Chapter VII: Appendix (6)

In British East Africa this Antelope, according to Mr. F. J. Jackson, is also common everywhere on the coast, and is to be met with as far west as the edge of the Mau Plateau, where, as he informs us (P. Z. S. 1897, p. 456), it is plentiful.

Further north in Somaliland the Bushbuck, although not met with anywhere on the high plateau, was found in the dense forests of the Webbe by Capt. Swayne during his second expedition in 1893. It is described by him as the most wary and difficult to shoot of all the game-animals he has ever encountered. It is often caught by the natives on the Webbe in staked pits, excavated in the jungles on the banks of the river.

Capt. Swayne has referred the Bushbuck of the Webbe to _T. decula_, but this is certainly not correct, as, according to his own description, it has “four or five white stripes, and sometimes as many as thirty white spots.” In some skins from Sen Morettu, on the Webbe, received from Capt. Swayne, now in the British Museum, there are four or five distinct white stripes on the flanks, both in adult and immature males, a few white spots on the hind-quarters, and a row of white spots extending along each side of the body above the belly. Although in some respects this form comes nearer to _T. scriptus_, we think it better for the present to regard it as a subspecific form of _T. roualeyni_, which, using Mr. Pocock’s subspecific term, we call _T. roualeyni fasciatus_, and describe as follows:—

Height at withers about 26 inches. Head and legs of the same
colour and pattern as in _T. roualeyni_ and the other species of
this section of the genus. General colour a reddish yellow,
brighter on the hind-quarters, and distinctly blacker in the
dorsal region, where the hair assumes a dusky greyish-brown hue.
Body marked with four or five very distinct, mostly broad, white
stripes, a row of white spots running along above the belly and a
few white spots on the haunches. Hair on body shorter than in _T.
roualeyni_. No distinct collar of short hair round the base of the
neck, as in _T. roualeyni, T. sylvaticus_, and _T. scriptus_, the
entire neck being covered with a coating of short silky hairs of
the same length as those of the head, much shorter than those of
the body, and of a dusky, greyish-brown colour.

Young male redder in colour than the adult and equally strongly
marked with white.

The skull of a subadult male gives the following
measurements:—Basal length 8·25 inches, orbit to muzzle 4·6,
greatest width 3·75.

In the British Museum are a skull of the typical _T. roualeyni_ of the Limpopo, procured by Gordon Cumming, and a skin and skull from the Zambesi obtained by Mr. Selous. There is also in the Museum a good series of skins and skulls of this species from Zomba, Nyasaland, and its vicinity, transmitted by Sir Harry Johnston and Mr. A. Sharpe, of which we have already spoken, and from one of which our figures of the adult skull (pp. 126, 127) have been taken. From British East Africa the National Collection possesses the mounted adult male from Manda Island presented by Sir John Kirk (and figured on our Plate XC., as already mentioned), also a mounted female from the same source obtained in British East Africa about one hundred miles inland at 6° S. lat. Besides these there are Capt. Swayne’s specimens from the River Webbe in the interior of Somaliland, already referred to.

We are not aware that any examples of this Bushbuck have been brought to Europe alive.

_November_, 1899.

124. DELAMERE’S BUSHBUCK.

TRAGELAPHUS DELAMEREI, Pocock.

_Tragelaphus delamerei_, =Pocock=, Ann. & Mag. N. H., Jan. 1900.

Of about the same size as _T. scriptus_. Head ruddy brown on the forehead, with a blackish band extending down the muzzle; cheeks fawn, with two small white spots; no white stripe running inwards from the corner of the eye; edge of upper lip and chin white; white patches at upper and lower ends of throat small, the former only just traceable. General colour of body dark yellowish brown above, paler below, and gradually passing into yellowish fawn upon the shoulder and upon the lower half of the hind-quarters. No traces of white stripes or spots observable either upon the body or upon the hind-or fore-quarters. Fore legs both outside and inside right up to the base yellowish brown, blackish all down the front from above the knee to the fetlocks; fetlocks and pasterns black, except for a pair of white spots on the pasterns in front. Hind legs coloured like fore legs, but paler above the hock and marked with a distinct white patch in front of the hock. Tail white below, dark at the tip. A collar of short hairs round the base of the neck. No long crest of hairs along the spine.

