CHAPTER XI 
THE WHITE-EARED COB ( Adenota leucotis) 
Arabic —Teel 
Dawn had already broken when against a fire-blackened 
bank ahead I descried in clear silhouette a group of 
antelopes, whose pale tawny pelage contrasted sharply 
with their dark environment. Though new to me, I 
recognised the strangers as white-eared cob. Silently 
our ship sped towards them, her swift approach easily 
inappreciable from the animals’ point of view. Pale foxy- 
red in hue, their sheeny coats shone refulgent in the 
horizontal sun-rays, well set-off by the black bank behind. 
Obviously they had just enjoyed a matutinal drink, and 
now grazed unsuspicious on scant green blades upspringing 
from new burnt soil. Then, at 200 yards, my eyes caught 
what at first had escaped detection. Two coal-black 
bucks, standing slightly apart and nearer, complacently 
gazed back at us over their shoulders. That dark back¬ 
ground, though it had rendered their female consorts so 
conspicuous, had effectually concealed these two black 
males from our view. Thus occurred my first interview 
with white-eared cob. 
That same afternoon a second encounter precisely 
reversed the conditions just described. Far out in the 
midst of an ocean of sere grass, a solitary horned animal 
stood out conspicuous as a coal-cart. Possibly in the joy 
and excitement of a first introduction to new creatures, 
I had no eye for collateral objects ; but the binoculars 
speedily revealed that what had appeared a solitary 
164 
