“The Hartebeest, by preference, inhabits an open country, and hence is generally observed upon the plains in small herds consisting of from six to ten individuals, and often, where the plains are extensive, many of such groups are to be seen within the range of the eye. It is a very wary animal, and views with strong suspicion the advance of man, so that, unless favoured by special circumstances, he finds it an animal difficult to procure. When disturbed, the herd generally scampers off in the train of some acknowledged leader, and they are rarely seen when flying, except in a string, one animal upon the heels of another. Their pace is a sort of heavy gallop, and though they do not appear to move with rapidity, yet the ground over which they go in a given time shows that their progressive motion is far from slow. When first they start, they appear extremely awkward, and generate in the observer an impression that to overtake them must be no very difficult task. After they have advanced a little, however, the apparent stiffness in the joints of the hinder extremities disappears, and even the indications of weakness of the hinder limbs become so indistinct, that the pursuer is soon satisfied of the inaccuracy of his first conclusion. This and the Sassaby are the only antelopes of South Africa which exhibit the peculiarity alluded to, and have led many to remark their resemblance in this respect to the Hyænas and Aard Wolf (_Proteles lalandii_). In all these animals there is a disproportion between the development of the anterior and posterior parts of the body, and each of them appears when in motion as if its hinder extremities were too weak for the duties they are destined to perform.” We now come to the distribution of the Hartebeest in South Africa in more modern days. Mr. T. E. Buckley, who published some interesting notes on the range of the large Mammals in South Africa in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1876 and 1877, tells us that from being one of the commonest animals throughout the Cape Colony it had then become one of the rarest. He observed it only on three or four occasions during his journey into the interior--once just before reaching the Crocodile River, and once or twice in the Colony of Natal. In the south-east he says a few then still remained in the Zulu country, but he could not hear of its occurrence in Swaziland, where its place seemed to be taken by the Sassaby.