Chapter IV: Part 4

Passing now to German East Africa, we find that this Antelope, according to Herr Matschie, was met with by Böhm in Uniamwezi, south of Lake Victoria. Here it is the “Jimela” of the natives, which term Herr Matschie has adopted as its specific designation. In a recent letter, however, Herr Matschie tells Sclater that the specimens of this Antelope lately obtained by Herr Oscar Neumann in Kavirondo and other localities west of Lake Victoria, and by Lieut. Werther on the Rovana Steppe near Speke Gulf, more nearly resemble _D. korrigum_ of the West Coast, but it seems to us hardly possible that the western form should extend so far.

It is certain, however, that we have much more to learn concerning the distribution of this Antelope and its allied forms before the question of their specific relations and the areas which they respectively occupy can be deemed settled.

Besides the skull from the Juba, received from Sir John Kirk, the British Museum possesses a mounted specimen of the adult male of this Antelope obtained by Mr. Jackson in the Kilimanjaro district in 1893, and a flat skin procured by the same gentleman near Malindi.

_January, 1895._

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. VIII

The Bontebok.

DAMALISCUS PYGARGUS.

_Published by R. H. Porter._

_Wolf del. Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._]

13. THE BONTEBOK.

DAMALISCUS PYGARGUS (PALL.).

[PLATE VIII.]

_Antilope dorcas_, =Pall.= Misc. Zool. p. 6 (1766) (nec _Capra
dorcas_, L.).

_Antilope pygarga_, =Pall.= Spic. Zool. fasc. i. p. 10 (1767),
fasc. xii. p. 15 (1777); =Erxl.= Syst. R. A. p. 287 (1777);
=Zimm.= Geogr. Gesch. ii. p. 119 (1780); =Gatt.= Brev. Zool.
i. p. 82 (1780); =Schreb.= Säug. pl. cclxxiii. (1784); =Bodd.=
Elench. Anim. p. 143 (1785); =Gmel.= Linn. S. N. i. p. 187
(1788); =Kerr=, Linn. An. K. p. 311 (1792); =Donnd.= Zool.
Beytr. p. 628 (1792); =Bechst.= Uebers. vierf. Thiere, i. p. 87,
ii. p. 644 (1800); =Shaw=, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, p. 352 (1801);
=Turt.= Linn. S. N. i. p. 113 (1802); =Desm.= N. Dict. d’H. N.
(1) xxiv. tabl. p. 33 (1804); =G. Cuv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p.
233 (1804); =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freund. Berl. vi. p. 166 (1814);
=G. Fisch.= Zoogn. iii. p. 435 (1814); =Afzel.= N. Act. Upsal.
vii. p. 220 (1815); =Desm.= N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 186
(1816); =Goldf.= in Schreb. Säug. v. p. 1187 (1820); =Schinz=,
Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 388 (1821); =Desm.= Mamm. ii. p. 456 (1822);
=Desmoul.= Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. p. 443 (1822); =Burch.= List
Quadr. pres. to B. M. p. 5 (1825) (Swellendam); =Less.= Man.
Mamm. p. 373 (1827); =Smuts=, Enum. Mamm. Cap. p. 73 (1832);
=Waterh.= Cat. Mamm. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 41 (1838); =Wagn.= Schr.
Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 412 (1844), v. p. 447 (1855); =Schinz=, Syn.
Mamm. ii. p. 402 (1845).

_Capra cervicapra_, =Müll.= Naturs. i. p.414 (1773) (_nec_ L.).

_Antilope grisea_, =Bodd.= Elench. Anim. p. 139 (1785).

_Capra scripta_, =Thunb.= Resa, ii. p. 50 (1789); Engl. Transl.
ii. p. 44 (1793) (_nec_ _Antilope scripta_, Pall.).

_Antilope maculata_, =Thunb.= Mém. Ac. Pétersb. iii. p. 315
(1811).

_Cerophorus (Gazella) pygarga_, =Blainv.= Bull. Soc. Philom.
1816, p. 75.

_Cemas pygargus_, =Oken=, Lehrb. Naturgesch. iii. pt. 2, p. 738
(1816).

_Antilope personata_, =Woods=, Zool. Journ. v. p. 2 (1835)
(young).

_Gazella pygarga_, =Harr.= Wild Anim. S. Afr. (fol.) pl. xvii.
(animal) (1840); =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 161 (1843).

_Damalis pygarga_, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 233
(1846); =id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 59 (1847); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850,
p. 141; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 21, pl. xx. fig. 3 (young), pl.
xxii. figs. 2 & 3 (adult) (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 127
(1852); =Layard=, Cat. S. Afr. Mus. p. 77 (1861); =Gerr.= Cat.
Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 244 (1862); =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt.
1, p. 181 (1869); =Layard=, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 625, footnote
(scarcity); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 45, pl. iii. fig. 6
(skull) (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 116 (1873); =Jent.=
Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 140 (1887); =id.=
Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 171 (1892); =Nicolls &
Egl.= Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 32, pl. vii. fig. 27 (head) (1892).

_Bubalis pygarga_, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844,
p. 209 (1846); =id.= ibid. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand.
Beitr. ii. p. 159; Reprint, p. 84 (1848); =Temm.= Esq. Zool.
Guin. p. 195 (1852); =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 217 (1880);
=Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 69 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 202
(1893).

_Alcelaphus pygargus_, =Scl.= List Anim. Z. S. (8) p. 150
(1883); =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Ost. Coll. Surg. p. 273 (1884);
=Bryden=, Kloof and Karroo, p. 295 (1889); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p.
335 (1891).

_White-faced Antelope_, =Penn.= Hist. of Quad. i. p. 82.

VERNACULAR NAME:--_Bontebok_ of Dutch and English colonists.

Height at withers about 40 inches. Ground-colour of body, as seen on the anterior half of the back, rufous fawn. Crown, sides of face and neck, flanks, thighs, and the anterior half of the rump darkened nearly or quite to black, which colour also runs down the limbs to the knee and hock, where it passes as a dark ring right round the limbs. Face with a large strongly contrasted blaze of pure white, which covers the whole breadth of its upper surface on the muzzle, but is much narrower above the eyes, where it runs up to the bases of the horns. In the young the facial blaze is simply brown. Posterior half of rump, base of tail, belly, and lower limbs also white. Terminal half of tail, which reaches just to the hock, black-crested.

