Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/114

1772.
November.

the beautiful genus of gazelles or antelopes^[1], and the different names which have been impropely given to its species, have hitherto not a little contributed to obscure our knowledge of them. A number of the fiercest beasts of prey likewise infest the Cape, and the colonists can never be at sufficient pains to extirpate them. Lions, leopards, tyger-cats, striped and spotted hyænas, (Pennant's Syn. of Quadr.) jackals, and several others, live on the numerous

 

1. We can only except a few species found in India, and other parts of Asia, and one in Europe. The different species at the Cape are remarkable, some for the elegance of their shape, some for their colours, their horns, or their size. The Coodoo, or Kolben's bock ohne namen (goat without a name), from whence the name of M. de Buffon's Condoma is probably derived, is the strepsiceros of Linné and Pallas, and its height is that of a horse. Its leaps are said to be of an astonishing height. The Cape elk of Kolben, Pallas's antelope oryx, is about the size of a stag. The bonte bock is the A. scripta of Dr. Pallas. The antelope which they improperly call a hart or stag at the Cape, is the A. bubalis of Pallas. The Egyptian antelope, Linné's and Pallas's gazella, and M. de Buffon's pasan, is here called gems-bock or chamois, which it does not in the least resemble. The blue antelope, (blauwe bock) is really of a blueish colour, but when killed soon loses the velvet-like appearance of its fur. The springbock, a beautiful species, named A. pygargus by Pallas, live in vast herds in the interior parts of Africa, and travel to the southward in the summer season, in search of food, attended by many lions, panthers, hyænas, and jackals, which prey upon them. Of this species we had the honour to present one to Her Majesty alive. Two small species, with several varieties not hitherto noticed, supply the principal inhabitants with venison of a fine flavour. Their size is that of a fawn of the fallow-deer. The duyker, or diving antelope, so called from hiding itself among the bushes when pursued, and only emerging from time to time, is not yet sufficiently known, and the animal named a roebuck here, likewise deserves the farther attention of travellers.

species