ANTELOPES, 



The Steinbuck {Nanotragns campestris). Fig. 6, Plate II.— 

 {Steiniok of the Dutch; Phiiduhudu of the Bechuanas; 

 Umgwena of the Matabele ; Gayee of the Masarwas.) 



\_Hetght about 23 inches* General colour^ light purplish red- 

 dish brown, darker on the top of back and neck, approaching fawn, 

 and white underneath; hair thick and close, as if broken at the 

 ends; tail extremely diminutive. Horns\ are usually between 

 3 and 4 inches in length, vertical, straight, and sharp, some- 

 what annulated at extreme base. Female hornless, and of a more 

 yellowish colour throughout. Spoor, I inch, heart-shaped.'] 



The Steinbuck is the most common and widely distributed of the 

 gazelles of South Africa, and may be found from Capetown to the 

 Zambesi, frequenting the open flats either singly or in pairs. Owing 

 to its wonderful fleetness, it may be said, from a coursing point of 

 view, to take the place of the English hare, as the different varieties 

 of hare in the Cape Colony aiford little or no sport. At Kimberley, 

 in Griqualand West, a regular coursing club was organised shortly 

 after the discovery of the diamond fields, and it has been carried on 

 ever since with the greatest success, the Colonists being just as 

 much interested in the result of the annual club cup as sportsmen 

 are in England over the Waterloo Cup, large sums of money 

 changing hands at the meetings. It requires, however, a really 



» The measurement of all animals herein referred to is taken from the shoulder, and 

 is to be so understood in subsequent descriptions. 



t It must not be presumed, as is sometimes the case, that the age of the horns of any 

 of the numerous varieties of South African antelopes is in the least revealed by the 

 number of rings they carry, there being no equal relation between their development 

 and the prolongation of life. It is true, however, that the annuli do increase somewhat 

 as they advance in growth, but it is also a fact that the rings become fewer as the 

 animals reach maturity and subsequent old age. 