Hairs of face reversed upwards to horns. No glandular suborbital brushes.

Skull narrow and lightly built, its measurements about as in the next species.

Horns somewhat like those of _D. korrigum_ and its allies, but their bases more compressed and twisted inwards towards each other in front; above they curve evenly backwards and outwards, their terminal five or six inches again gently recurved upwards. Their ridges are 15 or 16 in number, very prominent in front, less so on the sides and behind; their substance is quite black. In length they attain 15 or 16 inches, with a basal circumference of about 6.

_Hab._ Cape Colony, south of Vaal River (now nearly extinct).

The “Bontebok,” or “Pied Goat,” of the Dutch colonists of the Cape, was amongst the earliest Antelopes known to science. In his first essay on the genus _Antilope_, published in 1766, Pallas described it as _Antilope dorcas_, having confounded it with the _Dorcas_ of Ælian. But in his second essay upon the same group, issued in the following year, he selected for it the very appropriate name _pygarga_, by which it has been generally known ever since. The Bontebok and Blessbok together constitute a distinct section of the present genus, readily known from their congeners by their smaller stature and conspicuous white faces.

Lichtenstein, in his celebrated memoir on the genus _Antilope_, published at Berlin in 1814, made _Antilope pygarga_ the tenth species of the genus, and gave original particulars of it from specimens which he had himself obtained during his visit to South Africa. He states, however, that this animal is the _Blessbok_, and not the _Bontebok_, of the Cape; and there can be no doubt that both these names have been applied to it, though the former term is now by general consent restricted to the next following species, _Damaliscus albifrons_. For example, Smuts, in his ‘Enumeratio Mammalium Capensium,’ gives both “Bontebok” and “Blessbok” as the colonial names of the present species. In fact these animals were never correctly discriminated till Harris gave figures and descriptions of them in his ‘Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa,’ published in 1840.

Harris tells us that in his time the Bontebok was “common” in the interior of the Cape Colony, and was also found in one valley near Cape Agulhas. On the plains lying south of the Vaal River he visited the headquarters of the Bontebok, where “thousands upon thousands were seen and numbers were daily slain.” They were frequently seen congregated on the salt-flats, near the stagnant pools of brackish water, licking up the crystallized efflorescence.

Thirty years later a very different tale was told of the Bontebok, which by that date had become nearly extinct except in one isolated spot. Mr. E. L. Layard (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 625) gives the following account of this animal at that period:--“The Bontebok is very nearly exterminated, and, but for the fostering care of Messrs. Breda and Van der Byl, would be quite so in a couple of years.

“They are now confined to one spot in the extreme south of the continent of South Africa, to a portion of the country called the ‘Strand Veldt.’ It is an extensive flat, bordered by the sea on the south-west, south, and south-east, and by a range of undulating country or low hills rising to the Caledon Ranges and Zwart Bergen on the northern side. It is, in fact, the nearest plateau to the L’Agulhas Bank, and is called ‘Cape L’Agulhas.’ The whole of this country belongs chiefly to the families of Breda and Van der Byl; and they preserve the animals as much as they can. A Government permit is also required to shoot them, which must be visa’d by the magistrate at Bredasdorp, the name of the village on this range of land.

“They are, however, poached and destroyed by one or two small holders, who have patches of land surrounded by the large properties, and who refuse all offers of purchase, and plant corn on purpose to tempt the animals into it, and then at night shoot them. They roam in herds of about eight or ten, or twenty; but sometimes fine old bucks are found solitary. They are usually shot from a cart, which they will suffer to approach them, or from horseback. If wounded and approached they will charge desperately; and I have heard of a Hottentot being killed by them thus.”

Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington in their ‘Sportsman in South Africa,’ which contains the most recent account of the Antelopes of the Colony, tell us that the Bontebok can no longer “be considered as a part of the wild game of the country,” as it now exists only on Van der Byl’s farm (as mentioned by Mr. Layard) and has become totally extinct elsewhere.

Mr. H. A. Bryden, a well-known authority upon the game of the Cape, tells us the same story. One of the last resorts of this Antelope was the Bontebok Flats, to the north of the present Queenstown district, where a few of these Antelopes existed up to 1851. It appears certain, however, that except in the farm above mentioned, where a few have been carefully preserved for many years, the Bontebok is, at the present time, an extinct animal.

The Bontebok was amongst the many splendid Antelopes that were to be seen in the celebrated Knowsley Menagerie, and which bred in that establishment. The young is figured in one of Waterhouse Hawkins’s large plates in the ‘Gleanings,’ and the adult pair in another plate along with the Blessbok.

At the dispersal of the Knowsley collection in 1851 a pair of adult Bonteboks were purchased by Mr. D. W. Mitchell, then Secretary, for the Zoological Society of London, whilst another pair, bred at Knowsley, were sold to Prince Demidoff.

In August 1871 two females of this Antelope were brought home alive by the Captain of one of the Cape mail-steamers, and purchased by the Zoological Society for £50. So far as I know, these were the last Bonteboks ever brought to Europe.

_Damaliscus pygargus._]

In the National Collection, we regret to say, the Bontebok is only represented by a single stuffed specimen--a male, received in 1839 from Dr. Smuts. There are also several skulls and horns of this Antelope, but none of them are of recent date. We fear it will now be a matter of some difficulty to obtain fresh specimens of this once so abundant Antelope.

The coloured illustration of the Bontebok (Plate VIII.) and the woodcut (fig. 10) were both prepared under Sir Victor Brooke’s directions. The plate was lithographed by Smit from one of Mr. Wolf’s sketches.

_January, 1895._

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. IX.

_Wolf del Smit lith_ _Hanhart imp._

The Blessbok

DAMALISCUS ALBIFRONS

_Published by R. H. Porter._]

14. THE BLESSBOK.

DAMALISCUS ALBIFRONS (BURCH.).

[PLATE IX.]

_Antilope albifrons_, =Burch.= Travels, ii. p. 335 (1824);
=Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Supp. iv. p. 413 (1844), v. p. 448 (1855).

_Gazella albifrons_, =Harris=, Wild Anim. S. Afr. (fol.) pl.
xxi. (animal) (1840).

