Chapter II: Part 2

=Thomson=, _Masailand_.--Through Mas[)a]i Land; a Journey of
Exploration among the Snow-clad Volcanic Mountains and Strange
Tribes of Eastern Equatorial Africa. By JOSEPH THOMSON. 8vo.
London, 1885.

=Thunb.= _Resa_.--Resa uti Europa, Africa, Asia. CARL P.
THUNBERG. 8vo. Upsala, 1788–93.

=Tied.= _Zool._--Zoologie. Zu seinen Vorlesungen entworfen. Von
D. F. TIEDEMANN. 3 vols. 8vo. Landshut, Heidelberg, 1808–14.

_Trans. Linn. Soc._--Transactions of the Linnean Society of
London. 4to. London.

_Tr. Z. S._--Transactions of the Zoological Society of London.
4to. London.

=Tristr.= _Faun. & Flor. Pal._--The Survey of Western Palestine.
The Fauna and Flora of Palestine. By H. B. TRISTRAM. 4to.
London, 1884.

=Tristram=, _Great Sahara_.--The Great Sahara: Wanderings south
of the Atlas Mountains. By H. B. TRISTRAM, M.A. 8vo. London,
1860.

=Trouess.= _Cat. Mamm._--Catalogus Mammalium tam viventium
quam fossilium a Dr. E. L. TROUESSART. Nova Ed. Fasc. IV. 8vo.
Berolini, 1898.

=Turt.= _Linn. S. N._--A General System of Nature through the
three Grand Kingdoms of Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals,
&c. By Sir CHARLES LINNÉ.... Together with various Modern
Arrangements and Corrections, &c. By WILLIAM TURTON, M.D. 7
vols. 8vo. London, 1806.

_Verz. Senck. Mus._--Verzeichniss der in dem Museum
der Senckenbergischen aufgestellten Sammlungen. 4to.
Frankfurt-am-Main, 1842.

_Von der Decken’s Reise._--Baron CARL CLAUS VON DER DECKEN’S
Reisen in Ost-Afrika. Band III. Abth. 3. Royal 8vo. Leipzig und
Heidelberg, 1869.

=Von Höhnel=, _Zum Rudolph-See._--Discovery of Lakes Rudolf and
Stefanie, a Narrative of Count Samuel Teleki’s Exploring and
Hunting Expedition in Eastern Equatorial Africa in 1887 and
1888. By his companion Lieut. LUDWIG VON HÖHNEL. Translated by
NANCY BELL (N. D’ANVERS). 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1894.

=Vosmaer=, _Reg. An._--Regnum Animale. Per A. VOSMAER. 4to.
Amsterdam, 1766–1804.

=Wagn.= _Schr. Säug._--Die Säugthiere in Abbildungen nach
der Natur mit Beschreibungen von Dr. J. C. D. VON SCHREBER.
Fortgesetzt von Dr. J. A. WAGNER. 5 vols. 4to. Erlangen, 1840–55.

_Ward’s Great and Small Game of Africa._--Great and Small Game
of Africa. Edited by H. A. BRYDEN. Published by ROWLAND WARD.
4to. London, 1899.

=Ward=, _Horn Meas._--Horn Measurements and Weights of the Great
Game of the World. By ROWLAND WARD, F.Z.S. 8vo. London, 1892.

=Ward=, _Rec. Big Game_.--Records of Big Game. By ROWLAND WARD,
F.Z.S. 8vo. London, 1896.

----.----. Third edition. 8vo. London, 1899.

=Waterh.= _Cat. Mamm. Mus. Z. S._--Catalogue of the Mammalia
preserved in the Museum of the Zoological Society of London. By
G. R. WATERHOUSE. Second edition. 8vo. London, 1838.

_Werther’s Hochländ. Deutsch-Ost-Afr._--Die mittleren Hochländer
des nördlichen Deutsch-Ost-Afrika. Herausgegeben C. W. WERTHER.
8vo. Berlin, 1898.

_Willoughby’s East Africa._--East Africa and its Big Game; the
Narrative of a Sporting Trip from Zanzibar to the Borders of the
Masai. By Captain Sir JOHN C. WILLOUGHBY, Bart. 8vo. London,
1889.

=Wolf=, _Zool. Sketches_.--Zoological Sketches. By JOSEPH WOLF.
Made for the Zoological Society of London, from Animals in their
Vivarium. Edited, with Notes, by P. L. SCLATER, M.A. 2 vols.
Folio. London, 1861–67.

=Wood=, _Ill. Nat. Hist._--The Illustrated Natural History. By
the Rev. J. G. WOOD. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1861–63.

_Z. Ges. Erdkunde Berl._--Zeitschrift Gesellschaft für Erdkunde.
8vo. Berlin.

_Zeitschr. ges. Nat._--Zeitschrift für die gesammten
Naturwissenschaften. 8vo. Berlin.

=Zimm.= _Geogr. Gesch._--Geographische Geschichte des Menschen.
Von E. A. W. ZIMMERMANN. 3 vols. 8vo. Leipzig, 1778–1783.

=Zimm.= _Spec. Zool. Geogr._--Specimen Zoologiæ Geographicæ,
Quadrupedum domicilia et migrationes sistens. 4to.
Lugduni-Batavorum, 1777.

_Zool. Anz._--Zoologischer Anzeiger. Herausgegeben von Prof. J.
VICTOR CARUS. 8vo. Leipzig.

_Zool. Gart._--Der zoologische Garten. 8vo. Frankfurt-a.-M.

_Zool. JB._--Zoologische Jahrbücher. Zeitschrift für Systematik,
Geographie und Biologie der Thiere. Herausgegeben von Dr. J. W.
SPENGEL. 8vo. Jena.

_Zool. Journ._--The Zoological Journal. 8vo. London.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES.

INTRODUCTION.

The Authors of the present work have no intention of offering to their readers a complete scientific treatise on the Mammals of the Family _Bovidæ_ or on any section of it. Their main object is to furnish descriptive letterpress for the beautiful series of lithographic plates drawn some twenty years ago under the supervision of the late Sir VICTOR BROOKE, making thereto such necessary modifications and additions as the progress of science demands. This letterpress, however, will contain a full synonymy of all the species of Antelopes recognized as valid, whether here figured or not, together with such descriptions as will facilitate their identification, and all particulars concerning their habits and distribution that have been recorded by Naturalists and Sportsmen up to the present time.

As regards the Nomenclature and Systematic Arrangement to be employed in the present work, we think it sufficient to follow those adopted by Sir William Flower and Mr. Lydekker in their standard work on Mammals, with a few slight modifications. These authors have divided the Family _Bovidæ_, to which the Antelopes pertain, into nine different groups, called sections, which are denominated as follows:--

1. Alcelaphine Section.

2. Cephalophine Section.

3. Cervicaprine Section.

4. Antilopine Section.

5. Hippotragine Section.

6. Tragelaphine Section.

7. Rupicaprine Section.

8. Caprine Section.

9. Bovine Section.

The Antelopes, commonly so called, belong to the first six of these sections, and will form the subject of the present work, the last three sections, which contain the Mountain-Antelopes, Sheep, and Oxen, being excluded.

