THE SPRINGBOK 
ANTIDORCAS EUCHORE 
LTHOUGH the springbok may be looked upon as a true 
/% representative of the large family of antelopes which 
/ includes all the gazelles of the old world, it yet differs 
/ \ from all its nearest allies by having only five instead of 
/ the usual six pairs of cheek-teeth in the lower jaw. It is 
further differentiated from all other gazelles by the 
presence of a deep fold in the skin, extending from the middle of the back 
to the root of the tail, which it is enabled to open out at will, when a broad 
blaze of long snow-white hair is displayed, which is normally hidden 
beneath the fold. When alarmed or excited in any way, or even at play, the 
springbok is accustomed to bound high into the air, and at each bound 
half the surface of its back appears to turn from pale fawn to snow-white. 
It is a most beautiful sight to see a herd of springboks cross a wagon 
track when chased on horseback. The foremost member of the herd just 
slightly checks his speed on sighting the marks made by the wagon 
wheels or on scenting something strange and disagreeable, and then clears 
the suspected ground with a mighty bound, which carries him high in the 
air to many yards beyond the further side of the track. As he leaps into 
the air the broad white blaze of hair on the after part of the back is fully 
displayed, and flashes in the bright sunlight. Every member of the herd, 
buck and doe and fawn alike, follows the leader’s example, and the effect 
of a herd of fifty or a hundred springboks bounding and leaping one after 
the other, or many of them together, their white flags flashing, is one 
which, once seen, can never be forgotten. Sometimes springboks will bound 
straight into the air with rigid limbs and curved backs many times in 
succession, without apparent muscular exertion but as if every time their 
feet touched earth they were thrown into the air again automatically like 
a rebounding indiarubber ball. On these occasions they are said to be 
“ pronking,” in South African parlance, and at each bound the deep fold 
on the back is fully opened out and the long white hair displayed. 
In general colour the springbok is pale fawn, but the face, throat, belly, 
inner sides of the limbs, the sides of the tail, and the long hairs beneath 
the dorsal fold are pure white. The crown of the head is reddish fawn, as 
well as a narrow streak on each side of the face, which runs from the eye 
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