all the elands found throughout Rhodesia and 

 Eastern South Africa, and wherever I have travelled to the north of the 

 Zambesi, are striped. 1 The calves are a rich reddish-fawn in ground-colour, 

 with a dark mark down the back, black patches on the insides of the fore- 

 legs, and eight or nine conspicuous white stripes on each side. 



As these striped elands grow up, they differ considerably individually 

 one from another. Some of them, when about four years old, are amongst 

 the most beautiful of all African antelopes. Here is the description of a 

 young bull shot in Mashunaland some years ago : — 



" He had not attained the immense neck or the large bunch of black 

 bristly hair on the forehead that are only found in an old bull eland, but, 

 on the other hand, whereas the old bulls never have much hair upon their 

 bodies, this younger animal possessed a splendid coat, the ground-colour 

 being of a rich, warm reddish-fawn, with a broad black line running down 

 the centre of his back from the mane on the wither to the tail, whilst on 

 each side he was banded with broad white stripes, quite as distinct as those 

 on a koodoo. The dark patches on the inside of his fore-legs were also 

 very large and black. He had too a splendid long even pair of horns, 

 measuring 2 feet 7 inches in length, whereas in an old bull the horns, 

 being worn down, seldom exceed 28 inches." 



Generally the ground-colour is not so rich as in this specimen, and, as 



1 This is [lie northern race of eland, sometimes known as Livingstone's eland (Ttiurotragtis oryx 

 /.:7/,^-'/>//<7). — Ed. 



