THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
603 
of Bluebeard’s wife and her sister Anne. The hunters find that by merely tying 
a colored cloth to their guns they can approach quite near to this over-curious 
antelope. Its habitat is from the Pacific slope to the Missouri river. 
The Reedbuck (Cervicapra arundinacea) is a hooked-horned antelope of 
southern Africa. It frequents the reeds and moves about in couples. It is 
about five feet in ■ zdd. 
length and three in 
height, exclusive o f 
an additional foot for 
its horns. Its ashen- 
gray color becomes 
white on the under 
parts. Its forays upon 
the cornfields render 
its destruction an 
imperious necessity to 
the farmer. It is not 
difficult of approach, 
as it will lie still in 
the reeds until the 
hunter almost stum¬ 
bles over it, when 
with a chamois-like 
whistle it jumps up, 
gallops a short dis¬ 
tance, and then stops 
to take a fresh observation. This toying with fate is less hazardous than 
would appear at first sight, for although not invulnerable, it is somewhat rhi- 
noceros-like in its general indifference to bullets. When 
about to take to flight it always whistles to its mate, 
so that hunters employ the reedbuck whistle as a decoy. 
It is sometimes called the umseke or the rietbok. 
The Waterbuck, Photomok, Waterbok, or Kobus 
(.Kobus ellipsiprymnus ), wanders about South Africa in 
small herds, and when disturbed takes at once to the 
water. It is brown except for a white ellipse at the 
base of the tail. Its horns are about two and a half 
feet in length, rather inclined to be lyrate, and bent 
back until they near their extremities when they again 
bend, but forward. Sir Samuel Baker on one occasion 
succeeded in bringing to bay upon an island a water 
antelope and two koodoo bucks, and was fortunate 
enough to shoot all three. On another occasion he 
rode down, after an exciting race, a koodoo buck. White is the color of 
chest, abdomen and eye-orbits; brown prevails on the front legs, while the body 
is brownish-yellow and the tail black-tufted. The neck is the vulnerable part 
—if shot elsewhere it is as safe as Achilles, and as tenacious of life as a cat. 
For example, a water antelope which had been mortally wounded, took to the 
water where it was seized by a crocodile. In spite of its expiring strength 
saiga antelope, OF The steppes (Saiga tartarica). 
ANTELOPE. 
