>775- extremely different from what I have defcribed it to be December. above* and from what I have obferved in Africa, and which may likewife be feen on the ikin of this animal I brought home with me. This difference probably proceeds from a diverfity o f age, climate, or other accidental circumftances. A t f i r f t f i g h t o n e w o u ld b e a p t to p ro n o u n c e , th a t th e gnu m o f t r e fem b le s th e o x k i n d ; b u t w i t h re fp ed t to t h e fo llow in g - p a r t ic u la r s , th is b e a ft m a y l ik e w i f e b e r e f e r r e d to th e capra in g e n e r a l , o r to th e g e n u s w h i c h th e g r e a t z o o lo - g i f t , M . P a l l a s , h a s fe p a ra te d f r om th em u n d e r th e d e n o m in a t io n o f antilopes. 1. The legs of the gnu are as fmall as thofeof the, antilope, or the gazel kind; and, like them, have fmall fet- lock-bones and hoofs. 2. The refembles the antilopes and capra in its hair, inafmuch as this is ihort, juft as it is in the hart kind. In its fhag, the gnu refembles the capra more than oxen. With refpedt to its mane, it is manifeflly diftindt from thefe latter animals; but fomewhat refembles another large capra; or antilope (the antilope oryx) by the colonifts called the Cape-elky (vide Plate I. of this Volume.) With regard to the tail, it does not in the leaft refemble an ox’s tail, but rather that of a horfe ; and in this point fomewhat coincides with another large antilope, viz. the hartbeeft, (vide Plate I. of this Volume.) This laft-mentioned antilope, according to the accounts given me by feveral perfons at the Cape, falls upon its knees when it is going to butt any one; and probably the gnu refembles it in this point likewife, as M. A l l a m a n d remarked of the gnu which was brought to i Holland, Holland, that it ibmetimes fell on its knees, and butted againft the ground. 3. The gnu, like many o f thè hart and antilope kindj has a vifible finus, or porus febaceus, or ceriferus, below and juft before each eye. This finus, which has not been re-1- marked by M. A l l a m a n d , is (juft as in the hartbeeft,) about one line in diameter, and encompaffed with a little tuft of black hair. Pores of this kind, or apertures in the ikin, which excrete a fubftance of the nature of ear-wax, are not to be found,, as far as I have been able to learn, in any fpecies of the ox kind. 4. The noife made by the tame calf of a gnu, which I have frequently heard cry, did not in the leaft refemble the bleating of the common fawn. 5. I did not find that the fleih o f this animal had any thing of the flavour of beef or of buffalo’s fleih, but was rather like that of the other antilopes or gazels about the Cape ; it had, however, a finer grain, and was more juicy than the fleih of the hartbeeft, and confequently was much more, delicate than beef. 6. I find from the diffeCtion I made o f a fawn, o f a gnu, that its vifcera refemble thofe o f the other antilopes which I had examined, more than the vifcera of the ox, but that they bear no refemblance whatever to thofe of a horfe : fo that this circumftance is fufficient entirely to overthrow the conjecture, of thofe who imagine, that the gnu is produced by the copulation of a horfe with a cow. What makes it ftill lefs credible, that the gnu fhould be the offspring of fuch an intermixture as I have mentioned, is, that thèfe animals are almoft always feen in large herds, and,
27f 72-2
To see the actual publication please follow the link above