264 ZOOLOGY. 



The appearance of a herd of Oryx is very imposing. 

 They are some of the most elegant and symmetrical of 

 animals, the motions being those of a wild horse rather 

 than of an Antelope. Their favourite pace appears to be 

 either a steady quick wlak or a trot ; they rarely break 

 into a gallop, unless greatly alarmed. When frightened, 

 they dash off, sometimes snorting and putting their 

 heads down as if charging, raising their long tails, and 

 looking very formidable. They are wary animals, though 

 far less so than some other Antelopes. It is said that 

 they frequently attack when wounded, and their long 

 straight horns are most deadly weapons. Stories are 

 told of the Cape Oryx, an allied but distinct species, 

 killing Lions ; and I heard of a commissariat contractor 

 who 'V(fas bringing Camels to Annesley Bay, and wounded 

 an Oryx near Massowa, being charged by it : but nothing 

 of the kind happened to myself> although I had to 

 pursue two of the animals I killed for a long distance 

 after wounding them ; and one with a broken leg I fairly 

 ran down. The shooting of these animals is described 

 on an earlier page. 



Like the Gazelles and true Antelopes, all equally 

 inhabitants of deserts and open plains, the Oryx has a 

 pointed foot, each of the -divisions being rudely tri- 

 angular. Its tracks may consequently be instantly 

 distinguished from those of cattle or of any of the 

 bovine Antelopes. So far as my acquaintance with the 

 family goes, most of the forest and bush-haunting Ante- 

 lopes, Koodoo — Nylgai, Tetraceros — have their feet 

 formed like those of the Cervidce, with rounded hoofs, 