_Damalis albifrons_, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 233
(1846); =id.= P.Z. S. 1850, p. 141; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 22,
pl. xxii. fig. 1 (animal) (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 129
(1852); =id.= Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 45 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum.
B. M. p. 116 (1873); =Layard=, Cat. S. Afr. Mus. p. 77 (1861);
=Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 181 (1869); =Drummond=, Large
Game S. Afr. p. 425 (1875); =Nicolls & Egl.= Sportsm. S. Afr. p.
31, pl. iii. fig. 9 (head) (1892); =Jent.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus.
(Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 171 (1892).

_Bubalis albifrons_, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844,
p. 210 (1846); =id.= ibid. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand.
Beitr. ii. p. 159; Reprint, p. 84 (1848); =Temm.= Esq. Zool.
Guin. p. 195 (1853); =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 217 (1880);
=Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 68 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 202
(1893).

_Alcelaphus albifrons_, =Buckley=, P. Z. S. 1876, pp. 286, 292
(distribution); =Scl.= List Anim. Z. S. (8) p. 149 (1883);
=Bryden=, Kloof and Karroo, p. 295 (1889); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm.
p. 335 (1891).

VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Blessbok_ of Dutch and English colonists;
_Nunni_ of Bechuana natives (_Harris_); _Inoni_ of Kaffirs
(_Drummond_); _Inoni_ or _Inpemfu_ of Zulus (_Rendall_).

Similar to _D. pygargus_ in nearly every respect; but the rufous ground-colour is much more widely extended, owing to the parts which are black in that animal being here scarcely darker than the rest. White blaze on face divided into two parts by a narrow line between the eyes. Posterior half of rump not prominently white, a small area only round the base of the tail slightly paler than the rest.

Skull and horns as in _D. pygargus_, except that the latter are of a more or less whitish colour.

Skull-measurements of a male:--basal length 11·5 inches, greatest breadth 5·1, muzzle to orbit 8·3.

_Hab._ Northern plains of Cape Colony, Orange Free State,
Transvaal, and Bechuana-land (now nearly extinct).

The Blessbok, so called from the white blaze on its forehead (“_bles_” in Dutch), is of exactly the same form and general appearance as the Bontebok, so that these two close allies have often been confounded together. But the present species is at once distinguishable by the absence of the broad anal white disk above the tail, which ornaments the Bontebok, and by the paler colour of the sides and flanks.

Whether Burchell, whose scientific term “_albifrons_” has been universally adopted for the Blessbok, really intended to affix that name to the present species or to the Bontebok, is, to say the best of it, very doubtful. As we have already stated, both the vernacular names “Blessbok” and “Bontebok” were occasionally applied by the Boers to _Damaliscus pygargus_, and therefore, although Burchell expressly invented his name “_albifrons_” for what he called the “Blessbok,” he equally intended by that term to designate the long-known Bontebok, from which he did not distinguish the Blessbok. It so happened, however, that this was done in reference to a specimen of the latter, so that his name has been rightly retained for it. As we have pointed out in the previous article, these two near allies were first correctly discriminated by Harris, and it is therefore in any case wise to abide by his decision as to their proper names, both scientific and vernacular. Indeed Harris’s lead on this difficult question has been generally followed.

In Harris’s days, 1836–37, the Blessbok inhabited “the elevated tracts to the eastward of the Colony known as the Bontebok Flats,” and was found on the great plains south of the Vaal River in “astounding herds.” Here it was that his first introduction to this splendid Antelope took place. Harris gives us a graphic account of how he lost himself in the wilderness when engaged in the pursuit of these herds and barely escaped with his life.

“The absence of fuel shortly obliged us to continue our march over a succession of salt-pans, upon which numerous great herds of Blessboks were busily licking the crystallized efflorescence. Alarmed at the approach of our cavalcade, vast troops of them were continually sweeping past against the wind, carrying their broad white noses close to the ground like a pack of harriers in full cry. Having never obtained any specimens of this species, and our stock of provisions, moreover, grievously requiring to be recruited, I mounted _Breslar_, my favourite Rosinante, and, little heeding whither I sped, dashed into the very thick of the Antelopes. The pine-apple hill bearing east about five miles, must, I concluded, prove a never-failing landmark to direct my return to the road, which, however faint it had become, could still readily be distinguished by a practised eye. Dealing death around, I thus continued to scour the ensanguined plain, and to use my pleasure with the herd before me, which had in the meantime increased from hundreds to thousands--reinforcements still pouring in from all directions when, crying ‘hold, enough,’ I stayed my hand from slaughter, and having divested some of the primest of their brilliant party-coloured robes, I packed the _spolia_ on my horse, and, well satisfied with my performance, set out to rejoin the waggons. But ah! vainly was it that I sought for them. Cantering to and fro between the string of frosted salt-pans and the little hill, which, floating in the sea of mirage that environed it, seemed as though poised in the sky, again and again I strained my eyes for the road. The monotony of the landscape baffled all attempts at recognition, and my search proved utterly fruitless. Every feature of the scene was precisely the same--the table mountains were completely obscured by the midday haze--and in the constant recurrence of similar forms, I lost the points of the compass, and at last became totally bewildered.”

In fact it took Harris on this occasion nearly three days and three nights wandering before he managed to rejoin his waggons.

At the present time these mighty herds have altogether vanished. So late as 1861 Mr. E. L. Layard wrote that the Blessbok was “still found in considerable herds on the north-eastern border of Colony.” But in 1889 Mr. Bryden (‘Kloof and Karroo’) tells us that this Antelope had become quite extinct within the limits of Capeland. Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington, however, inform us that the Blessbok is still to be found on some farms in the Transvaal, and in one or two spots in the Orange Free State. “Previous to Sir Charles Warren’s Expedition in 1884 they were fairly common on the open flats in Southern Bechuanaland, particularly in the neighbourhood of Groot Choiang, and also in the district of Rhamathlabama, a few miles north of Mafeking. They are now practically extinct there, an occasional troop only straying into that district from the preserved farms in the Transvaal.”