_Hab._ Somaliland.

A single nearly adult example of this species (fig. 102, p. 130), remarkable for the absence of white on the inner sides of the legs and on the body, was procured by Lord Delamere on his last sporting expedition into Somaliland at a place called “Sayer,” and was kindly presented by him to the British Museum.

The specimen in question was examined by the person who skinned it for Lord Delamere, and, according to his evidence, was ascertained to be of the _male_ sex. But in the face of its bearing no traces of horns we are hardly disposed to accept this statement, which may well have been made in error. Even, however, if we take it to be the _female_ of a _Tragelaphus_, we are unable to refer it to any known species, and we therefore insert it in what would seem to be its proper place under the name attached to it by Mr. Pocock.

The accompanying figure of Delamere’s Bushbuck has been prepared from the typical specimen in the British Museum.

_November_, 1899.

125. THE BROAD-HORNED ANTELOPE.

TRAGELAPHUS EURYCERUS (Ogilby).

[PLATE XCI.]

_Antilope_, sp., =Afz.= N. Acta Upsal. vii. p. 269, pl. viii. fig. 3;
=H. Sm.= Griff. An. K. v. p. 361 (?).

_Antilope eurycerus_, =Ogilby=, P. Z. S. 1836, p. 120; =Waterh.= Cat.
Mus. Zool. Soc. (2) p. 42 (1838); =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 190
(1853); =Huet=, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 468 (1887).

_Antilope (Addax) euryceros_, =Laurill.= Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 620
(1861).

_Tragelaphus eurycerus_, =Less.= N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 181 (1842);
=Wagn.= Schr. Säug., Suppl. v. p. 441 (1855); =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1850,
p. 144; =id.= Knowsl. Menag. p. 27, pl. xxiii. fig. 1 (horns) (1850);
=id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 136 (1852); =id.= P. Z. S. 1861, p. 276;
=Gerr.= Cat. Bones B. M. p. 246 (1862); =Fitz.= SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt.
1, p. 174 (1869); =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 485, pl. xxxix.; =Scl.=
P. Z. S. 1883, p. 35; =Thomas=, P. Z. S. 1891, p. 387; =Flow. & Lyd.=
Mamm. p. 347 (1891); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 158 (1892); =id.= Rec. Big
Game, p. 202 (1896); =Jent.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas,
xi.) p. 172 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 254 (1893); =id.= Royal
Nat. Hist. ii. p. 275 (1894); =Pousarg.= Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. p. 81
(1897); =Trouess.= Cat. Mamm. p. 957 (1898); =Bryden=, in Ward’s Great
and Small Game of Africa, p. 454, pl. xiii. fig. 3 (1899).

_Euryceros euryceros_, =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 48 (1872); =id.=
Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 119 (1873); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus.
Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 141 (1887); =id.= Notes Leyd. Mus. 1888, pp. 23–25;
=Büttik.= Reisebilder, ii. p. 380, cum fig. (1890).

_Tragelaphus albo-virgatus_, =Du Chaill.= Pr. Bost. Soc. N. H. vii. pp.
299–300 (1861); =id.= Expl. & Adv. Equat. Afr. p. 306, pl. (1861).

_Tragelaphus albovittatus_, =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1861, p. 276.

Vernacular Names:—_Trommé_ of the Mandingos (_Temminck_); _Elk_ of
Liberians and _Guin_ of the Veys in Liberia (_Büttikofer_); _Bongo_ of
Gaboon (_Du Chaillu_).

