THE SABLE ANTELOPE 
prime. I once came on four old sable antelope bulls together, but on no 
other single occasion have I ever seen anything but solitary animals. 
During the rainy season in the interior of South Africa, sable antelopes, 
like elands, often break up into small herds and disperse themselves over 
the country. As the grazing is good at this time of the year, they get into 
very fine condition, and their coats are then at their best. The bulls and the 
old cows — to the South of the Zambesi — become almost absolutely black, 
and the mane grows so long that on the shoulders it falls over to either 
side. At the same time the hair on the neck grows thick and long, and is 
rendered glossy by an oily secretion from the skin. But as the dry season 
comes on, and the grass becomes less succulent and nutritious, sable 
antelopes rapidly lose their high condition and all the long hair falls from 
their necks, which then become reddish brown in colour, and often show 
large patches devoid of any hair at all. The horns of sable antelope bulls 
are usually much curved, and beautifully ringed from the base to within 
a few inches of the point. South of the Zambesi forty inches is a good 
average length for sable antelope horns, and few are likely to be met with 
there exceeding a length of forty-five inches over the curve. In North-West 
Rhodesia, however, they grow larger and often reach a length of forty - 
eight inches, and sometimes even exceed fifty inches. Indeed, there has 
recently been brought home from the country to the west of the Upper 
Zambesi a pair of sable antelope horns which measure nearly fifty -five 
inches over the curve. Wonderful, however, as this measurement appears 
to be to those who have only met with sable antelopes in the more southerly 
portions of their range, there is, nevertheless, in the Natural History 
Museum at Florence, in Italy, a single sable antelope horn which tapes 
sixty -one inches. As I measured this phenomenal horn myself, I am sure 
there is no mistake about its length, and the horn is certainly that of a 
sable antelope, though where it came from no one knows. In sable antelope 
cows the horns, as a rule, have but little curve. They grow to a length of 
from thirty to thirty-four inches, but I have shot one with beautifully 
curved horns measuring thirty -nine and a half inches in length. 
To the north of the Zambesi sable antelope cows are much redder than 
they are to the south of that river, and never, I believe, turn quite black. 
Unless they have been much hunted, sable antelopes are singularly bold 
and fearless animals, and as they frequent forests where there is little or 
no undergrowth and the open glades intersecting such forests, they must 
be, I should think, very easy animals to shoot with modern small-bore 
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