J 3 0 S E L A P H U S O R EA S ^Female 8c Young .)
( Mammalia__Plat© .41 1;';
F em a le and Y o u n g . P la t e XLT.
C o lo ur .— Female.—Forehead cream-yellow, tinted with yellowish brown ;
rest of head purplish white, tinted with cream-yellow; neck wine-yellow,
tinted with hair-brown; back, upper portion of sides, and outer surface of
extremities towards body pale sienna-yellow, deadened with pale broccoli-
brown; lower parts of sides, belly, and extremities towards hoofs dirty white,
slightly tinted with cream-yellow. Hoofs and horns light liver-brown; tuft
of tail rusty yellowish brown.
F orm .—Figure elegant, and very delicate as compared with that of the
male; limbs slender and finely turned; mane short and reversed; a little
long coarse hair on the centre of the forehead. Horns long, straight, and
rather slender, somewhat spiral towards and at the base, with a rudimentary
ridge on the spire. Dewlap narrow, and nearly the whole length of the
under edge of neck ; tuft of tail smaller than in the male.
Young.—The prevailing colour in young specimens is a tint intermediate
between reddish orange and yellowish brown, which tint only ceases to be the
prevailing one when the animal has attained to full maturity. In specimens,
apparently full grown, the tint described is often very distinct, particularly in
females, and in the latter it continues longer to be the prevailing colour than
in the male. In some middle-aged females there are indications of vertical
white stripes on the sides, which are distinctly visible on one in the British
Museum.
Elands are generally found associated in small herds, each herd commonly of from eight to
fourteen individuals, and more than two adult males are seldom met, even in the largest herds.
They appear at one time to have ranged over the whole of Southern Africa; but of late few
have appeared within the limits of the Colony. In the districts they inhabit they are often
observed upon the plains, but more frequently near to mountains or broken hilly tracts, to
which they retire upon being disturbed in the open country. They ascend hills, or even
mountains, with great ease, and wind their course over peaks of the latter which appear almost
impassable. While retiring, they generally arrange themselves in single file, and they only
vary from that course when hotly pursued, and when the effort of every one is to effect escape
in any way possible.
When young, or but little advanced in years, and not over-fed, Elands are rather fleeter
than a Cape horse ; but when older, and more especially if in good condition, they are so heavy
and unwieldy, as to render it no very difficult task to come up with them, provided they have
but little advantage in point of start, and be hotly pursued at once. In the event of their not
being closely approached soon after they start, they are rarely overtaken, unless the chace be
continued with fresh horses, as, when once they have run for a considerable distance, they
either improve in speed, or, on the contrary, the horse diminishes in a greater proportion.