THE BLAA UWBOK. 443 



points ; it was bluish grey above (the coat showing a beautiful 

 velvety appearance during life), and snow-white beneath, there 

 being no mai-ked demarcation between the colours : indeed, 

 Le Vaillant says that when seen from a distance the living 

 animal appeared to be entirely white. The Blaauwbok derived 

 its specific name leucophaa from a whitish spot just in front of 

 and beneath the eye ; the anterior surfaces of the limbs were 

 darker than the posterior. The ears were rather long ; the 

 neck bore a very short mane, reversed like that of an Oryx 

 Antelope. 



An alleged change of colour in the skin of the Blaauwbok 

 after death has given rise to some comment. Pennant, in his 

 * History of Quadrupeds,' says : — " Colour, when alive, a fine 

 blue of a velvet appearance ; when dead changes to bluish grey 

 with a mixture of white." Dr. Sparrman, who travelled in South 

 Africa during 1772-1776, in mentioning the Blaauv/bok, ob- 

 serves : " On this subject the reader may likewise turn to Mr. 

 Pennant's Blue Antelope " ; and also says : " The colour of this 

 creature when alive is said to resemble that of blue velvet, but 

 when it is dead it is of a leaden colour." Le Vaillant, who 

 obtained a Blaauwbok bull in December, 1781, states that the 

 colour of the animal was faint blue inclining to grey, with snow- 

 white belly, the head being above all beautifully spotted with 

 white ; but, he adds (' Travels in Africa,' vol. i. p. 132), " I did not 

 observe, as Dr. Sparrman says, that this Antelope when alive 

 resembles blue velvet, and that when dead the skin changes its 

 colour ; living or dead it appeared to me always alike. The tints 

 of that which I brought with me never varied." 



At first sight it would thus seem that the statement of 

 Le Vaillant contradicts that of Sparrman, and also indirectly 

 that of Pennant ; but we must remember that in some Antelopes, 

 such as Eland and Kudu, the hair becomes so scanty that the 

 bluish hide shows beneath it in old age ; and this hide, after post- 

 mortem drying, becomes black or ** leaden colour." Further, 

 this change due to drying is actually recorded by Sir Cornwallis 

 Harris as taking place in the Roan Antelope, the nearest living 

 ally of the Blaauwbok, and we may therefore well assume that 

 Le Vaillant expected to see some conspicuous change in the 

 hairy covering it&eli due to chemical or other causes, such as has 



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