The Bush-bucks form a clearly-defined group of small Antelopes peculiar
to tropical and Southern Africa. They are also known by sportsmen as
Duykers, or Bush-goats. They are characterised by the possession of
horns in the male sex, which are short, straight, and simple cones,
very much depressed, or slanting backwards, and rising some distance
behind the eyes; at the same time that there is a tuft of lengthy
hair, directed backwards, which is arranged in a kind of horseshoe
shape between the ears. The crumen or gland in front of each eye is
also peculiar. Instead of it being a sac with a circular opening, it
is spread out in the form of a curved line, and not contracted to form
an orifice at all. This feature, which is not observed in any other
animal, may be seen in the drawing of the head of the female Bush-buck.
The muffle, or extremity of the nose, is much like that of the Ox,
comparatively large and always moist. The tail is very short, whilst
the ears are of a fair size and oval in form. The legs are particularly
slender and delicate, terminated by minute hoofs. In most the forehead
is strongly convex. The coloration of the many species is not striking,
being a uniform red-brown, dark bluish-grey, or sooty-black. The
smallest of the species, the Pigmy Bush-buck, is not bigger than a
Rabbit, and might at first sight, especially the female, be mistaken
for a Deerlet. According to Mr. Drummond, “it feeds principally on
certain berries and shrubs found growing in the jungles, and seems to
be on the move, more or less, the whole day, though, in common with
the rest of the animal creation, it is most often to be seen at early
morning and evening.”
Of the Bush-bucks, the Philantomba, of West Africa, is grey-brown; the
Blau-bok, of Southern Africa, a bluish-grey; the Duyker-bok, of South
Africa, a yellowish-brown; the Coquetoon, a deep reddish-bay; the Bay
Antelope, of West Africa, a dark bay, whilst there are other species
black, brown, &c.
[Illustration: WATER-BUCK.]
THE FOUR-HORNED ANTELOPES.[11]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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