The book of antelopes, vol. 1 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 1 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
wheels with an impatient sneeze to the right about, and proceeds
ducking and bounding as before.
“The approved Colonial mode of hunting the Duiker-bok is with dogs--and
whilst thus topping the covert, or darting from one copse to another,
the little wretch, despite of all its dodging and artifice, is easily
slain with a hatful of buckshot discharged from a piece of ordnance
of such calibre, that four fingers might be introduced without much
squeezing! Like the rest of the Cape venison, the flesh is utterly
destitute of fat, a deficiency which the thrifty Dutch housewife seeks
to remedy with her usual skill by calling in the aid of a sheep’s tail.
The animal is often to be seen running tame about the farm-houses,
but it never ceases, even in a domestic state, to take the note of
alarm from the least sound to which it has been unaccustomed--thunder
invariably causing it to fly to the nearest shelter in order to hide
itself away.”
As regards the Duiker in the Cape Colony at the present time, we are
assured by Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington that it is still, next to
the Steinbuck, the most common and widely distributed of the smaller
Antelopes, being found sometimes in pairs, but more frequently singly
in every suitable locality from Table Bay to the Zambezi. As a rule,
these observers tell us, the Duikers of Cape Colony and Griqualand
West are smaller and lighter in colour than those found further north.
In certain portions of the Kalihari Desert they are very common, and
attain their largest size, some specimens obtained by these gentlemen
having measured 28 inches at the shoulder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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