_Damaliscus albifrons._]

Of the Blessbok, so far as I know, Lord Derby never procured for the Knowsley Menagerie but a single female, which was figured by Waterhouse Hawkins on the same plate of the ‘Gleanings’ as the Bonteboks. At the sale of the Knowsley Menagerie in August 1851, this animal was purchased by Mr. Westermann for the Zoological Society of Amsterdam. In 1861 the Zoological Society of London received, as a present from Sir George Grey, then Governor of the Cape Colony, a single female of this Antelope along with other valuable animals. A male of the same species was obtained by purchase in 1862 and a female about two years later. These animals throve and bred in the Society’s Gardens, and young ones were born in 1866, 1869, and 1870. But in the absence of fresh importations the whole stock was lost, and no Blessboks have been exhibited in the Society’s Gardens since 1880, when a single specimen was received “on deposit.” In many of the continental gardens also Blessboks were formerly to be seen, but of late years they have become extremely scarce; although we are informed that there are still solitary examples living at Berlin, Antwerp, and Amsterdam, and Mr. Reiche kindly tells us that he imported three females from the Transvaal this summer.

In the National Collection at the British Museum the Blessbok, we regret to say, is even more imperfectly represented than the Bontebok. Besides a mounted female specimen in bad condition there are only a few frontlets of this species, so that additional specimens of this beautiful Antelope, before it becomes quite extinct, would be specially acceptable.

The drawing of this Antelope (Plate IX.) and the woodcut now given (p. 82) were both prepared under Sir Victor Brooke’s directions. The Plate was engraved by Smit from one of Mr. Wolf’s sketches.

_January, 1895._

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. X.

_Wolf del. Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._

The Sassaby.

DAMALISCUS LUNATUS.

_Published by R. H. Porter._]

15. THE SASSABY.

DAMALISCUS LUNATUS (BURCH.).

[PLATE X.]

_Sasayby_, =Daniell=, Afr. Sketch, pl. 18 (1820).

_Antilope lunata_, =Burchell=, Travels, ii. p. 334 (1824); =id.=
List Quadr. pres. to B. M. p. 5 (1825) (Makkwarin R., Orange
Free State); =Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 642 (1830); =Wagn.= Schr.
Säug. Supp. iv. p. 471 (1844), v. p. 446 (1855); =Schinz=, Syn.
Mamm. ii. p. 444 (1845); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 298 (1859).

_Damalis lunata_, =Ham. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 352,
plate (copied from Daniell), v. p. 364 (1827); =Smuts=, Enum.
Mamm. Cap. p. 89 (1832); =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p.
233 (1846); =id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 59 (1847); =id.= P. Z.
S. 1850, p. 140; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 21 (1850); =id.= Cat.
Ung. B. M. p. 125 (1852); =Gerr.= Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 244
(1862); =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 180 (1869); =Gray=,
Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 45 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 115
(1873); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p.
139 (1887); =id.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 171
(1892); =Nicolls & Egl.= Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 33, pl. vi. fig. 19
(head) (1892).

_Acronotus lunatus_, =A. Sm.= S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii. p. 222
(1834); =Harr.= Wild An. S. Afr. pl. viii. (1840); =Gray=, List
Mamm. B. M. p. 157 (1843); =id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 59 (1847).

_Bubalus lunatus_, =A. Sm.= Ill. Zool. S. Afr. pl. xxxi.
(animal) (1841).

_Bubalis lunata_, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844,
p. 209 (1846); =id.= ibid. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand.
Beitr. ii. p. 159; Reprint, p. 83 (1848); =Temm.= Esq. Zool.
Guin. p. 195 (1853); =Drummond=, Large Game S. Afr. p. 426
(1875); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 66 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs,
p. 202 (1893); =Selous=, P. Z. S. 1893, p. 1 (hybrid with _B.
caama_).

_Alcelaphus lunatus_, =Buckley=, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 285
(distribution); =Selous=, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 764; =id.= Hunter’s
Wanderings S. Afr. p. 225 (1881); =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Ost.
Coll. Surg. p. 273 (1884).

VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Bastard Hartebeest_ of Cape colonists;
_Sassaybe_ (_Tsess[=e]be_) of Bechuanas, now Anglicized into
_Sassăby_ by sportsmen generally; _Incolomo_ and _Incomazan_ of
Matabili; _Inkweko_ of Masubias; _Unchuru_ of Makubas; _Inyundo_
of Makalakas; _Luchu_ or _Lechu_ of Masaras (_Selous_); _Myunzi_
of Zulus (_Rendall_).

Size large; height at withers nearly 4 feet. General colour dark chestnut-rufous; front of face, outer sides of shoulders, and hips black. Chin and end of muzzle paler than cheeks. Belly purplish rufous, the groins and back of horns only white. Limbs with the dark colour of shoulders and hips passing round them just above knees and hocks; below these the legs are all reddish brown. Tail with its tuft reaching to the hock, its base like the back, its crested terminal half black.

Face-hairs reversed up to horns. No glandular suborbital brushes.

Skull-measurements of an adult male:--basal length 14·9 inches, greatest breadth 6·2, muzzle to orbit 10·8.

Horns cylindrical, evenly curved, starting outwards and backwards, gradually turning inwards and backwards. There is also a slight lyration of the horns, so that both points and bases are directed a little upwards, the general lunate curve being thereby disturbed. Good male horns attain a length of 14 or 15 inches, with a basal circumference of 7 or 8.

_Hab._ S.E. Africa, north of the Orange River up to the Zambesi,
and westward to the district of Lake Ngami.

The Sassaby is a fine large Antelope well known to the sportsmen of South-east Africa. Though it certainly belongs to this group, it is rather isolated by the peculiar form of the horns, which somewhat resemble those of the Tora. It nearest allies are no doubt the Blessbok and Bontebok, which, however, it considerably exceeds in stature, being nearly as big as a Hartebeest.

The first discovery of the Sassaby is due to the researches of the celebrated African traveller, Dr. William J. Burchell. On the 10th of July, 1812, when on the Makkwárin River, in what is now the Orange Free State, Burchell’s hunters obtained a single specimen of an Antelope which was at once recognized as “new,” and was subsequently described in the second volume of the author’s ‘Travels’ (published in 1824), as the “Crescent-horned Antelope, _Antilope lunata_” Burchell states that it seemed to be an extremely scarce animal, as he never met with it again during the whole of his journeyings, the fact being that he had only just entered within the southern boundary of the range of this species. Burchell’s typical specimen, or rather portions of it, viz. the frontlet and horns, is still in the National Collection, to which he presented it.

