THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
the evidence which has been collected on this subject disputes the fact, 
that the so-called bonteboks of the bontebok flats in the eastern province 
of the Cape Colony were true blesboks, and not bonteboks at all. In fact, the 
bontebok is an isolated species which has never existed within historical 
times anywhere except in the neighbourhood of Cape Agulhas; whilst its 
near ally, the blesbok, was an inhabitant of the plains to the south of the 
Orange River in the eastern part of the Cape Colony, and of all the open 
country to the north of that river in the territories now known as the 
Orange River Colony, the Transvaal and Bechuanaland. 
The points of difference between the two species are not very great, but 
they are constant. In the blesbok the general colour is dark brown, the 
belly being white, and the neck of a deeper shade than the rest of the 
body. In the bontebok, the neck and the lower portions of the sides and the 
flanks are of a very rich dark brown, whilst the back is of a light lilac 
brown, and the belly snow-white. Over the coats of both species, when they 
are in good condition, a beautiful purple sheen wanders and shimmers as 
the light plays upon them. In the blesbok a semi-circular disc over the 
rump above the tail is lighter in colour than the rest of the body, and shows 
very distinctly when the animal is running end on, with the sun shining 
behind it; whilst in the bontebok the upper part of the tail and a semi- 
circular disc above it are snow-white. In the bontebok, too, the legs from 
the knee and hock downwards are almost pure white as a rule, though in 
some specimens there is a good deal more brown extending from the hoofs 
up the front of the legs than in others; whilst in the blesbok only the insides 
of the legs are white. The white blaze which runs down the face in both 
the bontebok and the blesbok differs somewhat in individuals of both 
species. In the bontebok the white blaze down the face below the eyes is, I 
believe, always connected with the white patch on the forehead by a white 
streak, the breadth of which, however, varies. In the blesbok examples also 
sometimes occur in which the white patch on the forehead is connected 
with the white blaze down the face, but as a rule these two white areas are 
separated by a band of brown of varying width. In the young of both the 
bontebok and the blesbok the blaze down the face is dark brown instead of 
white. The horns, too, of the two species, whilst practically identical in 
size and shape, are in the bontebok always quite black, whilst in the blesbok 
they are of a greenish colour. In general appearance the two species bear a 
very close resemblance to one another, being, as Sir Cornwallis Harris 
very truly remarked, “ equally robust, hunchbacked and broad-nosed, 
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