THE GRYSBOK 
RHAPHICEROS MELANOTIS 
T HIS little antelope, which stands about twenty-two inches at 
the shoulder, is still common near Hout’s Bay, on the slopes of 
Table Mountain, as well as in other portions of the Cape 
Peninsula, and from thence its range extends northwards 
along the coastal regions of the Cape Colony as far, it is said, as 
Natal and Zululand. Whether the true grysbok is found in the 
Transvaal, Swaziland and Southern Rhodesia, or whether its place is 
taken in those territories by the nearly allied Sharpe’s steinbok, seems 
at present a little uncertain. From 1872 onwards I frequently met with 
small, dark -red, grizzled antelopes in various parts of the territory now 
known as Southern Rhodesia which I always thought were grysboks; but, 
being only armed with heavy elephant guns, I was unable to procure 
specimens of such small animals. I found these little antelopes very 
numerous in the hilly country to the south-east of the Victoria Falls, and 
also amongst the wooded hills of the country now known as Southern 
Rhodesia, and I also saw numbers of them near the northern bank of the 
Zambesi, near Kariba Gorge. In those days it was not known that another 
dark -red grizzled species of antelope, very similar in general appearance 
to the grysbok, subsequently to be called Sharpe’s steinbok, was in 
existence. This latter antelope, however, is now said to be common in the 
neighbourhood of Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia; but it is not yet certain 
that the true grysbok does not exist there as well. I have in my possession 
a pair of horns which I cut from the head of a small, dark -red, grizzled 
antelope shot by a friend in December, 1891, in the Umvukwi hills, near 
Salisbury, which I took to be a grysbok. These horns measure between 
three and four inches in length, and are quite unlike those of a Sharpe’s 
steinbok. I have also another pair of horns of an antelope which I thought 
was a grysbok, which was killed by my dogs in October, 1878, in the 
Machabi hills to the west of Salisbury. These horns belonged to a buck 
which was only half-grown, but they are much longer than those of any 
properly identified Sharpe’s steinbok. In the same year, 1878, whilst 
elephant -hunting in the Machabi hills, I saw several bucks of the same 
dark-red, grizzled species of antelope which I thought were grysboks, with 
horns which must certainly have been over three inches in length. 
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