It is further considered to be more convenient to regard the sections of Messrs. Flower and Lydekker as subfamilies, and to give them the usual termination employed for such groups. Thus, after dividing the “Cephalophine Section” into two portions, which it seems desirable to do, we shall have altogether seven subfamilies of _Bovidæ_ to be treated of, viz.:--

I. BUBALIDINÆ, comprising the Hartebeests and Gnus.

II. CEPHALOPHINÆ, comprising the Duykers and Four-horned
Antelopes.

III. NEOTRAGINÆ, comprising the Dwarf Antelopes, Oribis,
Klipspringers, and Dik-diks.

IV. CERVICAPRINÆ, comprising the Waterbucks, Reedbucks, and
their allies.

V. ANTILOPINÆ, comprising the typical Antelopes and Gazelles.

VI. HIPPOTRAGINÆ, comprising the Sable and Roan Antelopes and
the various species of Gemsbuck.

VII. TRAGELAPHINÆ, comprising the Nylghai, Bushbucks, Kudus, and
Elands.

SUBFAMILY I. _BUBALIDINÆ._

_General Characters._--Size large. Muzzle naked. A small anteorbital gland[2] present. Nostrils large, valvular, the lower lids covered with short bristly hairs. Tail long and tufted. False hoofs large. No knee-brushes. Mammæ 2 or 4.

Skull without supraorbital pits or lachrymal vacuities, but with shallow lachrymal pits. Upper molar teeth tall and very narrow.

Horns present in both sexes, those of the female merely rather more slender than those of the male; always of medium length, that is, approximately, of the length of the head.

_Range of Subfamily._ Whole of Africa, including the Arabian Subregion.

The Subfamily _Bubalidinæ_ is readily divisible into three genera, as follows:--

1. BUBALIS, the true Hartebeests, with abnormally long faces and
doubly-curved horns;

2. DAMALISCUS, the Bonteboks and their allies, with normal faces
and simply-curved horns; and

3. CONNOCHÆTES, the Gnus: remarkable animals with tufted faces,
maned necks, expanded muzzles, and doubly-curved horns.

GENUS I. BUBALIS.

Type.
_Bubalis_, =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freund. Berl.
vi. p. 154 (1814) B. BUSELAPHUS.

_Alcelaphus_, =Blainv.= Bull. Soc. Philom.
1816, p. 75 B. BUSELAPHUS.

_Damalis_ (gen.) and _Acronotus_ (subgen.),
=H. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. pp. 343 & 345
(1827) B. BUSELAPHUS.

_Bubalus_, =Og.= P. Z. S. 1836, p. 139 B. BUSELAPHUS.

Size large and general form clumsy, with the withers considerably higher than the rump; head long and narrow; muzzle moist, naked, and rather broad; nostrils close together, lined with stiff hairs; neck not maned; suborbital glands small, tufted in some species, but not in others; hoofs small; tail reaching below the hocks, moderately haired, generally with a compressed crest along the dorsal surface of its terminal half; mammæ two.

Colour uniform brown or rufous, with or without black patches on the head, shoulders, hips, and feet.

Skull elongated; the frontal bones produced upwards and backwards into a long bony support for the horns, the occiput being entirely hidden in the upper view of the skull; parietals small, compressed behind the frontal horn-pedicle, facing nearly horizontally backwards. Small interorbital perforations present; lachrymal pits present but shallow. Molars very tall and narrow, and without supplementary lobes in the upper jaw.

Horns present in both sexes, those of the female as long, but not so thick, as those of the male, placed close together at their bases; doubly curved, first rising outwards or backwards, then curved forwards and upwards, and then bent abruptly backwards and upwards at their tips.

_Range of the Genus._ Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

This genus, containing the Hartebeests, is a very natural and well-defined one, and is curiously shown to be so by the fact that, so far as is as yet known, the ranges of the different species nowhere overlap each other, whilst almost every part of the range of the genus possesses its single representative species.

The members of the genus fall into four rather definite groups, as follows:--

A. Frontal horn-pedicle short; horns forming a V when viewed in
front 1, 2. _B. buselaphus_, _B. major_.

B. Horn-pedicle moderate; horns forming an inverted bracket.
3, 4, 5. _B. tora_, _B. swaynei_, _B. cokei_.

C. Horn-pedicle extremely elongated; horns forming a V when viewed
in front 6, 7. _B. caama_, _B. jacksoni_.

D. Horn-pedicle very short and broad; horns much curved inwards
towards each other before the final backward turn.
8. _B. lichtensteini_.

_Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._

The Bubal.

BUBALIS BUSELAPHUS.

_Published by R. H. Porter._]

1. THE BUBAL.

BUBALIS BUSELAPHUS (PALL.).

[PLATE I.]

_Buselaphus_, =Gesner=, Hist. Anim., Quadr. p. 121 (1520).

_Le Bubale_, =Buff.= Hist. Nat. xii. p. 294, pls. xxxvii.
(skeleton) and xxxviii. fig. 1 (skull and horns) (1764).

_Antilope buselaphus_, =Pall.= Misc. Zool. p. 7 (1766).

_Antilope bubalis_, =Pall.= Spic. Zool. fasc. i. p. 12 (1767),
xii. p. 16 (1777); =Müll.= Naturs. Suppl. p. 54 (1776); =Erxl.=
Syst. R. A. i. p. 291 (1777); =Zimm.= Spec. Zool. Geogr. p. 544
(1777); =id.= Geogr. Gesch. ii. p. 122 (1780); =Gatt.= Brev.
Zool. i. p. 83 (1780); =Bodd.= Elench. Anim. p. 143 (1785);
=Schreb.= Säug. pl. cclxxvii. B (animal) (1787); =Gm.= S. N.
i. p. 188 (1788); =Kerr=, Linn. An. K. p. 314 (1792); =Donnd.=
Zool. Beytr. p. 633 (1792); =Bechst.= Uebers. vierf. Thiere, i.
p. 95 (1799), ii. p. 645 (1800); =Shaw=, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2,
p. 331 (1801); =Virey=, N. Dict. d’H. N. iii. p. 525 (1803);
=Turt.= Linn. S. N. i. p. 114 (1806); =Ill.= Prodr. Syst. Mamm.
p. 106 (1811); =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freund. Berl. vi. p. 163
(1814); =G. Fisch.= Zoogn. iii. p. 417 (1814); =Afzel.= N. Act.
Ups. vii. p. 220 (1815); =G. Cuv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 241
(1816); =Desm.= N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 195 (1816); =Goldf.=
in Schreb. Säug. v. p. 1171 (1820); =Schinz=, Cuv. Thierr. i.
p. 390 (1821); =Desm.= Mamm. ii. p. 466 (1822); =F. Cuv.= H. N.
Mamm. (fol.) iii. livr. li. (animal) (1825); =Less.= Man. Mamm.
p. 381 (1827); =Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 473 (1829); =Less.= N.
Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 180 (1842); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Supp. iv.
p. 469 (1844), v. p. 444 (1855); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 443
(1845); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 296 (1859); =Nachtigal=, Sahara and
Soudan, i. p. 572, ii. p. 678 (1879).