Between the period of the discovery of the Sassaby by Burchell and the publication of its description this Antelope attracted the attention of another observer, Samuel Daniell, an artist who accompanied Dr. Somerville on two expeditions into the interior of the Cape Colony early in the present century. One of the copperplates engraved by William Daniell from the drawings made by his deceased brother Samuel, and published in 1820, gives a good representation of this species, which is stated in the accompanying letterpress to be “an Antelope, heretofore not described, found in the Booshwana country.” But no further particulars are given of it.

Hamilton-Smith, in his volume on the Ruminants, published in Griffith’s Translation of Cuvier’s ‘Règne Animal,’ correctly brought together Daniell’s “Sassaby” and Burchell’s _Antilope lunata_ under one head and added a copy of Daniell’s figure.

Except in the quotations of its names by various systematists we find little more recorded of the Sassaby until 1840, when Capt. W. Cornwallis Harris gave an excellent account of it in his beautiful work on the ‘Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa.’ This experienced sportsman and artist devoted one of his life-like plates to the representation of this Antelope, with which he had made himself well acquainted. “The Sassaybe,” he tells us, “like its congener, the Hartebeest, delights in the neighbourhood of hills, frequenting the open country with island-looking mimosa-groves, as well as the patches of scraggy forest that skirt the foot of many of the superior mountain ranges, which, however, neither species ever ascends. Among the parks of mokaala trees about the Cashan and Kurichane mountains we constantly saw them.” The painted skins of the Sassaby were in those days, Harris tells us, “in great request amongst the savages for kobos or leathern mantles, as well on account of their brilliant colours as from their extreme suppleness.” In this article of dress, Harris tells us, “the shining black tail, opened and squeezed flat, was usually fastened on so as to depend like a queue from the back of the neck, and the universal admiration in which this elegant appendage was held rendered its wearer the subject of many a quarrel.”

Very shortly after the publication of Harris’s ‘Portraits,’ Dr. Andrew Smith published his scientific account of the Sassaby in one of the numbers of his ‘Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa.’ After an accurate description Dr. Smith well remarks that “between the appearances of the horns of the Sassaby and the Caama there are such marked differences, that we must at once conclude that no valid importance ought to be attached either to the form or direction of horns in the grouping of species. The subocular glands also differ materially in these two animals: in the Caama they are covered with short hair, similar to that of the other parts of the face; in the Sassaby they are without covering. In the Caama, the last portion of the tail is completely encircled with hair; in the Sassaby the sides and upper surface only are so furnished, the under surface being bare. In general appearance the two animals present a strong resemblance to each other.” Dr. Smith adds the following note on the habits of this species:--

“While _B. caama_ seems to prefer the open grassy plains for its feeding-places, the Sassaby apparently delights to resort to situations in the vicinity of wood, or to such as are actually wooded, and in districts of the latter description large herds are often observed feeding among the dense brushwood without apparent concern. All the individuals we saw near to Latakoo were vigilant in watching our motions, and apparently little disposed to trust themselves within our reach; while those, again, on the other side of Kurrichane were comparatively tame, and though they did not actually resist our approach, yet they often continued in the situations in which we discovered them, until they were quite within the range of our guns; and even after being fired at they only retreated slowly, and rarely without frequently turning round as they retired to watch our movements. Their retreat, after each examination of the kind mentioned, was commonly preceded by some significant springs or strange gesticulations, such as are often made by common domestic cattle when they are put to flight by any object which excites their alarm. In point of manners, both the Sassaby and the Hartebeest show a considerable resemblance to the bovine tribe, and, except the Gnu, more so than any of the other Antelopes.”

Coming to more modern times, Mr. T. E. Buckley, in his excellent article on the “Geographical Distribution of South-African Mammals,” read before the Zoological Society of London in 1876, gives us the subjoined notes of his experience of this species:--“Although, in Harris’s time, the Sassaybe appears to have been common on the plains, at the present day it is essentially a bush-loving animal. According to Dr. A. Smith the Sassabye was rarely known to advance to the south of Latakoo; at present its southern limit appears to be the Amaswazi country; along the Limpopo it is very common, and continues so into the Matabili country up to the Zambesi. The old males do not seem to associate with the females; nor do they appear so common, as out of nearly a dozen obtained by us only two were males, and one of these was immature. We observed very young calves in October. The Sassabye runs with a peculiar gait, reminding one of a rocking-horse; its shoulders are very high, sloping away to the rump; it does not seem to be a very shy animal.”

Five years later the experienced African hunter and naturalist, Mr. F. C. Selous, in the same Journal, gives us the following notes on this Antelope:--“In travelling up the centre of South Africa, the first place in which the Sassaby is to be met with now-a-days is in the neighbourhood of the Marico River, a tributary of the Limpopo; and from there it is found throughout Central South Africa wherever I have been, south of the Zambesi, in all those parts of the country that are suitable to its habits. I say south of the Zambesi, because during my journey through the Manica country to the north of that river in 1877–78, although the terrain appeared well suited to its habits and requirements, I saw none of these Antelopes. I have heard, however, from the natives that they are very common in the neighbourhood of Sesheke.

“This Antelope is never found in hilly country or in thick jungle, but frequents the open downs that are quite free from bush, or else open forest-country in which treeless glades are to be met with. On the Mababe Flat at the end of the dry season large herds of these animals congregate together, and I have often seen, I am sure, several hundreds of them at once. They are, without exception, the fleetest and most enduring Antelope in South Africa. In 1879 all the Tsessebe and Blue Wildebeest cows calved on the northern bank of the Chobe during the first week in September, whilst on the Mababe Flat, only about one degree further south, the same animals did not calve before the first week in November.”

Mr. Bertram L. Sclater, R.E., who was at Beira for a week in April 1892, on his way home from Nyasaland, informs us that he was told in that town that the Sassaby is one of the commonest Antelopes on the banks of the Lower Pungwe, and that he was shown several frontlets of this species said to have been obtained between Beira and Chimoio. So far as we know, this is the furthest northern locality recorded for this species, which, as shown by Mr. Selous, does not appear to be found anywhere north of the Zambesi.

