GNU. 
255 
copiously furnished with long hair. But the head 
of the gnu is thick and large, and horned like 
the. head of an ox. On the forehead, between the 
nose and the flexures of the horns, the face is 
covered with an oblong square brush of stiff black 
hairs, turned upwards. On the inferior jaw too 
it has a beard of thick shaggy hair. Its legs are 
long, and elegantly slender, like the legs of the 
stag ; the space between the fore legs is covered 
with long bushy hair. Its horns are rough ; they 
rise on the hinder part of the head ; and, bending 
their direction forward for a short way, almost 
close to the skin, they turn suddenly upwards, and 
run back for a considerable length, so as to bear a 
near resemblance in form, to the sickles common- 
ly used through Scotland in cutting corn. The 
females are horned as well as the males ; nor are 
the two sexes distinguished from each other by any 
difference of the horns. The horns of the young 
f nu are perfectly straight ; they acquire their 
exure as the animal grows older, and they longer 
and thicker. 
The tail and mane of the gnu are of a light 
grey colour ; the shag on its chin and its breast, 
and the stiff brush on its forehead, black ; and the 
rest of the body uniformly dark brown. 
The gnu is a lively capricious animal, fierce, 
and dangerous. When irritated , 1 even though at 
a distance from its enemy, it expresses its resent- 
ment by plunging, curveting, flinging out its legs 
behind, and butting with its head against mole- 
hills, bars, and other similar objects. These ani- 
mals feed in large herds ; and it is only when a 
straggler has been accidentally separated from the 
herd, that any of them is found in a solitary state. 
The voice of this species has obtained it from the 
Hottentots the name of gnu ; they sometimes utter 
