Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/474

444 been observed to take place in the lilac breast-feathers of the newly-dead Gouldian Finch (Poephila gouldiæ). If the first two or three Blaauwbok obtained were infirm old bulls, easily dispatched by the uncertain and primitive weapons of the old days, we can reasonably infer that the hide, denuded through age of most of the original hairy covering, would appear conspicuously bluish during life, and conspicuously black after post-mortem drying, and thus originate the colour-change legend.

We can in these latter times form only a general idea of the habits of the Blaauwbok with the slender aid of analogy and our knowledge of allied species. Field notes of the habits of Hippotragus leucophæus will, alas! never be forthcoming, for it was hardly known even to the early colonists, and in those days there was no enthusiastic photographer with telephotic lens and screened camera to obtain sun-picture records for future generations of naturalists to debate over. Nevertheless, as the palæontologist reconstructs for us the ancient world till with vivid imagination we see again the rivers of Britain alive with bellowing Hippopotami, or watch the Pterodactyl skimming with extended parachute through the waving groves of pterophyllum, so also with the aid of analogical reasoning we may form an idea of the daily life of the Blaauwbok.

The nearest living allies are the Roan Antelope (H. equinus), a noble beast of sturdy appearance and imposing stature; and the yet more glorious Sable Antelope (H.niger), jet-black above, snow-white beneath, its head armed with magnificent horns sweeping backwards in a scimitar-like curve. Le Vaillant compares a Blaauwbok which he saw at a distance to a white Horse; and, taking everything into consideration, we may reasonably conclude that this vanished Antelope was a beautiful and stately creature, with its handsome blue-grey coat and snowy under surface well set off by the graceful sweep of the elegant though moderate-sized horns. The blue-grey colour need not have been disadvantageous to it, for travellers have assured us that the boldly coloured Roan and Sable Antelopes, in spite of their great size, are often quite invisible in the broken lights and shadows of thick bush; and especially at night the neutral greyish tint was well adapted to protect the Blaauwbok, just as our own warships painted grey become practically invisible in the gloom of night.