XX 
THE ANTELOPE 
161 
This seems to be the all-absorbing employment 
of the master-buck, to preserve order and to 
support his conjugal rights in a limited society 
of about twenty lovely females and five or six 
young aspirants of various ages. 
In other herds there may be two or three 
thoroughly black bucks, in which case the personal 
combats are both fierce and frequent. They are 
highly pugnacious, and I have frequently obtained 
a shot when two old bucks have been so closely 
engaged in their duel that, although the herd had 
fled, they were too much occupied to notice my 
appearance. 
The live weight of an average buck is about 
85 lbs. It is difficult to give an average of horns, 
as they vary in different districts and animals. I 
have heard of horns that were 28 inches in direct 
length measured from point to base, but I have 
never shot them longer than 23^. I should say a 
length of 19 inches would be a fair average. They 
are most regularly spiral, and to be good specimens 
they should be exactly alike in length and inclination 
from the base. 
In the description of the hunting leopard (Felis 
jubata ) I have already given an account of the 
speed of the black-buck; there is nothing more 
interesting than to watch the habits and the 
movements of these graceful animals through 
powerful binocular glasses, which upon an open 
plain permit you to examine them as though in 
the centre of the herd. 
VOL. 11 
M 
