THE SPORTSMAN IN SOUTH AFRICA. 45 



and hard pressed it takes refuge in any thick reed-beds which may 

 be close at hand. Ahhough a decidedly heavy and short-legged 

 animal, it will gallop through the most irregular and precipitous 

 ground with great speed and activity, and is one of the most dan- 

 gerous of all South African antelopes to approach when wounded. 

 The flesh is unfit for white men, and is so rank that only hungry 

 natives will eat it. 



The Hartebeest {Bubalis caama). Fig. 13, Plate IV. — {Harte- 

 beeste of the Dutch; Khama of the Bechuanas; 'Ama of the 

 Masarwas.) 



\_Avarage height about 4 feet. General colour.^ reddish brown, 

 with violet tinge throughout ; dark plum-coloured saddle-patch, 

 commencing at point of shoulder, extends over entire surface of 

 hack and ends in root of tail; similar patch continues over each 

 shoulder, downwards, as far as knees, and front of shin bones of 

 fore legs; pale yellowish patch on cheeks of rump; front of face, 

 which is very long and narrow, almost black, as is a stripe down 

 hack of neck. Horns about 15 inches from point to base, varying 

 considerably in size, thickly knotted at base, curving obtusely 

 forwards and then as acutely backwards at a sharp angle. Female 

 has horns which are more slender. Spoor J^ inches, shaped very 

 much like Koodoo, hut considerably broader at heel in proportion. '\ 



The Hartebeest is not found in the Cape Colony proper, except, 

 perhaps, on a couple of preserved farms. A few troops still linger on 

 the North-west borders of Griqualand West, in the Hay and Barkly 

 West districts, where, however, they are protected for a period of 

 three years. In the Western portions of Bechuanaland, and parti- 

 cularly in the neighbourhood of Hoening Vley and the lower Molopo, 

 they are fairly plentiful, as well as through the independent native 

 territories in the Bechuanaland Protectorate on the verge of the 

 Kalahari, and the North-western districts of the Transvaal bounded 

 by the Crocodile River. In the heart of the Northern Kalahari, on 

 both banks of the Botletle River, and as far up as the Mababe Flats, as 

 well as in Great Namaqualand, it is still, in places, extremely numerous, 

 and may often be met with in large herds. The species is now rather 

 uncommon in Damaraland, and is unknown in Eastern Matabeleland 

 or Mashonaland. The Hartebeest generally associates in herds of 



