taking a leap. The height of this animal is about two feet and a half; the length of the horns, measuring them along the curvature, is nine inches; their distance at the base, where they are nearly three inches thick, is not more than one inch; and they gradually widen from thence to the distance of five inches, when they turn inwards, and nearly approach each other at the tips. They are of a deep black color, annulated above half way up, are smooth towards the top, and terminate in a sharp point.

This animal inhabits the Cape of Good Hope, and is there called the springbock, from the prodigious leaps it takes when any person suddenly appears. When pursued, it is pleasing and curious to see the whole herd leaping to a considerable height over each other's heads; and they will memes take three or four leaps successively. In this situation, they

aspended in the air, looking over their shoulders at their pursuers. are extremely swift, and it must be a good horse that can overtake them. They migrate annually from the interior of the country, in small herds, and continue near the Cape for two or three months, and then retreat towards the north in herds of many thousands, covering the great plains for several hours in their passage.

They are attended in these migrations, by numbers of lions, hyænas, and other wild beasts of prey, which commit great devastation among them. They also make periodical migrations, in seven or eight years, in herds of many thousands, from the north, being probably compelled to leave their haunts in the Terra de Natal, by the excessive drought of that region, where it sometimes happens that not a drop of rain falls for two or three years. In these migrations, they spread over the whole country of Caffraria, which they desolate, not leaving a blade of grass. Their flesh is excellent; and, with other antelopes, they furnish the venison of the Cape.

THE HART-BEEST, OR CAPE STAG. THIS animal is supposed to be the Bubalus of the ancients, and is the most common of all the larger gazelles known in Africa. Its height to the top of the shoulders, is about four feet; the form of the body is a mixture of the stag and heifer. The tail is rather more than a foot long, asinine, and terminated by a tuft of hair; the horns are very strong, black, and embossed with rings of an irregular form: they are almost close at the base, diverging upwards, and at the top bending backwards in a horizontal direction, almost to the tips, which are distant from each other. Some of these horns are eighteen inches long, and above ten inches in girth at

1 Antilope caama, DESм.

the base. The head is rather large, resembling that of an ox; and the eyes are placed very high. The general color of this animal is a dark cinnamon, except the rump and inner part of the thighs, which are white. The front of the head is marked with black, as is likewise the fore part of the legs. There is a pore about an inch below each eye, from which a matter is distilled; this the Hottentots preserve as a rare and valuable medicine.

The large head and high forehead, together with the asinine ears and tail of this animal, render it less handsome than many of the tribe of antelopes. They associate in great herds; and although they seemingly gallop with a heavy pace, yet they run as fast as any of the larger kinds; and when they have once got ahead of their pursuers, they are very apt to turn round and gaze at them. Like the wood antelope and nyl-ghau, this animal drops on its knees to fight. The flesh is fine, and of an agreeable flavor, but dry.

THE NYL-GHAU.1

Most of these interesting animals, which have been brought to England, have been obtained from Surat or Bombay; and it is conjectured that they are indigenous in the province of Guzerat. The nyl-ghau is larger than any ruminant of that country, except the ox, it being of greater size than the deer, and rather smaller than the black cattle; and in its form there is a very evident mixture of both. Its horns are seven inches long, six inches round at the roots, tapering by degrees, and terminating in a blunt point; the ears are large and beautiful, and spread to a considerable breadth: they

1 Antilope picta, DESM. Nyl ghau, the Persian name of this animal, signifies blue

cowo.

are white on the edge and on the inside, except where two black bands mark the hollow of the ear with a zebra-like variety. The general color of the animal'is ash or gray, from a mixture of black hairs and white, most of which are half white towards the root, and half black. Along the ridge of the neck and the back, the hairs form a short and thin upright mane; at the throat is a shield-like mark of beautiful hair; and lower down, on the beginning of the convexity of the neck, there is a remarkable tuft of long black hair. The height of the animal is about four feet one inch at the shoulder. The female differs from the male both in height and thickness, she being much smaller, and in shape more resembling the deer, and having no horns.

