fides run five white paralleiftreaks, which) though they are not difcoverable but by a clofe infpedtion, it was certainly proper to mention) in cafe fome individual ihould be met with) on which thefe marks might be more dif- tin£t) and in confequence of which fome people might he induced to take it for a diftindt fpecies. It is generally faid, that goats are bad gardeners} and this in a certain degree is true this wood-goai', or} as it is called, bqfch-bok. At Groot Vaders-bofcb, the people complained much of the mifcfaief done by this creature in the vineyards and kitchen-gardens there, It likewife ihewed a great deal of craft and artifice in avoiding the fnares and traps fet for it, as well as the ambufcades of the fportfmen. I myfelf fat up a whole night in a vineyard on the watch for this animal, without getting the leaft glimpfe o f i t ; th ou gh it had, according to all appearance, paid us a vifit incog, and made o ff Undifcovered. As the bcjcb-bok runs but {lowly, it fometimes happens, that he is caught with dogs. When he fees there is no other refource, he puts himfelf in a pofture o f defence; and when he is going to butt, kneels down. The colo- nifts are not very fond of hunting him in this manner, as the beaft, on this occafion, generally fells his life at a. very dear rate, by goring and killing fome of their beft and moft fpirited hounds. This creature’s horns, which are its chief defence, fometimes alib prove its bane, by being entangled in the bufhes and fmall branches o f trees, which thus flop the beaft in its flight. In fome meafure to avoid this, it Carnes its nofe horizontally and ftrait forward while it runs; fo that its horns lie, as it -were, diredtiy on its neck : notwith-; ftanding which, their horns are generally worn away a v^ ynJ little on the fore part, and thus acquire fome degree o f polifti. In fine, this fpecies o f goat is fwifter in woodlands than the dogs, which likewife fooner lofe fcent o f him there. The female, which is without horns, and on that account runs about in the forefts more free and unimpeded, does not fuffer herielf fo eafily to be hunted out o f the woods, having there, as well as on the plains, a more certain defence againft the dogs in her legs, than the male has in his horns, efpecially as ihe is not £0 bulky and heavy as the male. Her breaft is faid to be very plump and fleihy, but the flefh in general is not very tender; in that point refembling that of the bunte-bok, or guib of B uf fo,n, Tom. XII. tab. 40. By the wreathing o f their horns, the form o f their bodies and white fpots, it ihould feem moreover, that there was fome diftant affinity between thefe two forts o f gazels; but by no means great enough, for them to be merely varieties of the fame fpecies. Befides the difference in their colour and fpots, which is too remarkable for them to be confider- ed asone and the fame animal, (not to mention the length of the bofcb-bok's horns in proportion to its body,) I have never feen the bunte-boks live otherwife than in large herds on the plains, and thefe were at leaft half as high again as the bofcb-bok, or of the fame fize with the hartbeejl. The cry o f this animal, as I have feveral times, efpecially in the evenings, heard it in Houtniquas, fomewhat refembled the interrupted, ihort, low, and rather hoarfe growling
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