Height at the withers of the adult male about 43 inches. General colour of the head and body bright chestnut, with a white spinal stripe extending from the withers to the root of the tail, and about 14 or 15 transverse white stripes on the shoulders, flanks, and hind-quarters, passing from the spinal stripe above on to the belly beneath. Head with a patch of deeper colour upon the forehead, and extending about two inches below the eyes. An angular =V=-shaped white mark extending inwards from the eye on to the nose, interrupted in the middle line by a narrow brown band; chin and lips white; two or three cheek-spots large and sometimes fused together; inter-ramal area and upper end of throat covered with hairs of a blackish hue; lower end of the throat with a very distinct transverse white band; chest and belly covered with short hair of a purplish-brown colour; area between the hind legs and beneath the tail up to the anus white. Fore legs blackish from the fetlocks to the knees, chestnut from the knees to the shoulders externally; white at the bases close to the chest, as also above the knees and between knees and fetlocks internally; a large white spot on the front of the pasterns. Hind legs chestnut down to the fetlocks on the outer side; front of the hocks and cannon-bones broadly white; fetlocks blackish or brownish, both without and within; a white patch on the pasterns as on the fore legs.

Hair short and close all over the body. No mane on the throat; hairs along the nape reversed, but scarcely forming a mane, being merely slightly elongated; behind the parting there is a short spinal mane. Tail bovine, thinly covered with hairs of the same colour as those of the body, and ending in a tuft of long hairs of a darker red tint[10].

Horns massive, rather smooth, with weak anterior basal crest, amber-yellow tip, and a single twist; usually about 30 inches long round the curve and about 25 in a straight line. A skull gives the following measurements:—Basal length 14·5 inches, orbit to muzzle 8·5, greatest width 6·25.

_Female._ Similar to the male in markings, but without horns, and rather paler in colour and smaller in size.

_Hab._ Forests of the West-African coast-range, from Liberia to
Gaboon.

Whether the horn from Sierra Leone, figured and described by Afzelius in his essay on Antelopes, published in the ‘Nova Acta’ of the Society of Sciences of Upsala in 1795, and subsequently referred to by Hamilton Smith and other authors, really belonged to the present species is somewhat uncertain, although such may very possibly have been the case. The first trustworthy introduction of this species to scientific literature is therefore due to Ogilby, a well-known authority on the Ruminants, who in 1836 established his _Antilope eurycerus_ in a paper read before the Zoological Society of London on November the 22nd of that year. Ogilby’s materials consisted of “two pairs of horns, one attached to the skull, the other to the integuments of the head,” which had then “long existed in the Society’s collection.” Their origin was unknown, but they were believed to have come from Western Africa. These specimens, we may add, are now in the British Museum, to which they were transferred by the Zoological Society in 1858. One of the pairs was figured by Gray in the volume of the ‘Gleanings from the Knowsley Menagerie,’ published in 1850.

In 1853 Temminck recorded the existence of a pair of horns of this species in the Leyden Museum, and gave its vernacular name as the “Trommé” of the Mandingos of Western Africa.

With this exception no addition appears to have been made to our knowledge of this Antelope until 1860, when Mr. P. B. Du Chaillu, who had met with it during his excursions in the interior of Gaboon from 1856 to 1859, described it before the Boston Society of Natural History as a new species, under the name _Tragelaphus albo-virgatus_. In the report of his paper published in the ‘Proceedings’ of that Society we find its locality given as the “forests about the head-waters of the Fernand-Vaz in the Aschankolo Mountains, 60 miles south of the Equator, and 140 from the coast.” In the narrative of his travels, published in 1861, Mr. Du Chaillu writes of the same Antelope as belonging to the fauna of the “Rembo Region,” the Rembo being one of the rivers that flows from these mountains, and tells us that it is “very shy, swift of foot, and exceedingly graceful in its motions.” The full-page steel engraving that accompanies these remarks, which, by the kindness of Messrs. Murray, we are enabled to reproduce (fig. 103, p. 134), is stated to have been taken from a well-preserved specimen in his collection. The native name is given as “Bongo.”

