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to have been common on the plains, at the present day it is essentially a 
‘bush-loving animal. According to Dr. A. Smith the Sassabye was rarely 
known to advance to the south of Latakoo; at present its southern limit 
appears to be the Amaswazi country; along the Limpopo it is very common, 
and continues so into the Matabili country up to the Zambesi. ‘The old males 
do not seem to associate with the females; nor do they appear so common, as 
out of nearly a dozen obtained by us only two were males, and one of these 
was immature. We observed very young calves in October. The Sassabye 
runs with a peculiar gait, reminding one of a rocking-horse; its shoulders 
are very high, sloping away to the rump; it does not seem to be a very shy 
animal.” 
Five years later the experienced African hunter and naturalist, Mr. F. C. 
Selous, in the same Journal, gives us the following notes on this Antelope :— 
“‘In travelling up the centre of South Africa, the first place in which the 
Sassaby is to be met with now-a-days is in the neighbourhood of the Marico 
River, a tributary of the Limpopo; and from there it is found throughout 
Central South Africa wherever I have been, south of the Zambesi, in all those 
parts of the country that are suitable to its habits. I say south of the Zam- 
besi, because during my journey through the Manica country to the north of 
that river in 1877-78, although the terrain appeared well suited to its habits 
and requirements, | saw none of these Antelopes. I have heard, however, 
from the natives that they are very common in the neighbourhood of 
Sesheke. 
“This Antelope is never found in hilly country or in thick jungle, but 
frequents the open downs that are quite free from bush, or else open forest- 
country in which treeless glades are to be met with. On the Mababe Flat at 
the end of the dry season large herds of these animals congregate together, 
and I have often seen, I am sure, several hundreds of them at once. They 
are, without exception, the fleetest and most enduring Antelope in South 
Africa. In 1879 all the Tsessebe and Blue Wildebeest cows calved on the 
northern bank of the Chobe during the first week in September, whilst on 
the Mababe Flat, only about one degree further south, the same animals did 
not calve before the first week in November.” 
Mr. Bertram L. Sclater, R.E., who was at Beira for a week in April 1892; 
on his way home from Nyasaland, informs us that he was told in that town 
that the Sassaby is one of the commonest Antelopes on the banks of the 
