December anc^ delicate tafte, though at the fame time lefs flavour w'vnJ than that of other gazels. I was informed, that in fuch years as are attended with great drought, the fpring-boks repair in incredible numbers to the fouthwards, making towards the colonies at the Cape, and keeping ftraight forwards on their road till they are flopped by the fea, when they turn back to go home by, the fame way as they came, and moft commonly with fevéral lions at their heels. Mr. P e n n a n t calls this animal the white antilope. M. P a l l a s gives it the name o f the antilope pygargus. The Syjlerna Naturoe mentions an animal by the name of capra cervi-capra ; and it might be fuppofed, that the fpring-bok was meant by it, as a drawing by Mr. H o u s t o n is referred to, in fome meafure anfwering to it; but other circum- ftances feem to claih with this idea, particularly the figure in D o d a r t ; which, however, is referred to as being a good one, not bearing the leaft refemblance to this creature. The name of cervi-capra, moreover, as denoting an intermediate genus between the deer and the goat, is applicable to the whole race o f gazels or antilopes. After we had ihot the Jpring-buck, we were obliged to flay at fo miferable a watering-place as this fpuammedacka five nights longer, as the two-horned rhinoceros (rhinoceros bicornis) was faid to have its principal refidence in thefe parts. The longing defire I had to ihoot this remarkable animal was fo much the greater, and the lefs to be wondered at, as it had hitherto been only known to naturalifts by the double horns, which at various times had been brought into Europe, and preferved in different cabinets. K o l b e , K o l b e , in d e ed , p r e te n d s to h a v e fe e n th e rhinoceros bicor- ^ *8® A December. nis; but as, befides giving a fabulous account of it, he has in the drawing he has given of it, reprefented the tail almoft as bufliy as that of a fquirrel, it is certain, that this author, on this as well as many other occafions, is merely the echoof certain ignorant inhabitants o f the Cape, whofe relations cannot be depended upon. I was fo much the more defirous to anatomiie the two-horned rhinoceros, as the inveftigation o f the internal parts o f the one-horned animal had been entirely neglected, though this creature had been more than once brought to Portugal, Prance, and England, and had been kept there alive for fome time; and upon the whole, has been tolerably well drawn and defcribed, particularly by Dr. P a r s o n s , in the Philofophical PranfaBions. The reader may fee, likewife, on this fubje£t, an extra£t of my journal, in the Swediih Tranfadiions for 1778, p. 307. with a figure o f the rhinoceros. With what fuccefs my wiihes were crowned, I lhall now proceed to relate. On the 1 8th day at feven in the morning, the thermometer flood at 60 degrees; at three in the afternoon it had rifen to 84. This day I had a good opportunity o f fhooting feveral rare and uncommon fmail birds, which in this arid diftrifl, where water was fo fcarce, were obliged to come hither in the hotteft part of the day, and venture their lives for a few drops of water, which they were in want of, as well for themfelves as for the young brood they had left in their nefts. Though they could not but be frightened away by my gun, and indeed fome of them were wounded by the ihot, and at the lame time they could but too well fee their deftroyer, -yet they came again, hopping N 2 by
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