_Capra dorcas_, =Müll.= Natursyst. i. p. 416 (1773) (_nec_
Linn.).

_Cerophorus (Alcelaphus) bubalis_, =Blainv.= Bull. Soc. Philom.
1816, p. 75.

_Damalis bubalis_, =H. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 347, v. p.
362 (1827).

_Acronotus bubalis_, =A. Sm.= S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii. p. 221
(1833); =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 157 (1843); =id.= List Ost.
B. M. p. 58 (1847).

_Bubalus mauritanicus_, =Og.= P. Z. S. 1836, p. 139.

_Bubalis mauretanica_, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844,
p. 208 (1846); =id.= Hornschuh’s Transl. p. 83 (1848); =Temm.=
Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 195 (1853); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 195
(1893).

_Boselaphus bubalis_, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 233
(1846); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 139; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 20, pl.
xx. fig. 1 (young) (1850); =Blyth=, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 51, fig. 3
(horns).

_Alcelaphus bubalis_, =Gray=, Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 123 (1852);
=Tristram=, Great Sahara, p. 387 (1860); =id.= P. Z. S. 1866,
p. 86 (Palestine); =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 643; =Gray=,
Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 43 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. p. 114 (1873);
=Rütimeyer=, Rind. Tert.-Epoch. p. 47 (1877); =Schmidt=, P.
Z. S. 1880, p. 307 (length of life); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd.
Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 139 (1887); =id.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd.
Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 171 (1892); =Lyd.= Field, lxxvii. p. 858
(1891).

_Alcelaphus bubale_, =Gerrard=, Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 243
(1862).

_Alcelaphus bubalinus_, =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 335 (1891).

_Boselaphus caama_ (partim), =Heugl.= Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr.
(N. Act. Leopold. xxx. pt. ii.) p. 22, pl. 1. fig. 3 (horns)
(1863).

_Acronotus lelwel_, =Heugl.= Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 124 (1877).

VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Begra el Ouach_, Arabs of Algeria
(_Lataste_); _Bekker-el-wash_, Arabs of Palestine (_Tristram_);
_Kargum_ of Saharan Tuaregs; _Karia_ in Bagirmi (_Nachtigal_).
“_Lelwel_,” “_Alalüehl_,” and some others of Schweinfurth’s
names also probably belong here.

Size small; height at withers only about 43 inches, and therefore markedly less than in the other species. Facial hairs reversed upwards for about two inches on the nose, then slanting downwards from a point on the forehead just below the horns, where there is a twisted whorl from which the hairs radiate in all directions. Colour uniform pale rufous or fawn, entirely without darker patches on forehead, chin, or limbs; there is, however, an ill-defined patch of greyish on each side of the muzzle above the nostrils; lower part of rump not whitish. Tail black on the terminal tuft only, the rest like the back.

Skull long, but the elongation less than in _B. caama_. _Approximate_ dimensions:--basal length 13 inches, greatest breadth 4·8, muzzle to orbit 10[3]. Facial length from between the horns to the tip of the nasals 13·5 inches; breadth of the forehead, across the frontal horn-support, 4·0. Horns diverging from each other at an even rounded curve, so as together to form a U when viewed from the front, a method of curvature only found in this and the next species. In length, when measured round the curves, they attain to a little more than 14 inches.

_Hab._ Northern Africa (interior of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis)
and Arabia.

The Bubal (_Bubalis_ or _Bubalus_) is one of the few Antelopes known to the ancient writers, being included by Herodotus among the beasts of Libya, and being likewise mentioned by Aristotle, Æschylus, and Pliny. The Bubal is also referred to in the Old Testament and called “Yachmur”--a term which has been incorrectly translated in the authorized version as “Fallow Deer.” Under this name it is included in the list of the daily provisions of King Solomon (i. Kings, iv. 23) as one of the animals brought to the royal table.

Coming to more modern days we find that in the time of Dr. Thomas Shaw, F.R.S., of Queen’s College, Oxford (who was resident twelve years at Algiers as British Chaplain), the Bubal was abundant on the north of the Atlas. Dr. Shaw (‘Travels in Barbary and the Levant,’ Oxford, 1738), in his “Physical and Miscellaneous Observations on the Natural History of Algiers and Tunis,” tells us:--

“Of cattle that are not naturally tame and domesticated, these Kingdoms afford large Herds of the Neat kind called _Bekker el Wash_ by the _Arabs_. This _Species_ is remarkable for having a rounder Turn of Body, a flatter Face, with Horns bending more towards each other than in the tame kind. It is therefore, in all Probability, the _Bos africanus_ of _Bellonius_, which he seems justly to take for the _Bubalus_ of the Ancients; though, what he describeth is little bigger than the _Caprea_ or Roe-Buck, whereas ours is nearly of the same size with the Red-Deer, with which also it agreeth in Colour. The young Calves of this _Species_ quickly grow tame, and herd with other Cattle.”

Since the days of Shaw, however, the Bubal has retired far beyond the Atlas into the recesses of the desert, and has become a difficult animal to meet with. Loche (Expl. Sc. de l’Algérie) tells us that it is now confined to the mountainous districts of the Sahara, where it roams about in small troops. Canon Tristram states that “the hunters of Souf frequently obtain this, the largest of game in North Africa.” But he does not think that it “ever ventures north of the Wed R’hir and M’zab districts, while its home is certainly further south. It is considered to be the most savoury meat of the desert-epicure.” During his extensive explorations in the Great Sahara Canon Tristram saw this Antelope only on one occasion: this was at a distance, in the south of the Djereed of Tunis.

From the Algerian Sahara the Bubal extends no doubt into Morocco on one side and Tripoli on the other; but our knowledge of the animals of both these countries is still very meagre, and we are unable to quote precise authorities. In Egypt, so far as we know, the Bubal appears to be now quite extinct, but on the other side of the Red Sea it reappears in Arabia and extends even up to the confines of Palestine. Canon Tristram never saw it alive in Palestine; “but it certainly exists on the borders of Gilead and Moab,” and is well known to the Arabs, who assured him that “it sometimes comes down to drink at the head-waters of the streams flowing into the Dead Sea, where they not unfrequently capture it.” Canon Tristram has kindly allowed one of us to examine a pair of horns obtained from the Arabs in this locality, which are apparently referable to a female of this species.

