146 a hand-book of the management of animals 



Treatment in health. 



Housing. — The eland is a hardy animal, and may be housed like 

 a nilgai or blackbuck. Beisa antelopes have been found to be rather 

 delicate, and care should be taken not to expose them to damp 

 and moisture; they also require better protection during the nights in 

 winter. 



Food. — They thrive well on mixed food consisting of gram, bran, 

 Indian-corn, wheat, paddy, &c, supplemented by hay and green grass, 

 which should be given sparingly ; they are not accustomed, in their 

 wild state, to green grass, and it is important that their grazing ground 

 should be frequently mown during the rains to keep down the growth 

 of grass. 



Breeding. — Beisa antelopes have twice bred in the garden. Young 

 nilgai, both male and female, are fawn colour; the males begin to 

 assume the bluish grey colour when about one year old. 



Transport. — The travelling cage for a Beisa antelope should have 

 its front elevation higher than the back end, and the inside padded. 

 In fact the travelling cage for all horned animals should be made on 

 the same principle. 



Treatment in sickness. 



The eland, as already mentioned, died of rinderpest. The good 

 effect of segregation and change of place upon animals apparently 

 unaffected, but in close proximity to others affected by contagious 

 diseases, has already been noticed in connection with the bantengs 

 (pages 142-43). The same beneficial result attended the removal of the 

 Beisa antelopes to a place some sixteen miles down the river. Here 

 they lived in perfect health from July to December 1885. About a 

 year afterwards one of these animals fell a victim to a second outbreak 

 of the same disease. A young beisa, which arrived on May 25th, 1878, 

 was found dead the next morning. It was placed in a shed inside 

 a nice little enclosure ; after a voyage of nearly a month, the fresh 

 crop of grass was very tempting to the beast, which gorged itself, and 

 died from excessive distention of the stomach (see page 142). 



Observations on the habits of Eland and Beisa Antelopes. 



The following is recorded about the habits of elands in a wild 

 state : — " In its natural condition," continues Sir Cornwallis Harris, 

 " the eland frequents the open prairies and the low rocky hills interspersed 

 with clumps of wood, but is never to be met with in a continuously 

 wooded country. Eejoicing especially in low belts of shaded hillocks, 

 and in the isolated groves of acacia capensis, which, like islands in the 

 oceans, are scattered over many of the stony and gravelly plains of the 

 interior, large herds of them are also to be seen grazing like droves of 

 oxen on the more verdant meadows through which some silver rivulet 

 winds in rainbow brightness betwixt fringes of shining bulrushes." — 

 Sir Cornwallis Harris, quoted by Sclater. The male beisa antelopes 

 exhibited here have invariably been found to be pugnacious animals 

 but when provoked the female is as formidable to encounter as the male 





