17 76. January. 0"V>J them was very conftant in the very confiderable number of them that I have feen in Africa. The head of the figure here annexed-, is rather too fmall in proportion to the hody ; a miftake which happened, in the reduction of the drawing from a larger to a lefler fcale The large head and high fore-hand, together with the afinine ears and tail of the hartbeeft, render it one o f the leaft handfome of the whole tribe o f antilopes. Its pace, when at full fpeed, appears like a heavy gallop; notwith- ftanding which, it runs as fail as any of the other large antilopes. When it has in the leaft got a-head of its pur- fuers, it is more apt than almoft any other gazel to turn round frequently while it is flying, and, making a ftand, ftare them full in the face. I have already made mention, at page 132 of this Volume, o f its falling on its knees, like the gnu, when it goes to butt any one. The fleih of it is of a fine grain, and rather dry, but yet of a rather agreeable high flavour. It is at leaft not fo coarfe and dry as that of the hunte-bok. M. d e B u f f o n , who, at page 298, feems defirous o f feparating the hartbeeft from the gazel, goat, and all other genera, will, perhaps, now be induced, by what has been juft mentioned, to allow that it ought rather to be referred to the gazel nr antilope kind. Eland, or Kaapje Eland, (the Cape elk) vide Plate I. Vol. II. is a name given by the colonifts to a fpecies of gazel which is fomewhat larger and clumfier, though, upon the whole, handfomer than the bartbeejl. I have already had occafion in Vol. I. page 13 1 , and Vol. II. page 70 ,9 6 ,1 16 ,1 30, to make * This defeit is remedied in the prefent edition. mention mention of this animal, and have given a defcription and drawing of it in the Swediih Tranfadtions for 17 79 . In one of. the places above referred to, I have mentioned, that it. is called by the Caffres em p o fo sI have fince found in my manufcript notes, that it is likewife called by the fame nationpoffo, and by the Hottentots fgann. There has not been hitherto given any fatisfadtory defcription or drawing of this rare animal, as before this it had never been ieen by any naturalift. Mr. P e n n a n t , in the new edition of his excellent Hif- tory o f Quadrupeds, Vol. I. page 70, has perfedlly well comprehended my meaning in the Swediih Tranfadtions; but, as well as M. P a l l a s , in his SpiciL Zool. Fafcic. XII.. p. x r , has- been led by" K o l b e into the error of fixing the habitation of the Cape elk in mountainous tradts ; (vide Fafc. I. Plate XVI.) an error, which has occafioned that great zoologift, M. P a l l a s , who had before in Fafc. I. 1. c. made mention of this animal by the name o f oryx, to change it for that of orcas, (vide Fafc. XII. page- 5, 1 1 , 17,) and afterwards gave the name of oryx to another animal; a circumftance which it were to be wiihed could be avoided, on account of the confufion in which the multitude of names, and more eipecially the alterations of them, muft necefiarily involve the fcience of natural hif- tory. After all, however, the fadt is this, that the elk antilope, like the other large fpecies of the gazel kind, lives on the plains and in vallies, inftead of the high mountains, whither K o l b e has fent it, and up which this animal in particular would in all probability be too heavy and unwieldy to climb. The Comte de B u f f o n , Tom. XII. Tab. XL VI. 1776. January. W'VNi/
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