The Bubal has been long introduced to the zoological gardens of Europe, and its name occurs in the MS. Catalogues of the Zoological Society as early as 1832. It bred in the Derby Menagerie, and the young one was figured in the drawings illustrative of that splendid collection (pl. xx.). It is not, however, very common in captivity, and of late years but few specimens have been received. At the present time there is only a single example of this Antelope in the Zoological Society’s collection. It is a female, presented by Mr. Robert Pitcairn, of Oran, in October 1883, and obtained, no doubt, in the interior of Western Algeria. Mr. Smit’s illustration (Plate I.) was prepared from this specimen.

The series of specimens of this Antelope in the British Museum is not by any means a full one. There are an adult male (stuffed) and an adult female (in skin) from the Zoological Society’s old collection, and a young one obtained by Fraser in the Djereed of Tunis in 1846, besides some pairs of horns and frontlets. Fresh examples of this species from definite localities would therefore be highly valued by the Trustees.

_May, 1894._

2. THE WEST-AFRICAN BUBAL.

BUBALIS MAJOR (BLYTH).

_Boselaphus bubalis_, var. 1, =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 139 (?).

_Alcelaphus bubalis_, var. _tunisianus_, =Gray=, Cat. Ung. B. M.
p. 123 (1852); id. Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 44 (1872) (?).

_Boselaphus major_, =Blyth=, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 52, fig. A 1
(horns).

_Alcelaphus major_, =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 44 (1872); =id.=
Hand-l. Rum. p. 114 (1873).

“_Bubalis lelwel_, Heugl.,” =Matsch.= Arch. f. Nat. 1891, pt. i.
p. 355 (Cameroons).

_Bubalis major_, =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 62 (1892); =Matsch.=
Mitth. deutsch. Schutzgebiet, vi. pt. iii. p. 17 (1893) (Togo);
=Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 196 (1893).

Essential characters as in _B. buselaphus_, but larger in all its dimensions.

“Body of a uniform greyish brown; face deep brown; fore legs streaked with dark brown or blackish from the knees downwards. Terminal tuft of tail black.

“Frontal bone between the base of the horns and orbit convex, the same part being remarkably flat in other species.” (_Brooke_, MS.)

Facial length 17½ inches, muzzle to orbit 13, breadth of forehead 4·4.

Horns curved as in the Bubal, but longer and heavier, their length round the curves amounting to over 20 inches.

_Hab._ Gambia, Lower Niger district, and interior of Cameroons.

There can be no doubt of the existence of a Bubal allied to _B. buselaphus_ in several districts on the West Coast of Africa. But there are no perfect specimens of this Antelope at present available for comparison, and its distinctness from its northern representative may still be a matter of some uncertainty, although we have good reason to believe that the two species will ultimately prove to be specifically different.

The well-known naturalist Edward Blyth, for many years Curator of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and a good authority on the larger Mammals, was the first writer to call attention to the existence of this Antelope. In a communication made to the Zoological Society in 1869, Blyth states that he had examined a “perfect skin” of what he at once recognized as a “distinct though closely allied species,” differing from _B. buselaphus_ “in being fully as large as a Hartebeest, and in having black markings in front of all four feet above the hoofs.” Blyth’s opinion was that some mounted specimens which he saw in the Museums of Leyden and Amsterdam referred to _B. buselaphus_ belonged strictly to this new form. He also exhibited on the same occasion a pair of frontlets belonging to Ward, of Vere Street, as referable to what he proposed to designate _Boselaphus major_. These frontlets, which were subsequently figured in the Society’s ‘Proceedings,’ are now in the British Museum.

Fig. 1 _b_.

Horns of _Bubalis major_.

(Gambia, _Carter_, 1891.)]

Whether the “variety 1” of the Bubal, established by Gray in 1850 upon a skin without horns or hoofs, said to have been brought by Fraser from Tunis, really belonged to this species, must ever remain doubtful. This skin is no longer to be found, and if it were really referable to _B. major_ it was probably brought by Fraser from West Africa and not from Tunis, where the typical _B. buselaphus_ is found. Gray’s inaccuracy as regards localities is notorious, and Fraser visited both parts of Africa. Under these circumstances we may altogether neglect the name “_tunisianus_” bestowed on this “variety” in 1852, as being highly doubtful as well as inapplicable.

Fig. 1 _d_.

Horns and skull of _Bubalis major_.

_c._ Front view; _d._ Side view. (Brooke.)]

It is probable that the horns from the Cameroons, referred by Herr Matschie to “_B. lelwel_, Heuglin,” and those from Togoland, referred by the same author to _B. major_, also belong to this species, which would appear to inhabit suitable districts in Western Africa from Senegal to the Cameroons.

A pair of horns of this Antelope was amongst the specimens obtained by Dr. Percy Kendall from the Gambia in 1890. Another very fine pair was brought by Sir Gilbert Carter from the Gambia in 1891, from which the accompanying drawings (figs. 1 _a_ and 1 _b_, p. 12) have been taken. These horns are in Sclater’s possession.

The two other figures (figs. 1 _c_ and 1 _d_, p. 13) were prepared by Sir Victor Brooke, probably from horns in his collection.

Besides Blyth’s frontlets already mentioned, there are a pair of horns of the Bubal in the British Museum obtained by Mr. E. Bower on the Lower Niger in 1892, and several other specimens of horns without exact localities. Sclater has also examined, casually, a mounted specimen in the Senckenbergian Museum at Frankfort-a/M., labelled _Bubalis mauritanica_, which is probably of this species. According to his notes it is “nearly uniform brown; forehead ferruginous; black round the feet.”

_May, 1894._

3. THE TORA.

BUBALIS TORA (GRAY).

_Buselaphus bubalis_, =Heugl.= Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act.
Leopold. Carol. xxx. pt. ii.) p. 21 (1863) (_nec_ Pall.).

_Tétel (Antilope bubalis)_, =Baker=, Nile Tributaries, p. 179
(1867).

_Alcelaphus tora_, =Gray=, Nature, viii. p. 364; =id.= Ann. Mag.
N. H. (4) xii. p. 341 (1873); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. p. 172, pl.
xli. (skull and horns) (1873); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1873, pp. 729 and
762 (Settite R.), 1875, p. 529; =Rütimeyer=, Rind. Tert.-Epoch.
p. 47, pl. v. figs. 7 & 8 (1877); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus.
(Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 139 (1887); =Lyd.= Field, lxxvii. p.
858 (1891); =Jent.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 171
(1892).

_Acronotus bubalis_, =Heugl.= Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 122 (1877).

_Bubalis bubalis_, =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 217, pl. (animal)
(1880).

