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Show 1876.] DISTRIBUTION O F S O U T H - A F R I C A N M A M M A L S . 285 most liable to extermination'; easily ridden down, the best and fattest of all animals, the skin of value as well, it is year by year diminishing in numbers. Throughout m y travels I only saw them on two occasions, and never obtained a specimen ; I have at different times seen their fresh spoor (which resembles that of the buffalo, but is rather smaller and rounder) in the driest spots through which we passed ; and it is said they require very little water. Harris speaks of these animals as occurring in vast droves in the open country south of the Vaal river; now the Eland is only to be found in the more remote wooded country. A few yet remain in certain parts of Natal, one locality being Bushman's River, where, luckily, they are now carefully preserved. 15. TRAGELAPHUS ANGASI. (The Inyala.) This fine Bush-buck inhabits the bush bordering the sea-coast along the Zulu and Amaswazi countries, from the Inyalazi river (its southern boundary), as far north at least as Delagoa Bay, probably beyond this. It appears to be very local, never, as far as I could hear from the hunters, being found out of this limit. The Inyala lives in small herds, the old rams being generally solitary ; but the younger ones accompany the females. They inhabit the very thickest bush. 16. ALCELAPHUS CAAMA. (The Hartebeest.) W h y the Hartebeest should have become so rare is a matter of conjecture ; but from being one of the commonest animals throughout the Cape colony (according to Harris, up to the tropic of Capricorn), it is now one of the rarest of the antelopes. W e observed it only on three or four occasions, once just before reaching the Crocodile River, and once or twice in the colony of Natal, where, being preserved, it is now becoming fairly common. At the time of Harris's visit to South Africa it seems to have been extremely abundant, mingling with the vast herds of Blesbocks and Wildebeestes. A few are met with about the Bamangwato hills ; Col. Grant mentions having met with this species as well as A. lichtensteini in Equatorial Africa. A friend tells me, however, that he never met with it from Shoshong (the capital of the Bechuanas) to the Zambesi. It is not mentioned by Baines, Andersson, or Chapman as occurring in Southwest Africa. In the south-east, again, a few still remain in the Zulu country, as well as in Natal; but I could not hear of it as occurring in the Amaswazi country, where its place is taken by the Sassabye. The Hartebeest prefers the open country or where the bush is, at best, very scanty : the three or four we saw near the Crocodile River were very shy, not allowing us to approach nearer than five or six hundred yards. 17. ALCELAPHUS LUNATUS. (The Sassabye.) Although, in Harris's time, the Sassabye appears to have been common on the plains, at the present day it is essentially a bush-loving animal. According to Dr. O. Smith the Sassabye was rarely known to advance to the south of Latakoo ; at present its southern |