58 THE SPORTSMAN IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



Without going so far as to place any reliance whatever on the 

 report or opinion of any African native, it may be suggested that 

 the specimen in the Natural History Museum and that of Mr. 

 Boyne vs^ill both eventually be found to be nothing more than 

 a malformation of the horns of the Koodoo bull. In any case strong 

 argument may be advanced against the Antilope triangularis being 

 considered a distinct species. In the first place, even going back 

 for so long a period as twenty years, the antelopes frequenting the 

 Zambesi regions were at least fairly well known, and if one that 

 had not previously been described, and possessing the marked 

 characteristics of that under discussion, had actually existed, it is 

 only reasonable to assume that the many intelligent sportsmen 

 who have visited, and traders who have resided there, would have 

 at least heard and given some report, however meagre, upon such 

 an important subject. It is also well known that African natives 

 of the Interior, after killing a head of game, and cutting up and 

 removing the carcass, invariably leave the horns where the animal 

 originally fell ; and these, if only exposed for a short time to the 

 influence of the weather, become completely worm-eaten. On the 

 other hand, those described by Dr. Giinther are in a state of almost 

 perfect preservation, and for this reason it may be presumed that 

 they could not have been long removed from the animal to which 

 they .originally belonged, before falling into the hands of the trader 

 from whom Mr. Green obtained them. The wider publicity given 

 to these particulars will, we trust, lead to this extremely interesting 

 question being determined one way or the other. 