The nyl-ghau has six grinders in each jaw, and eight cutting teeth in the lower one. It eats oats, is fond of grass and hay, and still fonder of wheaten bread; when thirsty, it will drink two gallons of water. It is vicious and fierce in the rutting season, but tame, and gentle at other times; and should it prove docile enough to be easily trained to labor, its great swiftness and considerable strength might be applied to valuable purposes, as it is evident from experience, that it will breed in this country. When the males fight, they prepare for the attack at a distance from each other, by falling down

upon their knees; and in this attitude they approach, and when they are sufficiently near, spring and dart at each other with great violence.

In a state of confinement they often fall into that posture without doing any mischief. They will, notwithstanding, attack mankind unprovoked. A laborer, who was looking over some pales which inclosed several of them, was alarmed by one of them flying at him with the quickness of lightning; but the wood-work which separated him from the animal, was the means of his safety, as it dashed it to pieces and broke off one of its horns close to the root. The death of the animal, which happened soon after, was supposed to be owing to the injury it received from the blow.

In the days of Aurungzebe, they abounded between Delhi and Lahore, on the way to Cachemir; and they were once objects of chase with that mighty prince, during his journey. They were inclosed in nets by his army of hunters, which, being drawn closer and closer, at length formed a small space; into this the king, his omrahs, and hunters, entered, and killed the animals with arrows, spears, or muskets; and sometimes in such numbers, that Aurungzebe used to send quarters, as presents to all his great people, which proves that they are esteemed as good and delicious food.

THE gnu is one of the swiftest beasts that ranges the plains of Africa. Mr Barrows says, "The various descriptions that have been given of it, all differing from each other, should seem to have been taken from report rather than from nature, notwithstanding that one of them was for some time in

the menagerie of the Prince of Orange, at the Hague. Nature, though regular and systematic in all her works, often puzzles and perplexes human systems, of which this animal affords an instance. In the shape of its body it evidently partakes of the horse, the ox, the stag, and the antelope.

A ridge of black hair, from

"Its head is about eighteen inches long, the upper part completely guarded by the rugged roots of the horns, that spread across the forehead, leaving only a narrow channel between them, that wears out with age, as in the instance of the buffalo; the horns project forward twelve inches, then turn in a short curve, backwards, ten inches: the space from the root to the point is only nine inches. Down the middle of the face grows a sort of black hair four inches in length; and from the under lip to the throat another ridge somewhat longer. The orbit of the eye is round, and surrounded by long white hairs, that, like so many radii, diverge and form a kind of star; this radiated eye gives to the animal a fierce and uncommon look. The same sort of vibrissæ is thinly dispersed over the lips. The neck is little more than a foot long; on the upper part is a mane extending beyond the shoulders, erect, and five inches in length; the hair like bristles, black in the middle, and white on each side. This mane appears as if it had been cut and trimmed with nice attention. six inches to a foot in length, extends from the fore part of the chest, under the fore legs, to the beginning of the abdomen. The body is about three feet two inches long. The joints of the hip bones project high, and form on the haunches a pair of hemispheres. The tail is two feet long, flat near the root, where the hair grows only at the sides; this is white, bristly, and bushy. The entire length, from the point of the nose to the end of the tail, is seven feet ten inches; and the height three feet six inches. The color is that of a mouse, with a few ferruginous straggling hairs on the sides. Like the mare, it has only two teats; and all its motions and habits are equine. Though a small animal, it appears of considerable size when prancing over the plains. The gnu might be considered as an emblem of unbounded freedom, with the means of supporting it. It possesses, in an eminent degree, strength, swiftness, weapons of defence, acute scent, and a quick sight. When they happen to be disturbed, the whole herd begin to draw together, and to butt each other with their horns, to bound, and play their various gambols, after which they gallop off to a distance. Their motions are extremely free, varied, and always elegant. Fierce and vicious as this animal certainly is in its wild state, yet it probably might not be very difficult of domestication. No successful attempts, however, have yet been made to tame it. The flesh is so like that of an ox, both in appearance and taste, that it is not to be distinguished from it."

There is another variety of the gnu, a male and female of which were exhibited at Cross's menagerie, in Pall-Mall East; and in their appearance, partook rather more of the antelope tribe than the preceding. Mr Pringle, who had seen this variety in its native regions, observes, "that