_Bubalis tora_, =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 59, fig. (head) (1892);
=Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 198 (1893).

VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Tora_ in Amhar, Abyssinia; _Tori_ in Tigre;
_Guragua_ or _Quaraqua_ in Belen; _Tétel_ of Arabs in Sennaar
(_Heuglin_).

Size large, height at withers about 48 inches; hairs of face directed as in _B. buselaphus_. Colour uniform pale fulvous, decidedly paler than in other species, and, with the exception of the usual black chin and tail-tuft, entirely without black markings. Lower part of rump behind decidedly lighter than the dorsal surface.

Skull slenderer and more lightly built than usual; frontal narrow; its elongation medium.

Basal length 15·7 inches, greatest breadth 5·3, muzzle to orbit 12·5, facial length 16·5, breadth of forehead 3·4.

Horns shaped somewhat like an inverted bracket, a comparison that is, however, better borne out by the two following species, as in the Tora the diverging parts of the two horns start up at a slight angle with each other, instead of being in the same straight line. The horns themselves are unusually slender, and attain a length of about 19 inches.

_Hab._ Upper Nubia, Northern Abyssinia, and Kordofan.

The Tora or Tétel was confounded by von Heuglin and Sir Samuel Baker, its first discoverers, with the Bubal. But these two Antelopes, though alike of uniform colour, are easily distinguishable on comparison by the larger size and higher gait of the Tora and by the different shape of its horns. The Tora would also seem to inhabit more wooded and broken country than the open deserts that are the home of the allied species.

Heuglin tells us that this Antelope is found in families and herds in the valleys at the foot of Mount Takah, in the district of the Beni-Ammer Arabs, in Upper Barca, on the Anseba and Atbara and their confluents, and in the lower districts of Northern Abyssinia. He found it likewise plentiful on the sources of the Dender and Rahad, and in Galabat. It inhabits the sheltered country where there is high grass and underwood, is not particularly timid, and sometimes even stupidly bold, resorting regularly in the morning and evening to the usual pastures and drinking-places.

In his volume on ‘The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia’ Sir Samuel Baker frequently mentions the “Tétel,” as he calls this Antelope.

In August 1861, being on the banks of the Atbara, he writes:--

“The country being now bright green, the Antelopes are distinctly visible on the opposite side. Three Tétel graze regularly together in the same place daily. This Antelope is a variety of the Hartebeest of South Africa; it is of a reddish-chestnut colour, and is of about the size of an Alderney cow.”

A month later Sir Samuel tells us:--

“When about halfway to the river, as we were passing through grass about 4 feet high, three Tétel bounded from a ravine, and passing directly before us, gave me a splendid shot at about sixty yards. The Ceylon No. 10 struck the foremost through the shoulder, and it fell dead after running a few yards. This was also my first Tétel; it was in splendid condition, the red coat was like satin, and the animal would weigh about five hundred pounds live weight.”

Shortly afterwards the skin of the Tétel was taken off entire, the apertures at the neck and knees tied up, and the hide inflated and ingeniously converted into a waterproof bag, to be used for the conveyance of the flesh of the animal across the river Atbara.

In a subsequent part of his journey in the valley of the Settite, a confluent of the Atbara, Baker again records his adventures with this Antelope as follows:--

“We had hardly ridden half a mile when I perceived a fine bull Tétel standing near a bush a few hundred yards distant. Motioning to the party to halt I dismounted, and with the little Fletcher rifle I endeavoured to obtain a shot. When within about a hundred and seventy yards he observed our party, and I was obliged to take the shot, although I could have approached unseen to a closer distance had his attention not been attracted by the noise of the horses. He threw his head up preparatory to starting off, and he was just upon the move as I touched the trigger. He fell like a stone to the shot, but almost immediately he regained his feet and bounded off, receiving a bullet from the second barrel without a flinch; in full speed he rushed away across the party of aggageers about three hundred yards distant. Out dashed Abou Do from the ranks on his active grey horse, and away he flew after the wounded Tétel, his long hair floating in the wind, his naked sword in hand, and his heels digging into the flanks of his horse, as though armed with spurs in the last finish of a race. It was a beautiful course; Abou Do hunted like a cunning greyhound; the Tétel turned, and taking advantage of the double, he cut off the angle; succeeding by the manœuvre, he again followed at tremendous speed over the numerous inequalities of the ground, gaining in the race until he was within twenty yards of the Tétel, when we lost sight of both game and hunter in the thick bushes. By this time I had regained my horse, that was brought to meet me, and I followed to the spot, towards which my wife and the aggageers encumbered with the unwilling apes were already hastening. Upon arrival I found, in high yellow grass beneath a large tree, the Tétel dead, and Abou Do wiping his bloody sword, surrounded by the foremost of the party. He had hamstrung the animal so delicately that the keen edge of the blade was not injured against the bone. My two bullets had passed through the Tétel: the first was too high, having entered above the shoulder--this had dropped the animal for a moment; the second was through the flank.”

As we have already stated, both Heuglin and Baker confounded the Tora with the Bubal. In 1873 the British Museum first received specimens of this Antelope from the Bogos district west of Massowa. The keen eye of the then keeper of the Zoological Department quickly recognized the essential differences of the new species from the previously known members of the genus, and it was briefly described, first in ‘Nature’ and afterwards in the ‘Annals of Natural History.’

Head of _Bubalis tora_.

(P. Z. S. 1873, p. 762.)]

In December of the same year Sclater exhibited a mounted head of this Antelope at one of the meetings of the Zoological Society, from whose ‘Proceedings’ the accompanying figure of the specimen in question (fig. 2) has been borrowed by leave of the Publication Committee.

Two years later, in July 1875, a female example of this Antelope was obtained alive for the Zoological Society’s Menagerie; and in the following year, in October, a fine pair of the Tora was purchased by the Society for the sum of £100, of Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, the well-known dealer of Hamburg. These animals had been obtained along with others from the Arabs of Upper Nubia and brought out _viâ_ Kassala and Suakim by Mr. Hagenbeck’s agents. Other specimens of the Tora from the same source reached several zoological gardens on the Continent about the same date; but we believe that they have one and all disappeared, and, so far as we know, the Tora is no longer to be seen anywhere in captivity.

There is a good pair of this Antelope in the Gallery of the British Museum mounted from skins stated to have been procured at Dembelas, in Northern Abyssinia. There are also a skeleton and other specimens from the same locality in the National Collection.

_May, 1894._

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. II.

_Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._

Swayne’s Hartebeest

BUBALIS SWAYNEI.

_Published by R. H. Porter._]

4. SWAYNE’S HARTEBEEST.

BUBALIS SWAYNEI, SCL.

[PLATE II.]

_Boselaphus caama_, =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1884, p. 539; =id.= in
James, Unknown Horn of Afr. p. 262 (1888).

