THE SABLE ANTELOPE 
HIPPOTRAGUS NIGER 
T HOUGH its rich coloration, long shaggy mane, and large and 
beautifully curved horns must always make the head of a sable 
antelope bull one of the most coveted prizes to be won by a 
sportsman in the hunting-grounds of Africa, yet the head 
alone, however well mounted it may be, can never give an 
adequate idea of the noble bearing of this truly magnificent 
animal, when seen in all the pride of its living strength and beauty. 
This handsome species was first brought to the notice of naturalists by 
Captain (afterwards Sir Cornwallis) Harris, by whom it was discovered 
in the north-west of what is now the Transvaal State. 
To the north and east of this district the range of the sable antelope was 
subsequently found to extend throughout the country between the Limpopo 
and the Zambesi, and far to the north of the latter river. It is found, too, 
along the Uganda railway in the hills near Maji Chumbi, and to the south 
of that district as far as the northren border of German East Africa. 
Throughout the greater part of both German and British East Africa, 
however, it does not exist, though numerous in most parts of British 
Central Africa, and also in North-Eastern and North-Western Rhodesia. 
But in no part of Africa to which the range of this splendid antelope once 
extended was it ever as numerous, I think, as it used to be in the country 
now known as Southern Rhodesia. There it was certainly the commonest 
of all antelopes, and in the districts it principally frequented several herds 
of these beautiful creatures might often be met with in one day. As a rule, 
sable antelopes run in herds of from ten to twenty individuals, but I have 
often seen thirty or forty together, and in August, 1895, I counted eighty 
of these antelopes as they crossed an open valley near the Ingwenia River, 
in Northern Matabeleland. In my own experience, however many sable 
antelope cows there may be in a herd, there will only be one big bull with 
them. This would seem to show that male sable antelopes are very jealous 
and pugnacious animals, though I never remember to have shot one 
which showed any scars of wounds which could have been inflicted by one 
of its fellows. Wherever sable antelopes are plentiful, single bulls will be 
commonly met with, and although some of these will be old animals with 
horns much worn down, others appear to have only just reached their 
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