PLATE XXIII. 
AIGOCERUS NIGER. THE SABLE ANTELOPE. 
Undescribed by Naturalists. Unknown to the Matabili. 
Generic CHARACTER. — Adult male four feet six inches high at the shoulder ; nearly nine feet in extreme length. 
Horns thirty-seven inches over the curve, placed immediately above the eyes; flat, slender, sub-erect, and then strongly bent 
back scimitar-wise; at first gradually diverging, and then running parallel to each other; three-fourths annulated with about 
thirty strongly pronounced incomplete rings, more rigid on the edges, but chiefly lost on the outside of the horn; the remain- 
ing one-fourth smooth, round, slender, and pointed. | Head somewhat attenuated towards the muzzle, and compressed laterally. 
Carease robust. Withers elevated. Neck broad and flat. Hoofs black, obtuse, and rather short. Hair close and smooth. 
General colour of the coat, intense glossy black, with an occasional cast of deep chesnut. A white streak commencing above 
each eye, and continued by a pencil of long hairs, covers the place of the suborbital pouch, (of which cavity no trace is to 
be found,) and then runs down the side of the nose to the muzzle, which is entirely white—the same colour pervading 
the throat and one half of the cheek. Ears ten inches long; narrow, tapering, and pointed; white within, lively chesnut 
without, with black pencilled tips. A broad half crescent of deeper chesnut at the base of each ear, behind. A small entire 
sharp black muzzle. A copious standing black mane, somewhat inclined forwards, five and a half inches high, extending from 
between the ears to the middle of the back. Hair of the throat and neck longer than that of the body. Belly, buttocks, 
and inside of thighs, pure white. A longitudinal dusky white stripe behind each arm. Fore-legs jet black inside and out, 
with a tinge of chesnut on and below the knees. Hind-legs black, with a lively chesnut patch at and below the hocks. 
Tail black; long hair skirting the posterior edge, terminating in a tuft which extends below the hocks. 
Female smaller than the male, with smaller but similarly shaped horns. Colour deep chesnut brown, verging upon 
black. Very rare. Gregarious in small families. Inhabits the great mountain range which threads the eastern portion of the 
Matabili country. 