_Alcelaphus_, sp. inc., =Lort Phillips=, P. Z. S. 1885, p. 932.

_Alcelaphus caama_, =Gigl.= Ann. Mus. Genov. (2) vi. p. 19
(1888) (Shoa).

_Bubalis swaynei_, =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1892, p. 98, pl. v. (head),
pp. 118, 257; =Swayne=, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 303 (habits and
distribution); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 60, fig. (head) (1892);
=Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 198, fig. 39 (head) (1893).

VERNACULAR NAME:--“_Sig_” of Somalis (_Lort Phillips_).

Size medium, height at withers about 47 inches. General colour a peculiar pale chocolate-brown, finely speckled over with white, each hair being brown with the extreme tip white. Face black, except a line across between the eyes to lips and tip of nose, which are fawn-coloured. Chin black. Shoulders and all round forearms black; there is also a black patch inside and a less distinct one outside the thighs. Lower legs and feet fawn, except that the backs of the pasterns are black. Hams paler than back, but not white and not sharply defined. Tail with its hairs reaching just to the hock, black-edged above for its terminal half.

Hairs of face reversed upwards for only about 1½ inch on the tip of the muzzle, then directed downwards from a whorl just below the bases of the horns. Glandular suborbital brushes prominent.

Skull of medium proportions; its measurements as follows:--basal length 14·5 inches, greatest breadth 5·5, muzzle to orbit 8·3, facial length 14, breadth of forehead 3·5.

Horns bracket-shaped, the median portion of each in nearly the same straight line as that of its fellow; terminal portion very short. In length good male horns attain to about 18 inches.

_Hab._ Interior of Northern Somaliland and Shoa.

Although this fine Hartebeest was pursued and slain by several energetic hunters before Captain Swayne met with it in Somaliland, it is to the last-named distinguished explorer that we are indebted for our first perfect specimens and for an account of its range and habits, and it is therefore appropriately named after him.

The first evidence received of the occurrence of a Hartebeest in Somaliland was a flat native skin contained in a collection brought home by Herr Menges along with a lot of living animals imported for Mr. Hagenbeck, of Hamburg. In some notes on these skins (P. Z. S. 1884, p. 539) Sclater referred the specimen in question to _B. caama_. Again, Mr. E. Lort Phillips, F.Z.S., who was one of Mr. James’s party in Somaliland in the winter of 1885, shot a single young male Hartebeest near the northern boundary of the high plateau south of Berbera in April of that year (see P. Z. S. 1885, p. 932), but unfortunately lost the skull which he had preserved, and did not meet with the species again.

The next record of this Hartebeest is from a different locality. The Italian naturalist Dr. Traversi in 1886 transmitted to Florence a Hartebeest’s head which, in his list of Traversi’s collection, Dr. Giglioli referred to _B. caama_. After examining the specimen in the Museum of Florence, and receiving a drawing of it from Dr. Giglioli, Sclater (see P. Z. S. 1892, p. 258) was able to assure himself that it was in all probability the same as _B. swaynei_ of Somaliland.

In his “Field-notes” on the Antelopes of Somaliland (P. Z. S. 1892, p. 303) Captain Swayne furnishes us with an excellent account of this animal, which we now reproduce:--

“South of the highest ranges of Somaliland, and at a distance of about 100 miles from the coast, are open plains some four or five thousand feet above the sea-level, alternating with broken ground covered with thorn-jungle, with an undergrowth of aloes growing sometimes to a height of six feet.

“This elevated country, called the ‘Haud,’ is waterless for three months, from January to March; it was crossed by Mr. James’s party in 1884, when their camels were thirteen days without water.

“Much of the Haud is bush-covered wilderness or open semi-desert, but some of the higher plains are, at the proper season, in early summer, covered, far as the eye can reach, with a beautiful carpet of green grass, like English pasture-land. At this time of the year pools of water may be found, as the rainfall is abundant.

“This kind of open grass country is called the ‘Ban.’ Not a bush is to be seen, and some of these plains are thirty or forty miles each way.

“There is not always much game to be got at in the Haud; but a year ago, coming on to ground which had not yet been visited by Europeans, I found one of these plains covered with herds of Hartebeests, there being perhaps a dozen herds in sight at one time, each containing three or four hundred individuals. Hundreds of bulls were scattered singly on the outskirts and in spaces between the herds, grazing, fighting, or lying down.

“The scene I describe was at a distance of over a hundred miles from Berbera; and the game has probably been driven far beyond that point by now.

“The Hartebeest bulls are very pugnacious, and two or three couples may be fighting round the same herd at one time. Often one of the bulls will be sent rolling head over heels.

“The easiest way to get a specimen is to send a couple of Midgans round above the wind to drive the Hartebeest towards you, at the same time lying down in the grass. A shot may be got within fifty yards, but no one would care to shoot many Hartebeests, as the trophy is poor.

“Often Oryxes and Sœmmerring’s Gazelles are seen in company with these great troops of Hartebeests, but the Oryxes are much wilder. The Hartebeests are rather tame, and they and the Sœmmerring’s Gazelles are always the last to move away.

“Hartebeests have great curiosity, and rush round a caravan, halting now and then within two hundred yards to gaze. This sight is an extraordinary one, these Antelopes having heavy and powerful forequarters, head, and chest, of a different shade of chestnut to the hindquarters, which are poor and fall away. In the midday haze on the plains they look like troops of Lions.

“The pace of the Hartebeest is an ungraceful lumbering canter; but this species is really the fleetest and most enduring of the Somali Antelopes. The largest herd I have ever seen must have contained a thousand individuals, packed closely together, and looking like a regiment of cavalry, the whole plain round being dotted with single bulls. Their coats are glossy, like that of a well-groomed horse.

“From their living so much in open grass plains the Hartebeests must subsist entirely on grass, for there is nothing else to eat; and they must be able to exist for several days without water.

“Hartebeests are the favourite food of Lions, and once, when out with my brother, I found a troop of three Lions sitting out on the open plains, ten miles from the nearest bush. They had evidently been out all night among the herds, and on their becoming gorged, the rising sun had found them disinclined to move.

Skull of _Bubalis swaynei_.

(P. Z. S. 1892, p. 99.)]

“Hartebeest horns vary greatly in shape and size. There are short massive horns and long pointed ones, and all the gradations between. Some curve forward, with the points thrown back; others curve outwards in the same plane as the forehead, the points turning upwards”[4].

Our coloured figure of this Antelope (Plate II.) has been drawn by Mr. Smit from the mounted specimen in the British Museum, obtained by Captain Swayne on the Haud plateau of Somaliland.

The woodcut (fig. 3, p. 24) gives a front view of the first skull and horns received from Captain Swayne, upon which Sclater based the species. This specimen is now likewise in the National Collection.