After describing his specimens in America, Mr. Du Chaillu brought them to this country, and disposed of them to the British Museum.

The late Dr. J. E. Gray, who was not very friendly with the great explorer, and had carried on a paper warfare with him in the ‘Athenæum’ journal, lost no time in bringing the specimens before the Zoological Society, where he subjected them to a somewhat severe criticism. The supposed new species of _Tragelaphus_, he pointed out, was “evidently only a specimen of _Antilope eurycerus_ of Ogilby.” This was, no doubt, correct, but at the same time Mr. Du Chaillu’s skin, imperfect as it was, was the first specimen of the animal, except the original two pairs of horns, acquired by the National Collection, where it is now to be seen mounted in the Gallery, and allows an idea to be formed of the brilliant colours of this splendid Antelope. It will be found figured by Sir Victor Brooke, from a sketch by Wolf (put upon the stone by Smit), in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1871. In the same article, is given a figure of the skull and horns of this Antelope, taken from one of the type specimens in the British Museum, which, by the kind permission of the Zoological Society, we are enabled to reproduce on the present occasion (fig. 104).

Besides Mr. Du Chaillu, the only travellers who have met with this beautiful Antelope in its native wilds appear to have been Messrs. Büttikofer and Stampfli, during their well-known researches in Liberia. From Dr. Jentink’s article upon the mammals collected during their explorations we learn that these naturalists obtained a complete specimen of an adult male of this species near Hill Town, besides two skins on the Junk River and the Mahfa River. In the second volume of his ‘Reisebilder aus Liberia’ Herr Büttikofer gives a figure of the Antelope in the text, and informs us that it lives in the forests and feeds principally upon leaves of trees, on which it browses up to a height of eight feet.

Besides the typical specimens of Ogilby’s _Antilope eurycerus_ and Du Chaillu’s _Tragelaphus albo-virgatus_, which, as already mentioned, are now in the British Museum, the National Collection contains a good mounted head of an adult male of this Antelope from Fantee, which is accompanied by a flat body-skin, and the mounted skeleton of an adult male from Gaboon.

We are not aware that any living examples of the Broad-horned Antelope have ever reached Europe.

Our figure of this species (Plate XCI.) has been drawn by Mr. Smit from the mounted specimen in the British Museum.

_November_, 1899.

126. ANGAS’ ANTELOPE.

TRAGELAPHUS ANGASI, Angas.

[PLATE XCII.]

_Tragelaphus angasi_, =G. F. Angas=, P. Z. S. 1848, p. 89, pls. iv. (♂),
v. (♀); =id.= Kaffirs Illustrated, p. 51, pl. xxix. (1849); =Gray=, P.
Z. S. 1850, p. 144; =id.= Knowsl. Menag. p. 27 (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung.
B. M. p. 138 (1852); =Proudf.= P. Z. S. 1850, p. 199; =Baldwin=, Afr.
Hunt. p. 76 (1854); =Gerr.= Cat. Bones B. M. p. 246 (1862); =Fitz.=
SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 174 (1869); =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1871, p.
485; =id.= P. Z. S. 1878, p. 884 (cranial characters); =Buckley=, P.
Z. S. 1876, p. 285; =Thomas=, P. Z. S. 1891, p. 387; =Flow. & Lyd.=
Mamm. p. 347 (1891); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1892, p. 98 (Shiré R.); =Ward=,
Horn Meas. p. 157 (1892); =id.= Rec. Big Game, p. 200 (1896); =Lyd.=
Horns and Hoofs, p. 252 (1893); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1893, p. 729 (B. C.
Afr.); =Lyd.= Roy. Nat. Hist. ii. p. 275 (1894); =Rendall=, P. Z. S.
1895, p. 359 (R. Tembé); =Thomas=, P. Z. S. 1896, p. 798, 1897, p. 939
(B. C. Afr.); =Pousarg.= Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. p. 81 (1897); =Johnston=,
Brit. Centr. Africa, p. 305 (1897); =Rendall=, Novitat. Zool. v. p.
212 (1898); =Trouess.= Cat. Mamm. p. 957 (1898); =Selous=, =Sharpe=,
and =Neumann=, in Ward’s Great and Small Game of Africa, pp. 455–462,
fig. 39, & pl. xiii. fig. 4 (1899).

