186 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 
wigwagging, the sudden flare of white buttocks 
is revealing. 
Depending chiefly on speed in escaping his 
enemies, the antelope has also the added ad- 
vantage of being able to detect an enemy while 
he is still afar. The plains where he lives en- 
able him to see objects miles away, and his 
eyes being of telescopic nature ofttimes enable 
him to determine whether a distant moving ob- 
ject is friend or foe. 
It thus is important that an antelope be so 
marked that another antelope will recognize 
him at long range. Each flock of antelope 
watches the distant surrounding flocks, and each 
flock thus mutually aids the others by acting 
as an outlying sentinel for it. If a flock sees 
an object approaching that may be an enemy 
it strikes attitudes which proclaim alarm, and, 
definitely marked, their actions at once give 
eye messages of alarm to all flocks in view and 
close enough to make out what they are doing. 
It would thus seem that the revealing colours 
of the antelope have been of help in protecting 
—that is, perpetuating, the species. 
The antelope is nervous and is easily thrown 
into a panic. Though it is often canny and 
courageous, it lacks the coolness, the alertness, 
and the resourcefulness—that is to say, the 
quick wit and adaptability—of the mountain 