_May, 1894._

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. III.

_Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._

Cokes Hartebeest.

BUBALIS COKEI.

_Published by R. H. Porter._]

5. COKE’S HARTEBEEST.

BUBALIS COKEI (GÜNTH.).

[PLATE III.]

_Antilope (Alcelaphus) caama_, =Peters=, Von der Decken’s Reise,
iii. pt. i. p. 9 (1869) (Lake Jipe).

_Alcelaphus cokei_, =Günth.= Ann. Mag. N. H. (5) xiv. p. 426,
woodcut of horns (1884) (Usagara); =Thomson=, Masailand, p. 220,
fig. (horns) (1885); =Johnston=, Kilimanjaro, p. 65 (1886);
=Hunter=, Willoughby’s E. Africa, p. 288, pl. i. fig. 1 (head)
(1889); =Von Höhnel=, Zum Rudolph-See, p. 819 (1892) (Lake
Jipe); =Lugard=, E. Afr. i. p. 532, pl. (animal), and pl. p. 448
(horns) (1893).

_Alcelaphus lichtensteini_, =Pagenst.= JB. Mus. Hamb. ii. 1884,
p. 40 (1885) (Masailand).

_Alcelaphus cookei_, =Lyd.= Field, lxxvii. p. 858, fig. (horns)
(1891).

_Bubalis cokei_, =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 61, fig. (head) (1892);
=Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 197, fig. 38 (horns) (1893);
=Jackson=, Big Game Shooting, i. pp. 285, 291.

VERNACULAR NAME:--_Kongoni_ in Swahili (_Lugard_).

Size small, height at withers about 45 inches. General colour bright fawn all over, without dark markings, except that the lower lip is rather browner than the rest. Lower part of rump paler than the back, but not sharply defined. Tail long, its hairs reaching to the middle of the lower leg; black-crested for about its terminal three fourths. Face-hairs as in _B. swaynei_ and _B. tora_. Glandular suborbital brushes short and not conspicuous.

Skull of medium proportions. Measurements:--basal length 14 inches, greatest breadth 5·2, muzzle to orbit 10·7, facial length 14·7, breadth of forehead 3·5.

Horns short and thick, bracket-shaped, the middle portions of the two sides in exactly the same straight line; their tips as long as their middle portions.

_Hab._ Eastern Africa, from Usagara northwards to Kilimanjaro
and Masailand.

The first recorded specimen of Coke’s Hartebeest was a frontlet obtained by the German traveller Von der Decken in 1862 at Lake Jipe in Masailand. These horns were referred by Peters, in his account of the mammals of Von der Decken’s expedition, to _B. caama_ of the Cape. But Sir Victor Brooke, who subsequently examined them at Berlin, as we know from his MSS., was convinced of their distinctness from the species of the Cape Colony, and had determined to call the new species after Von der Decken, although he never published the name. The subjoined figures (4 _a_ and 4 _b_) were prepared under Sir Victor Brooke’s direction, and show a front view and a three-quarter view of these horns.

Horns of _Bubalis cokei_, front view.]

In June 1880 Col. the Hon. W. C. W. Coke, F.Z.S., a renowned English sportsman, started from Zanzibar on a shooting-expedition towards Mpapwa, along the caravan-route from the port of Saadani. On reaching the open plains on the plateau of Usagara he met with several herds of this Antelope, and obtained the frontlet (fig. 4 _c_), now in the British Museum, upon which the species was established by Dr. Günther.

Colonel Coke has kindly permitted us to refer to his journal, in which we find it recorded that he first met with this Hartebeest on June 28th, between the Missionary Stations of Mamboia and Mpapwa. On July 10th, when encamped near M’lalli, at the edge of the plains, though sick with fever, he went out and shot the animal, upon the head of which the species was afterwards based. After this Colonel Coke was taken so ill that he had to be carried back to the coast in a hammock, and was unable to shoot any more of these Antelopes.

In Sir John Kirk’s collection are two fine heads of this Hartebeest, likewise obtained by him in Usagara.

Proceeding northwards to the country round Kilimanjaro we find that Mr. H. C. V. Hunter, in his appendix to Sir John Willoughby’s ‘East Africa and its Big Game,’ records Coke’s Hartebeest as, at the date of his visit (1887), “quite the most common Antelope in the plains” of that district, “being found everywhere in immense herds.” From the same part of the British East-African Company’s territory we have seen and examined numerous other heads of this Hartebeest, including fine examples of both sexes belonging to Consul-General Holmwood, obtained during a shooting-excursion from Zanzibar to this attractive district.

Horns of _Bubalis cokei_, side view.]

Mr. Ernest Gedge, who traversed British East Africa in company with Mr. F. J. Jackson, has kindly compiled from his note-books the following account of his experiences with Coke’s Hartebeest:--

“These Antelopes range over a very wide extent of country in both British and German East Africa. In the latter sphere I have procured specimens on the south shore of the Victoria Nyanza which in all respects were identical with those found nearer the coast; hence it is reasonable to suppose that they occupy the entire region lying between the lake and the coast. In British East Africa the northern limit of their extension seems to be somewhere about Lake Naivasha in the Masai country. On one occasion, however, I obtained an odd specimen in the valley of the Ngare Rongri, to the south of Lake Baringo, but, as a rule, they are not to be found so far north, as in this district they give place to _B. jacksoni_.

Horns of _Bubalis cokei_, front view.

(Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, xiv. p. 426.)]

“Between Lake Naivasha and the coast _B. cokei_ is very commonly met with. It frequents every kind of locality, and is equally at home in the bush-covered wilderness lying behind the coast-line and on the vast treeless plains around the base of Kilimanjaro which extend northwards towards Lake Naivasha, and during the hottest seasons of the year it is often encountered in the most arid and pastureless localities many miles distant from the nearest water.

“Being of a sociable disposition, Coke’s Hartebeest is usually seen in company with other game, and the sight of these vast mixed herds, which include Zebras and Grant’s and Thomson’s Gazelles, is one not easily forgotten. Like all Hartebeest it is very wary and difficult to approach, its senses of sight and scent being extremely keen. During the time that the herd is grazing there are usually one or two sentinels posted on the nearest elevations to give warning of the approach of danger. The white-ant-hills with which the entire country abounds are usually selected for this purpose, and are patronized to such an extent, that I have seen as many as eight or ten occupying the summit of one of these hills, which looked as if it could only support a third of that number. The reddish colour and general contour of these mounds bears in many cases so close a resemblance to the Antelopes themselves (particularly when grazing) that I have frequently been deceived by their appearance.

“When alarmed they utter a few short whistling snorts and take to flight. If surprised suddenly in the bush they usually run a considerable distance before halting, but when the danger has been perceived from a distance in the open they run but a short distance at a time, pausing frequently to turn round and scrutinize the object of their alarm. In this case there are generally one or two bulls keeping at some distance in the rear of the herd, whose fatal curiosity will often delay them until they fall victims to the rifle.

