A Breath from the Veldt 191 



appearance. The fine blending of colours on the face, the white switches of 

 hair over the lachrymal glands standing out over the black of the cheeks, the 

 fine rough neck, and the long queerly shaped ears, all tend to give it the wild 

 game look it certainly possesses. The horns themselves, though not to be 

 compared with those of the waterbuck, koodoos, and sable, are beautifully 

 annulated, and look quite in proportion. Ward gives the maximum of males 

 as 33 inches, and females 30^ inches. I would call the attention of the reader, 

 if a naturalist, to the very peculiar shape of the ear, and the way that the 

 white whisps drop from above the lachrymal sinus, making the hairs stand out 

 slightly as they do in life. 



Of all the larger antelope, except perhaps the eland, the roan is the easiest 

 to kill. If the hunter follows a troop up they will frequently stop and allow 

 several shots to be fired at them ; but he must above all things keep them in 

 good view, for once out of sight the roans know they are likely to be followed 

 up, and it is next to impossible to approach them, their sense of sight and smell is 

 so keen, and they so commonly start running long before you have spotted them. 



We also saw here much fresh spoor of tssessbe, koodoo, Burchell's zebra, 

 buffalo and pallah, and hartebeest, which were without doubt Lichtenstein's, 

 as the common hartebeest is unknown in Mashonaland. From our ultimate 

 search for these animals, there appeared to be only two troops in the 

 neighbourhood ; and though I hunted several days, both going in and coming 

 out, I never once succeeded in properly viewing them. Tace, however, 

 twice obtained several shots at one of the troops, and wounded two bulls, both 

 of which he lost. 



Lichtenstein's hartebeest, called by the Dutch " MofF hartebeest," takes the 

 place of the common hartebeest, after the Limpopo is passed ; and confining 

 itself to the rivers of the east coast of Mashonaland, is not to be met with in the 

 heart of Africa till the Zambesi is reached. From thence northward it is said 

 to be the common hartebeest, till Cokei, Senegalensis, Jacksoni, and Tora take 

 its place in the north-east. In common with several of the other African 

 antelope, the old male Lichtenstein's hartebeest has a habit of returning to the 

 same spot to rest every evening, if undisturbed. We saw several of their lairs 

 scraped out most comfortably in the red sand. They were quite fresh, and the 

 great quantity of their manure showed how long the same animals had been resort- 

 ing to this spot. Being of a quiet and inoffensive disposition, this hartebeest 

 evidently suffers itself to be bullied by the roan antelope and Burchell's zebra. 

 Both of these are said to be fond of the beds of the Lichtenstein, and are in the 



