There remains to be mentioned but one other group of antelopes, the Elands, large, heavily built animals, which belong to the present group, but differ from all species of kudu, sitatunga, and bushbuck, inasmuch as both sexes are horned. There are two forms of the Common Eland—namely, the grey variety of South-western Africa, and the striped animal, which is found in the countries farther north and east. The two forms grade one into the other, and are absolutely identical in their habits and mode of life, the differences between them being merely superficial. To the south of the twenty-third parallel of south latitude all elands are of a uniform fawn colour, except the old animals, which look dark grey, from the fact that the scantiness of their coats allows the dark colour of the skin to show through the hair. Old males, when standing in the shade of a tree, appear to be of a deep blue-grey in colour, and are known to the colonists of South Africa as "blue bulls." In Rhodesia, South-east Africa, and the countries to the north of the Zambesi, all the elands are bright chestnut-red when young, with a black line down the centre of the back from the withers to the tail, broad black patches on the backs of the fore legs above the knees, and eight or nine white stripes on each side. When they grow old, the ruddiness of the ground-colour gradually fades, the black markings on the fore legs die out, and the white stripes become indistinguishable at a short distance, the old bulls looking deep blue-grey in general colour. Every intermediate stage of colouring between the unstriped and the highly coloured forms of eland is to be found in the district lying between the central portions of the Kalahari Desert and the Zambesi River. Old male elands south of the Zambesi develop a growth of long, bristly black hair on the forehead, which often hangs over their eyes and extends half-way down their noses. North of the Zambesi this growth of hair is not nearly so luxuriant.
I have carefully measured the standing height at the withers of many old male elands in the interior of South Africa, and found that it varied from 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 inches. The horns of bulls in their prime measure from 26 inches to 33 inches in length, but old bulls wear their horns down very much. The cows carry longer, though thinner horns than the bulls.
The range of the eland once extended from Cape Agulhas to the White Nile, but it has become extinct in many districts of Southern Africa, and in almost every other portion of its range has, like all other tragelaphine antelopes, suffered so cruelly from the recent visitation of rinderpest that it has now become a scarce animal all over Africa.
Photo by the Duchess of Bedford] [Woburn Abbey.
ELAND COWS.
Female elands carry longer, although more slender horns than the bulls.
During the rainy season elands are usually met with in small herds of from four or five to ten individuals; but towards the end of the dry season they collect into large herds, and at such times I have often seen from fifty to over two hundred of these animals in one troop.
In my experience elands live for two-thirds of the year in forest or bush-covered country, or amongst rugged hills; and in such localities they are difficult to overtake on horseback; but in the middle of the dry season, as soon as they smell the smoke of the grass fires lighted by the natives on the open plateaux, they leave their retreats, and, collecting in herds, wander out on to the treeless plains in search of young grass. They then fall an easy prey to a mounted hunter, especially the heavy old bulls, which can be run to a standstill with ease by a very moderate horse.
The flesh of the eland is excellent when the animal is in good condition, as at such a time these animals become very fat, especially the old bulls, whose hearts become encased in a mass of fat which will often weigh 20 lbs. It is a mistake, however, to think that eland-meat is always good; for towards the end of the dry season, when there is little grass to be got, they feed extensively on the leaves of certain bushes, and their meat at such times becomes very poor and tasteless.