Head of supposed hybrid between _Damaliscus lunatus_ and
_Bubalis caama_.

(P. Z. S. 1893, p. 2.)]

At a meeting of the Zoological Society of London in January 1893 Mr. Selous made another interesting communication on this Antelope, exhibiting a skull which he believed to be that of a hybrid between it and the Hartebeest. This curious animal was shot in 1890 on the Tati River, Matabeleland, by Cornelius van Rooyen, a well-known Boer hunter. While this skull, which is now in the British Museum, closely resembles that of the Hartebeest, its horns partake of the characters of both the supposed parents. They stand nearly straight up from the skull as in the Hartebeest, but are slightly lunate in form and ringed as in the Sassaby. Mr. Selous was informed that the general colour of its skin was precisely that of the Sassaby, but that it carried the comparatively large bushy tail of the Hartebeest. As hybrids amongst the larger mammals are excessively rare in a wild state, this occurrence is well worthy of record, and we have to thank the Zoological Society for kindly permitting us to use their woodcut to illustrate it.

Besides the typical frontlet of this species in the British Museum, already mentioned, there are a mounted pair in the Gallery obtained by Dr. Andrew Smith, and skeletons of both sexes made from specimens shot on the Manyame River, Mashonaland, by Mr. Selous.

The Sassaby is rarely seen in captivity. So far as we know, the only specimens ever brought alive to Europe are two females imported by Mr. C. Reiche, of Alfeld, from the Transvaal in 1888. One of these was sold to the Amsterdam Gardens (where Sclater inspected it in April 1889), and the other to the Antwerp Gardens.

Our figure of this species (Plate X.) was put on the stone by Mr. Smit from a sketch made for Sir Victor Brooke by Mr. Wolf.

_January, 1895._

GENUS III. CONNOCHÆTES.

Type.

_Connochætes_, =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freund. Berl.
vi. p. 152 (1814) C. GNU.
_Cemas_, =Oken=, Lehrb. Naturgesch. iii. Zool.
pt. ii. p. 727 (1816) C. GNU.
_Catoblepas_, =Ham. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv.
p. 366 (1827) C. GNU.
_Gorgon_, =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 139 C. TAURINUS.
_Butragus_, =Bly.= _apud_ Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M.
p. 43 (1872) C. TAURINUS.

Size large, form thick and clumsy; the withers not disproportionately higher than the rump; head massive, with a broad and bristly muzzle; face with a large median tuft of thick black hairs uniting the suborbital tufts; nostrils widely separated, hairy within; neck maned; hoofs narrow; tail with its tuft reaching nearly to the ground, long-haired throughout; mammæ four.

Colour grey, brown, or black, the long hairs of the dorsal and throat manes and of the tail generally black, sometimes white.

Skull broad and heavy, not specially elongated; ends of premaxillæ expanded.

Horns present in both sexes; thickened and expanded at their bases; starting outwards or downwards for their proximal halves, their points abruptly curved upwards.

_Range of the Genus._ South and East Africa.

This genus, that of the curious and eccentric-looking animals known as Gnus, contains two very different sections, almost worthy of being considered distinct genera. One of these consists of two closely allied forms, the Brindled and White-maned Gnu, and the other of the White-tailed or “Common” Gnu, the most peculiar and specialized of all. Their differences may be summarized as follows:--

A. Hairs of facial tuft pointing downwards. Horns directed first
outwards and then upwards. Tail black.

_a._ Throat-mane black 1. _C. taurinus_.
_b._ Throat-mane whitish 2. _C. albojubatus_.

B. Hairs of facial tuft pointing upwards. Horns directed first
downwards, and then recurved upwards. Tail white
3. _C. gnu_.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XI.

_Wolf del. Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._

The Brindled Gnu.

CONNOCHÆTES TAURINUS.

_Published by R. H. Porter_]

16. THE BRINDLED GNU.

CONNOCHÆTES TAURINUS (BURCH.).

[PLATE XI.]

_Antilope gnu_, var., =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freund. Berlin, vi. p.
166 (?).

_Kokoon_, =Daniell=, Afr. Scenery, p. 37 (1820).

_Antilope taurina_, =Burchell=, Travels, ii. p. 278 (1824);
=id.= List Quadr. pres. to B. M. p. 7 (1825) (Maadji Mts.);
=Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 476 (1829); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p.
447 (1845); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 299 (1859).

_Catoblepas taurinus_, =Ham. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 369,
v. p. 368 (1827); =Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 642 (1830); =Smuts=,
Enum. Mamm. Cap. p. 94 (1832); =A. Sm.= S. Afr. Quart. J. ii. p.
233 (1834); =Less.= Compl. Buff. x. p. 305 (1836); =Gray=, List
Mamm. B. M. p. 154 (1843); =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l.
1844, p. 205 (1846); =id.= ibid. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch.
Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 156; Reprint, p. 80 (1848); =A. Sm.= Ill.
Zool. S. Afr. pl. xxxviii. (♀ & yg.) (1849) =Fitz.= SB. Wien,
lix. pt. 1, p. 182 (1869); =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 290, fig.
(animal) (1880).

_Catoblepas gorgon_, =Ham. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 371,
v. p. 369 (1827); =Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 643 (1830); =A. Sm.=
S. Afr. Quart. J. ii. p. 233 (1834); =Less.= Compl. Buff. x. p.
306 (1836); =Harris=, Wild Anim. S. Afr. pl. iv. (1840); =Gray=,
List Mamm. B. M. p. 154 (1843); =id.= Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii.
p. 232 (1846); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850, p. 139; =id.= Knowsl. Men.
p. 20 (1850); =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 195 (1853); =Sclater=,
P. Z. S. 1864, p. 103 (Uzaramo, _Speke_); =Kirk=, P. Z. S.
1864, p. 660 (Zambesia); =Fitz.= loc. cit.; =Drummond=, Large
Game S. Afr. p. 425 (1875); =Selous=, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 764
(distribution); =id.= Hunter’s Wanderings S. Afr. p. 226 (1881);
=Bryden=, Kloof and Karroo, p. 293 (1889).

