THE WHITE-EARED COB 171 
our special sable friend and his next darkest rival aided 
our object. 
It is worth special note that three fine tawny males, 
with their consorts, were lying down together , slightly 
apart, all the time, and took no interest in the sparring 
of their darker cousins. Apparently they belonged to a 
separate caste. 
At length the awaited chance arrived and the ball 
went true. The champion, though apparently black, 
proved to be considerably brindled with foxy-chestnut— 
an exquisitely beautiful creature, but not the genuinely 
black ideal of one’s dreams. His horns (C) were of 
similar measurements to those of the former “brindled” 
example (i?) shot near Kaka; that 
is, intermediate between the smaller 
black heads and the bigger tawny. 
I had now reached my “limit” 
of white-eared cob, and a few days 
later, while shooting sandgrouse on 
the northern shore of Lake No 
(620 miles), encountered the first 
absolutely black example I had seen. With a single 
doe, he lay sleeping among green flags and sprang under¬ 
foot. Never in my life have I seen a wild animal 
(carrying a handsome trophy) so totally careless of human 
intrusion. At 30 yards he pulled up and stood on gaze, 
his mate just beyond. Truly it seemed that he had 
studied the game-ordinances of Sudan and knew, more¬ 
over, that I had shot my allowance. At any rate there 
they both stood while I attempted the rude sketch 
here reproduced, and once the buck even stooped to 
scratch an ear with his hind-hoof. 
This antelope, I could swear it, was purely and 
absolutely black and white with never a tawny hair on 
him from stem to stern. At that close range mistake 
was impossible. His horns were of merely medium 
size. 
