THE IMPALA ANTELOPE 
points. I am inclined to think that in East Africa the impala antelopes are 
larger and of a richer colour than the same animals found on the Central 
and Lower Zambesi and its tributaries. In the former district the shoulder- 
height in fine males is said to reach thirty-eight inches. In colour these 
antelopes are of a very bright rich red brown, which makes them most 
conspicuous animals when seen either in open ground or amongst thin 
thorn scrub. 
In the impala there are no lateral hoofs, but in their place above the 
hind hoofs there are two very singular patches of black hair, which have 
earned the species the name of melampus. There is also a remarkable 
streak of black hair running across the back of the thighs at right angles 
to the root of the tail, and the tips of the ears and the crown of the head 
are also black. The undersides of the body and tail are white. The coat is 
short and very glossy. 
Forty years ago impala antelopes were excessively numerous along the 
Upper Limpopo, where many large herds could be seen any morning in 
the course of a few miles’ walk along the river; and at that time I think 
they were equally numerous in the low veld of the Eastern Transvaal. On 
the Zambesi and its tributaries they were also very plentiful, but never, I 
think, so numerous as on the Limpopo. In many parts of East-Central 
Africa these beautiful antelopes are still to be met with in large herds, but 
nowhere, I think, can they be seen in such multitudes to-day as in various 
districts of South Africa long ago. Where impala antelopes are very 
plentiful large herds of does are sometimes seen with several old and 
young bucks in their company; but in the rutting season the does are 
separated into smaller herds by the bucks, each of which takes charge of 
as many as he can hold against his rivals. At this time desperate fights 
take place between the males, and those which are beaten form herds by 
themselves. Impalas are very light and graceful in their movements, and 
when they run off after having been disturbed, they are accustomed to 
bound over bushes or other obstacles with astonishing ease and agility. 
They are a bush antelope, but avoid dense forests or jungles, usually living 
amongst open scrub or thin thorns, and with the exception of those which 
have learned to live on the juice of the wild melons in the Northern Kalahari 
never go far away from water. On the Notowani, a tributary of the Upper 
Limpopo, impalas were never found during the dry season at a distance of 
more than a mile or so from the bank of the river; but as soon as the rains 
fell, filling all the hollows in the dry country to the west with water, they 
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