“The speed of this Antelope is very great, and when thoroughly alarmed they will cover the roughest ground in the most airy and graceful fashion, striking the earth with all four feet together, and springing up with immense bounds like an india-rubber ball. Their tenacity of life is also remarkable, and I have known them travel a long distance with several bullets in different parts of their bodies. The hunter who would be successful must in consequence possess a good rifle and hold it very straight.

“They vary in colour from a light tawny red to chestnut. Age has probably something to do with this, though the males are usually darker than the females, and they are inferior both in size and strength to _B. jacksoni_ further north.

“The cows calve during the latter part of November and December, and on several occasions I have come across their young lying concealed in the long grass, whilst the anxious mother was watching the proceedings from a short distance.”

Our coloured illustration of this species (Plate III.) has been prepared by Mr. Smit from a mounted specimen in the British Museum, which was brought from the Kilimanjaro district by Mr. F. J. Jackson. There is in the same collection a head from the mountains of Taita, obtained by Mr. J. Wray.

_May, 1894._

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. IV.

_Wolf del. Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._

The Cape Hartebeest.

BUBALIS CAAMA.

_Published by R. H. Porter._]

6. THE CAPE HARTEBEEST.

Bubalis Caama (G. CUV.).

[PLATE IV.]

_Hartebeest_, =Sparrm. K.= Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1779, p. 151, pl.
v.; =id.= Voy. to Cape (Engl. transl.) ii. pp. 96, 199, pl. i.
(1786).

_Le Caama ou Bubale_, =Buff.= Hist. Nat. Suppl. vi. p. 135, pl.
xv. (1782).

_Antilope bubalis_, =Schr.= Säug. pl. cclxxvii. (animal) (1787)
(and in part of other early authors, not of Pallas).

_Antilope caama_, =G. Cuv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 242 (1816);
=Desm.= N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 196 (1816); =Goldf.= in
Schr. Säug. v. p. 1174 (1820); =Schinz=, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 390
(1821); =Burchell=, Trav. i. p. 420 (1822); =Desm.= Mamm. ii. p.
467 (1822); =Desmoul.= Dict. Class. i. p. 444 (1822); =Less.=
Man. Mamm. p. 382 (1827); =Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 474 (1829);
=Waterh.= Cat. Mamm. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 41 (1838); =Less.= N.
Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 180 (1842); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv.
p. 469 (1844), v. p. 444 (1855); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 443
(1845); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 297 (1859); =Drummond=, Large Game S.
Afr. p. 425 (1875).

_Antilope dorcas_, =Thunb.= Mém. Ac. Pétersb. iii. p. 316 (1811).

_Cerophorus (Alcelaphus) caama_, =Blainv.= Bull. Soc. Philom.
1816, p. 75.

_Damalis caama_, =Ham. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 348; =id.=
v. p. 362 (1827); =Smuts=, En. Mamm. Cap. p. 88 (1832).

_Acronotus caama_, =A. Sm.= S. Afr. Q. J. ii. p. 221 (1834);
=Harris=, Wild Sport S. Afr. p. 377 (1839); =id.= op. cit. 5th
ed. pl. x. (animal) (1852); =id.= Wild An. S. Afr. (fol.) pl.
vii. (animal) (1840); =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 157 (1843);
=id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 58 (1847).

_Bubalus caama_, =A. Sm.= Ill. Zool. S. Afr. pl. xxx. (animal)
(1840).

_Bubalis caama_, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844, p.
208 (1846); =id.= Hornschuh’s Transl. p. 83 (1848); =Temm.= Esq.
Zool. Guin. p. 195 (1853); =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 218, woodcut
(animal) (1880); =Nicholls & Egl.= Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 45, pl.
iv. fig. 13 (head) (1892); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 56 (1892);
=Selous=, P. Z. S. 1893, p. 1

(hybrid with _Damaliscus lunatus_); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p.
196, fig. 37 (animal) (1893).

_Boselaphus caama_, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 233
(1846); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850, p. 139; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 20,
pl. xx. fig. 2 (animal) (1850); =Blyth=, Cat. Mus. As. Soc. p.
170 (1863); =id.= P. Z. S. 1869, p. 52, figs. 4 & 5 (horns).

_Alcelaphus caama_, =Gray=, Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 124, pl. xvi.
figs. 1–3 (skull and horns) (1852); =Gerr.= Cat. Bones Mamm.
B. M. p. 243 (1862); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 44 (1872);
=id.= Hand-l. Rum. p. 115 (1873); =Buckley=, P. Z. S. 1876,
pp. 285 & 292; 1877, p. 454 (distribution); =Rütimeyer=, Rind.
Tert.-Epoch. p. 47 (1877); =Selous=, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 763
(distribution); =id.= Hunter’s Wanderings, p. 224, pl. vii.
figs. 5 & 6 (head) (1881); =Scl.= List Anim. Zool. Soc. (8) p.
148 (1883); id. P. Z. S. 1890, p. 411; =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Ost.
Coll. Surg. ii. p. 272 (1884); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus.
(Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 139 (1887); =Bryden=, Kloof and Karroo,
p. 291 (1889); =Lyd.= Field, lxxvii. p. 858, fig. 1 (animal)
(1891); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 335, fig. 137 (animal) (1891);
=Scl.= f. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 170 (1891); =Jent.= Cat.
Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 171 (1892); =Distant=,
Transvaal, p. 12 (1892); =Bryden=, Gun and Camera, p. 505 (1893)
(Kalahari Desert).

VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Hartebeest_ of Cape Dutch and English;
_Khama_ of Bechuanas, and the same, with a click, of Masaras;
_Ingama_ of Makalakas (_Selous_); _Inhluzele_ of Zulus
(_Drummond_).

Size large; height at withers about 48 inches. Suborbital gland present, and provided with a distinct tuft. General colour brownish fulvous, darker than in any of the previous species; face with a black blaze running up to the horns, but interrupted between the eyes; back of neck with a dark line from the horns to the withers; chin blackish, outer sides of shoulders and hips black. These darker markings are not visible in the young. Lower part of rump behind whitish or yellowish, contrasting markedly with its dark upperside.

Skull with the frontal part excessively elongated and narrow. The measurements of a fine skull in the Leyden Museum are as follows:--basal length 17·6 inches, greatest breadth 6·1, orbit to tip of muzzle 12·7; facial length 19·3, breadth of forehead below horns 5·1.

Horns diverging evenly outwards at their bases, so as to form a V when viewed from the front, then curved forwards and upwards, and finally bent sharply backwards so as to form almost an abrupt right angle behind the last bend. Good horns attain a length of about 22 or 24 inches.