_Strepsiceros angasi_, =Turner=, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 171.

_Euryceros angasii_, =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 48 (1872); =id.= Hand-l.
Rum. B. M. p. 119 (1873).

Vernacular Names:—_Inyala_ of the Amatongas; _Bö_ of the Shiré
districts.

Height at withers of adult male about 42 inches; of lighter and more graceful build than _T. eurycerus_. General colour of head, neck, and body a slate-grey, with a tinge of yellowish red. Head with forehead reddish, and area around eye fawn-coloured; upper lip and chin white; two widely-separated white cheek-spots on each side; v-shaped white nasal stripe distinct and mesially divided. Back of ear white below, tan above. Neck distinctly darker in hue than the shoulder and rest of the body; a transverse white patch at the lower end of throat; no corresponding patch at upper extremity of throat. Body from shoulder to root of tail marked with indications of about fourteen pale transverse stripes, some six of these standing out more clearly than the rest; a few white spots, mostly low down upon the haunches. Tail nearly black above, at sides, and at tip; white below. Fore legs black above the knee on the outer side and on inner side halfway up to the chest; a large white patch above close to chest; knee also white on inner side and behind; portion between knee and fetlock a rich fawn-colour; fetlocks and pasterns black behind and above the hoofs in front; a white spot on the inner side of fetlocks, and two on front of the pastern. Hind leg coloured like the front leg, with the front and inner side of the thigh and of the hock white, the two white patches separated by a black band; no white patch on the inner side of the fetlock.

Long mane of dark hair extending almost from chin along throat, chest, and each side of belly, and fringing the front of the thigh almost to the hock, and the back of it up to the root of the tail. There is also a dorsal mane extending from the nape to the neck, reversed from the base of the neck; the hairs black or brown in colour along the nape of the neck from the occiput to the shoulder, tipped with white from the shoulders to the tail. Tail cervine, thickly hairy throughout.

Horns black, pale amber-coloured at the tips, ridged in the basal half; about 29 inches long round the curve, and 24 in a straight line; usually with a single, and rarely with a double, curvature.

The skull of an adult male gives the following measurements:—Basal length 12 inches, orbit to muzzle a little over 7, width almost 5.

_Female_ without horns and strikingly different from the male in colour. General colour a bright chestnut. Sides of the body and haunches marked with about eleven white stripes, those behind shoulder reaching almost to the ventral surface; ventral surface pale yellow; a few white spots on the haunches. Nose marked with a broad black band, which extends laterally on to the muzzle; a narrow black dorsal stripe, extending from the occiput to the root of the tail, intersected with white where the lateral stripes cross it. No mane on any part of neck, body, or hind-quarters.

_Hab._ South-eastern Africa, from Zululand to Southern Nyasaland.