_Antilope gorgon_, =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Supp. iv. p. 474 (1844),
v. p. 448 (1855); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 446 (1845);
=Peters=, Säug. Mozamb. p. 192 (1852).

_Connochætes gorgon_, =Gray=, Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 121 (1852);
=Gerr.= Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 243 (1862).

_Gorgon fasciatus_, =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 43 (1872); =id.=
Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 114 (1873).

“_Butragus corniculatus_, Blyth, MS.,” =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M.
p. 43 (1872).

_Connochætes gnu_, =Hunter=, in Willoughby’s East Africa, p. 288.

_Connochætes taurinus_, =Scl.= List An. Z. S. (8) p. 150 (1883);
=Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Ost. Coll. Surg. p. 275 (1884); =Jent.=
Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 139 (1887);
=Crawshay=, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 663 (Nyasa); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm.
p. 336 (1891); =Nicolls & Egl.= Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 47, pl. iii.
fig. 8 (head) (1892); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 72, fig. (horns)
(1892); =Jent.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p.
170 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 205, fig. 42 (head)
(1893).

_Catoblepas reichei_, =Noack=, Zool. Anz. 1893, p. 153 (Upper
Limpopo).

VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Blue Wildebeest_ of English colonists
(_Selous_); _Bastard_ or _Blauw Wildebeeste_ of Dutch colonists
(_Harris_); _Kokoong_ of Bachapins (_Burchell_); _Kokoon_ of
Bechuanas (_Harris_); _Nyumbo_ in Zambesia (_Peters & Kirk_);
_Kaop_ and _Baas_ of Namaquas and Hottentots (_Harris_);
_Imbutuma_ of Kaffirs (_Drummond_); _Ink[=o]ne-kn[=o]e_ of
Matabilis; _Ee-vumba_ of Makalakas; _Numbo_ of Masubias;
_Minyumbwe_ of Batongas; _Unzozo_ of Makubas (_Selous_);
_Ink[=o]ne-k[=o]ne_ of Swazis (_Rendall_).

Height at withers about 48 inches.

Fur short and close, with peculiar vertical lines of differently directed hairs on the sides of the neck and body, whence the epithet “Brindled.” General colour dull grey, lighter and more tinged with rufous on the rump and limbs. Face (except a paler area between the eyes), chin, dorsal and throat manes deep black. Tail long, its vertebræ almost reaching to the hock; its upper surface coloured like the rump, its under surface and the long tuft black.

Lower part of face and lacrymal region heavily tufted, the hairs directed downwards; the short ones of the terminal inch on the tip of the muzzle, however, pointed upwards.

Skull large and heavy, with a long muzzle. That of an old male measures as follows:--basal length 18·1 inches, greatest breadth 7·7, muzzle to orbit 13·3.

Horns placed so that the hinder edge of their palm is little more than level with the back of the skull; the palm itself comparatively low, smooth, small in comparison with the enormous palm of _C. gnu_. Beyond the palm the basal two-thirds of the horn points directly outwards, while the ends are curved upwards, forwards, and inwards. A fine pair of horns will measure 26 or 28 inches between the outer sides of the curves of the two horns.

_Hab._ Eastern Africa, from the Vaal River northwards through
Zambesia, Nyasaland, and German East Africa to the north of
Kilimanjaro.

The Brindled Gnu, although, as it seems, previously observed by Lichtenstein in Bechuanaland, was first actually obtained by the celebrated African traveller Burchell, who went far into the interior of the country in 1811 and 1812. In June of the latter year, when encamped at the great Khosi Fountain in Bechuanaland, as he tells us in the second volume of his ‘Travels,’ an example of a “new species of Antelope” was brought in by his hunters. Being well acquainted with the White-tailed Gnu of the Cape Colony, Burchell at once recognized it as a second species of that genus. Burchell pointed out its differences from its southern representative very clearly, and added a scientific Latin diagnosis in a footnote. He called it _Antilope taurina_, because its horns resembled those of an Ox more than those of any other Antelope. The half-bred Hottentots, he observes, give it the name of the _Bastaard Wildebeest_, while the Bechuanas call it _Kokūn_ or _Kokūng_. Altogether Burchell obtained five specimens of this Antelope, one of which (a female), shot in the following October near the Maadji Mountains, was, as we learn from his “List of Quadrupeds,” presented to the British Museum in 1817, and seems to have formed the basis of his technical description.

Two years previous to the actual publication of Burchell’s description, however, the Brindled Gnu had been figured in Daniell’s ‘Sketches of African Scenery’ under the name of the “Kokoon.”

In 1827 Major Charles Hamilton-Smith, F.R.S., in Griffith’s edition of Cuvier’s ‘Animal Kingdom,’ besides recognizing _C. gnu_ and _C. taurina_, added a presumed third species of the genus, which he based on a specimen then exhibited in the “Museum of the Missionary Society of London.” It is quite clear, however, from the description and figure that Hamilton-Smith’s _C. gorgon_ is identical with Burchell’s previously described _Antilope taurina_, and that the latter term should take precedence, although many naturalists have preferred to use Hamilton-Smith’s name for this species.

Adult Brindled Gnu.

(Roy. Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 314.)]

In 1836 and 1837 the celebrated artist and sportsman, Cornwallis Harris, met with the Brindled Gnu on the plains of what is now the Orange Free State in “countless numbers.” “Instantly after crossing the Orange River,” he tells us, “the Kokoon or Brindled Gnu usurps the place of the White-tailed species, and, although herds of the former may actually be seen grazing on the northern bank, not a single individual has ever been known to pass the barrier.... By the Dutch Boers the present species is termed the Bastaard or Blauw Wilde Beest: throughout the country of the Bechuanas, as far as the Tropic, it is recognized as the Kokoon, and the Hottentot tribes designate it the Kaop or Baas, both of which terms, signifying _master_, refer, in all probability, to its bold and terrific bearing. When excited by the appearance of any suspicious object, or aroused by any unusual noise, the Kokoon is wont to appear much more grim and ferocious than it actually proves--not unfrequently approaching with an air of defiance, as if resolved to do battle with the hunter, but decamping on the first exhibition of hostility on his part. On being pursued, the herd bring their aquiline noses low between their knees, and flourishing their streaming black tails, tear away in long regular files at a furious gallop, wheeling curiously about at a distance of two or three hundred yards, advancing boldly towards the danger, tossing their shaggy heads in a threatening manner--presently making a sudden stop, presenting an impenetrable front of horns, and staring wildly at the object of their mistrust.... When engaged in grazing they have an extremely dull and clumsy appearance, and at a little distance might often be mistaken for wild buffaloes; but their manner is sportive--at one moment standing to gaze at nothing, and at the next scampering over the plain without any apparent object in view, making grotesque curvets and plunges, with their preposterous Bonassus-looking heads held down between the fore legs.”

