Skull with a long slender muzzle. Supraorbital vacuities present. Premaxillæ not reaching the nasals. Anteorbital fossæ very large and open, filling up all the space in front of the orbits, their edges sharply ridged above and below.
Horns about four inches in length, slender, evenly tapering, slanting back at an angle of about 45° to the general line of the skull; very slightly curved upwards and forwards; their rings close together, low, rounded, and indistinct, present on the basal halves of the horns only.
Dimensions:—♂. Height at withers 24 inches, hind foot 11, ear 3·7.
Skull: basal length 5·8, greatest breadth 2·9, muzzle to orbit 3·65.
Hab. S. Africa south of the Zambesi.
As in the case of the Klipspringer, this little Antelope first became known to naturalists in Europe through the Dutch settlers at the Cape. They called it Ourebi, under which name it appears to have been first described and figured in Holland by Allamand in 1776. In 1783 Zimmermann based his Antilope ourebi upon Allamand’s description, and two years later Schreber’s plate of Antilope scoparia was copied from Allamand’s figure. As it is necessary to use Ourebia as the generic designation of this Antelope we propose to adopt “scoparia,” taken from the peculiar brushes (scopæ) that defend its knees, as its specific name.
Fig. 23.
Ourebia scoparia, ♂.
A better figure of this Antelope than that of Allamand was published by Lichtenstein about the year 1828 in the third part of his ‘Darstellung neuer oder wenig bekannter Säugethiere,’ a work which was devoted to the representation of new and little-known mammals of the Berlin Museum. Lichtenstein, who had himself travelled in South Africa, states that he had met with this species in Cafferland, and that it was known to the colonists as the “Bleekbok” or “Pale-buck,” from its light colour, and was much valued as a game animal.