Cerophorus (Cervicapra) grisea, Blainv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.
Oreotragus griseus, Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 164 (1843).
Antilope rubro-albescens, Desmoul. Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. p. 446 (1822).
Vernacular Names:—Grysbok of Dutch and English Cape Colonists; Sash-lungwan of Matabilis; Teemba of Makalakas (Selous); Cassenja at Senna and Tette (Peters).
Height about 22–23 inches. Fur long and coarse, of a deep rich red colour profusely mixed with pure white hairs, whence the name “Grys” or Grey-buck. Under surface paler, but not white. Crown frequently with a black crescentic mark running round it, as in the Steinbok[1]. Ears very large, their backs grey. Limbs red. Accessory hoofs present, but very small, far smaller than in the Oribis. Tail very short, not blackened at its tip.
Skull and horns very like those of a Steinbok, but the nasal bones seem to be shorter, and the premaxillæ do not reach so far backwards. A good adult male skull of this species is, however, a desideratum: we have only been able to examine immature specimens or those deteriorated by confinement.
Hab. South Africa north to the Zambesi and Mozambique.
The Forsters, who visited the Cape in 1775 during their voyage round the world along with the great circumnavigator Cook, furnished Buffon with notices respecting many of the Antelopes which at that time were met with even in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town. Amongst these was the present species, which was accordingly described by Buffon, in the Supplement to his ‘Histoire Naturelle des Animaux Quadrupèdes,’ as the Grysbok or “Chèvre-gris.” About the same period as the Forsters the learned Swedish naturalist Thunberg visited the Cape, and made himself acquainted with this and the other Antelopes of that district. In an article subsequently published by the Academy of St. Petersburg on the Mammals met with during his stay in South Africa, Thunberg named the Grysbok Antilope melanotis, and his specific name has usually been adopted for this species, though a subsequently given term grisea of G. Cuvier has also been applied to it.
In his ‘Darstellung neuer oder wenig bekannter Säugethiere,’ Lichtenstein has given coloured figures of both sexes of this Antelope from specimens in the Berlin Museum, probably procured by himself. In the days of Lichtenstein (1803–06) the Grysbok was to be found in all the middle and western districts of the Cape Colony amongst the hills, and, according to him, was particularly esteemed as game on account of its tender and delicate flesh.
Harris, in his great work on the ‘Game Animals of South Africa,’ has figured the Grysbok on his 26th plate, along with the Bushbok and the Blaauwbok; he mentions it as, in his time (1836–37), common in the Colony “among the wooded tracts which skirt the coasts.” Describing his hunt with a party of Boers, residing not far from the banks of the Knysna, who had given him a day’s shooting over their best preserves, he speaks of “proteas and large plots of scarlet geraniums, interspersed with patches of purple heath,” as being the “favourite harbour of the roan Grysbok,” and gives an account of its pursuit as follows:—“Squatted like a hare upon its snug form, this beautiful little animal is rarely to be dislodged until well nigh trodden upon; but the dogs have pushed one out of that bed of fern, and are hunting it directly towards us. Returning again and again upon its old track, it bounds now over the head of the clustering heather, now doubles round the corner of a bush, and now, darting aside into the narrow footpath by which we are advancing, stands a moment with averted head to listen for its pursuers. Finding them close upon its heels, away it flies again, and making a desperate plunge into the heart of a thick shrub, vainly hopes that it may have found an asylum. But thine enemies have again ferreted thee out, cunning one! and disabled by a stray buckshot from the roer of that ruthless Hollander, thou art circling round with dizzy brain and drooping head in quest of a corner wherein thou mayst lie down to die. Alas! Mynheer’s rude hand has seized thee, innocent! and whilst he is fumbling for a knife wherewith to terminate thy helpless struggles, who that hears thy plaintive cries, like those of a new-born babe, or witnesses the infantine simplicity expressed in thy large melting black eye, brimful of dewy tears, can fail inwardly to curse his barbarity?”