In his valuable ‘Illustrations of South-African Zoology,’ Sir Andrew Smith gives an excellent account of this species (published in August 1842), accompanied by an indifferent figure of the female and young. Sir Andrew justly observes that this and the Common Gnu are two of the most interesting and extraordinary quadrupeds which occur in South Africa. “When either the one or other of those animals, especially under excitement, stands in front of an observer, with the head and anterior parts of the body only distinctly visible, the idea of its strong resemblance to a small ox immediately arises. When, again, its body and posterior parts are the portions most conspicuously in view, the likeness to a horse is remarkable; but when its limbs only are taken in review, it presents a strong similarity to the more typical Antelopes.”

At the time when these observations were made both the Gnus, according to Sir Andrew Smith, inhabited, in enormous multitudes, the grassy plains to the northward of the Vaal River, and after the fall of the summer rains were in the habit of advancing simultaneously in large herds as far as the southern branches of the Orange River. But on reaching the latter stream singularly enough the Brindled Gnu ceased to advance, and the Common Gnu alone passed into the Cape Colony. The appearance of the latter to the south of the Orange River was the signal for hunters of all denominations to prepare for the chase, and though the yearly slaughter was very great the herds in those days never ceased to renew their periodical visitations. Strongly expressed as are the views of both Andrew Smith and Harris as to the line of demarcation between the two species of Gnu, there seems to be some doubt as to their correctness. An excellent recent authority, Mr. H. A. Bryden (‘Kloof and Karroo’), tells us that the Brindled Gnu was in former days certainly a “denizen, albeit a rare one, south of the Orange River,” and gives us Gordon-Cumming as an authority. Gordon-Cumming asserts (‘Hunter’s Life in South Africa,’ p. 148) that he met with the Brindled Gnu in the Karroo country west of Colesberg, in what is now the Hopetown division of the Cape Colony. But Mr. Bryden admits that it has now for many years been extinct in that district. In the Transvaal, also, he tells us, the Boers have, of late years, played sad havoc with this singular Antelope, not long ago found in countless thousands on the plains of that Republic.

Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington, in their ‘Sportsman in South Africa,’ tell us the same story. Writing in 1892, they state that, except in some of the northern districts along the Crocodile River, the Brindled Gnu is now extremely scarce in the Transvaal, and practically extinct in the Orange Free State. But it is still met with in Bechuanaland, and is fairly plentiful along the edges of the Great Kalahari Desert. “In the Lake Ngami district, on both banks of the Botletle River, and from thence right up to the Chobe and Zambesi, it is quite common in suitable localities, and, at the present time, large troops may be seen on the Ma-Chara-Chara and Mababe Flats, and in the country surrounding the great salt-pans of Makari-Kari, through which the main road passes to the Victoria Falls.”

So much for the occurrence of this species in the South and South-west of Africa, past and present. But we must now trace its distribution to the north; for it is an extraordinary fact that the Brindled Gnu, instead of being confined, like its sister species, to a small part of South Africa, extends up along the eastern coast certainly as far as Kilimanjaro, and perhaps even into Sennaar, where reports of the occurrence of a Gnu-like Antelope were made to Heuglin. It is, however, possible that some of these northern Gnus may belong to the White-maned species, which we shall presently mention.

Beginning from the Limpopo, Mr. Selous tells us that the Brindled Gnu is found all over this portion of South-eastern Africa up to the Zambesi, in districts suitable to its habits--that is, “in open downs devoid of bush and in open glades in the forest,” but not in hilly countries. Peters and Sir John Kirk both enroll it among the mammals of Zambesia, the latter author stating that at the time of his visit it was “very abundant in considerable herds in the Batoka country, also near Lake Shirwa, and at Shupanga on the Zambesi.” As to its present existence in the Shiré Highlands, Mr. B. L. Sclater, R.E., sends us the following notes.--“In November 1891, while travelling between Zomba and Milanji, I was shooting in the marshes on the west bank of the Tochila. I saw a Gnu and tried to stalk it, but it was right in the open and I could not get near it. My head man, a Swahili, said it was a Gnu (_Nyumbo_), and he was well acquainted with that animal. Again, in 1892, at Midima, to the south of the Tochila, I obtained a tail of a Gnu from a native, who told me that formerly there was a large herd of them on these plains, but that he thought they were now all killed. I believe that Mr. Sharpe has met with the Gnu on the plains to the west of the Upper Shiré, between Matope and the sources of the Lesungwi River.”

As regards the more northern portion of the British Central African Protectorate, Mr. Crawshay tells us that the Gnu is apparently unknown to the natives round the northern half of Lake Nyasa, and is not met with anywhere in the immediate neighbourhood of the Lake, though found a little to the south-east, and also, he believes, to the south-west.

In 1864 Speke met with the Brindled Gnu in large herds in Khutu, on the western borders of Uzaramo, close to the Kingani River, where it inhabits the “park-like lands adjoining the stream.”

Later on Sir John Kirk obtained heads of it in the same district, and has favoured us with the following notes on its occurrence in this part of German East Africa:--

“As regards the Brindled Gnu in East Africa, I may say that, although familiar with this animal on the Upper Zambezi near the Victoria Falls, where they were common in 1860, I have only since shot them in Ukami, to the west of Dar-es-salam, and on the River Wami inland from Bagomoyo. In the plains and on the rolling ground between the River Rufiji and the River Wami they used to be common. I have shot them within ten miles of the coast, and I believe that they extend back to the foot of the mountains.

“As I was not then acquainted with the species or variety lately found by Jackson, I cannot from memory express any opinion as to the identity of these animals, further than that they seemed to me identical with the Brindled Gnus I had killed years previously near the Victoria Falls and Sesheke on the Upper Zambezi.