THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
to the angle of the mouth, whilst a broad band of rich chestnut -brown runs 
longitudinally along each side from the shoulder to the flank, which divides 
the fawn colour of the body from the white of the belly. As in all the gazelles, 
both sexes of the springbok carry horns, which in the males average 
from twelve to fifteen inches over the curve, but have been known to 
reach a length of nineteen inches. They are lyrate in form, curving very 
gracefully first outwards and then inwards, the tips usually inclining 
directly inwards, but sometimes backwards. In the females the horns are 
usually very much smaller, slighter, and less twisted than in the males. 
The longest I ever shot myself measured just over eleven inches, and this is 
certainly far beyond the average, though longer specimens are known. 
In height a male springbok stands about thirty inches at the shoulder, and 
will weigh, when in good condition, about ninety pounds uncleaned. The 
range of the springbok has always been confined to the south-western 
portion of the African continent, and it was once very plentiful throughout 
the open grass and karroo-veld of all the central and western portions of 
the Cape Colony, as well as on the open grass plains of the Orange Free 
State and the Transvaal. West and north of the Transvaal its range extends 
through the Kalahari, Bechuanaland, and the western portions of the 
Bechuanaland Protectorate to Lake N’gami, and further west into Southern 
Angola. Speaking generally, springboks live in open country, where they 
can obtain an extended view in every direction; but in parts of Bechuana- 
land I have often met with them in bush country — e.g., on the old road 
between Molipololi and Bamangwato — where I have seen them feeding 
quite close to giraffes and impala antelopes. My friend, Mr G. W. Penrice, 
has also recorded the fact that in Southern Angola he has met with 
springboks in large numbers on the top of a range of hills running parallel 
with the coast. 
Springboks are essentially gregarious animals, though old males are 
often met with living alone. As a rule, they live in herds of from a dozen 
to fifty or a hundred individuals, males and females running together in 
the same herds all the year round. 
In periods of drought springboks will sometimes collect together into 
herds which have been computed to number hundreds of thousands of 
individuals, and these immense assemblages of antelopes will then move 
over the country in a solid mass in search of pasturage, sweeping the 
country they pass through as clean of herbage as would a flight of locusts. 
The antelopes taking part in these migrations are called by the Dutch 
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