Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/473

Rh points; it was bluish grey above (the coat showing a beautiful velvety appearance during life), and snow-white beneath, there being no marked demarcation between the colours: indeed, Le Vaillant says that when seen from a distance the living animal appeared to be entirely white. The Blaauwbok derived its specific name leucophæa from a whitish spot just in front of and beneath the eye; the anterior surfaces of the limbs were darker than the posterior. The ears were rather long; the neck bore a very short mane, reversed like that of an Oryx Antelope.

An alleged change of colour in the skin of the Blaauwbok after death has given rise to some comment. Pennant, in his 'History of Quadrupeds,' says:—"Colour, when alive, a fine blue of a velvet appearance; when dead changes to bluish grey with a mixture of white." Dr. Sparrman, who travelled in South Africa during 1772–1776, in mentioning the Blaauwbok, observes: "On this subject the reader may likewise turn to Mr. Pennant's Blue Antelope"; and also says: "The colour of this creature when alive is said to resemble that of blue velvet, but when it is dead it is of a leaden colour." Le Vaillant, who obtained a Blaauwbok bull in December, 1781, states that the colour of the animal was faint blue inclining to grey, with snowwhite belly, the head being above all beautifully spotted with white; but, he adds ('Travels in Africa,' vol. i. p. 132), "I did not observe, as Dr. Sparrman says, that this Antelope when alive resembles blue velvet, and that when dead the skin changes its colour; living or dead it appeared to me always alike. The tints of that which I brought with me never varied."

At first sight it would thus seem that the statement of Le Vaillant contradicts that of Sparrman, and also indirectly that of Pennant; but we must remember that in some Antelopes, such as Eland and Kudu, the hair becomes so scanty that the bluish hide shows beneath it in old age; and this hide, after post-mortem drying, becomes black or "leaden colour." Further, this change due to drying is actually recorded by Sir Cornwallis Harris as taking place in the Roan Antelope, the nearest living ally of the Blaauwbok, and we may therefore well assume that Le Vaillant expected to see some conspicuous change in the hairy covering itself due to chemical or other causes, such as has