The discoverer of this fine Antelope, the late Mr. George French Angas, was an accomplished artist and traveller, and the author of several books on Africa and Australia. Angas first met with this species on the northern shores of St. Lucia Bay, in Zululand, during his journeyings in that district in 1847. Here, he tells us, it inhabits the low undulating hills, scattered with mimosa-bushes, which border the northern shores of the Bay. On returning to England, Angas showed his notes and sketches of this Antelope to the late Dr. Gray, who assured him of its being an animal new to science, and communicated them to the Zoological Society of London in the name of the discoverer. Angas was not successful in obtaining specimens for himself, as the Boers, he tells us, refused to part with them, and the two plates which illustrate his paper in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ were lithographed by Waterhouse Hawkins from his notes and sketches. It should also be mentioned that the Antelope was named, not after Angas himself, but after his father, Mr. George Fife Angas, of South Australia, who, we are told, had always “taken great interest” in his son’s travels and researches in natural history. In a folio work called ‘Kaffirs Illustrated,’ published in 1849, Angas again figured this Antelope, on a plate containing representations of the male, female, and young, but did not furnish any further particulars concerning its life and habits.

The next observer of Angas’ Antelope in its native wilds appears to have been a well-known hunter, Proudfoot, who met with it on the banks of the Maputa River, about sixty miles above its embochure into Delagoa Bay, and exhibited specimens of both sexes, shot by himself, at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London on July 9th, 1851. On the Maputa, Mr. Proudfoot stated, on exhibiting his specimens, that the _Inyala_, as the natives call it, was at that time more plentiful than on the Umcoozi or Umbelozi, in the same district, where it was found, though rarely. “They occur in small troops composed of one ram and four or five females, with their young: they always resort to the densest bush, and browse chiefly on shrubs.”

In June 1854 the well-known African sportsman, William Charles Baldwin, was in Amatonga-land, on a hunting expedition from Natal. On the 25th of that month, as he tells us in his ‘African Hunting,’ he met with the first “Inyalas” he had ever seen, and succeeded in bagging a fine male, and subsequently more of them in the same district. A tinted lithographic plate in Baldwin’s volume, drawn by Wolf, contains an excellent representation of a group of these Antelopes.

In 1871 the late Sir Victor Brooke published in the ‘Proceedings’ of the Zoological Society a figure of the head and horns of this Antelope, taken from a specimen in his own Collection. This figure, by the kind permission of that Society, we are now enabled to reproduce (fig. 105).

The Hon. W. H. Drummond, another well-known sportsman, who was in South Africa from 1867 to 1872, writes of the “Nyala” as perhaps the most beautiful of all the Antelopes he had seen there. “Unfortunately,” he says, “it does not exist except in low, fever-stricken districts, and I have never seen it south of the Bombo Range, about 28° S. lat., where it frequents the densest thickets it can find, and is wary and difficult to stalk.” Mr. Drummond also, in his volume on the ‘Large Game of South and South-east Africa,’ has given a lithographic plate with figures of both sexes of this animal.

When he wrote his ‘Hunter’s Wanderings,’ in 1881, Mr. Selous, our leading authority on the game-mammals of South Africa, had never seen a living example of this Antelope. But in September 1896 he made a successful expedition to Amatonga-land in search of it, and subsequently wrote an account of his adventures on this occasion in ‘The Field’ newspaper, from which, by his kind consent, we make the following extracts.

Arriving at Lourenço Marques on September 21st, he was invited by a Mr. Wissels, a Cape colonist of German extraction, to visit his station near the junction of the Pongolo and Usutu Rivers, where Inyalas were said to be plentiful, and arrived there after a long tramp of several days through the swampy forests.

We will give Mr. Selous’s account of his hunt after Inyalas in this district in his own words:—

“There were now abundant signs that I was approaching the haunts
of the beautiful Antelope I had come so far to seek, as _Inyala_
horns and skins were very much in evidence round Mr. Wissels’s
store, and several of the latter had manifestly been but recently
killed.

“All these animals, I was assured, had been shot by the Amatonga
within a short distance of the store, in the dense jungles lying
in the angle between the Usutu and Pongolo Rivers, which I could
now see covering some low ridges at a distance of not more than
six or seven miles from where we stood. Had it not been for the
rain, I should have gone on the same afternoon; however, I
gathered a good deal of information, and arranged for a start with
fresh carriers as early as possible the following day—my objective
point being the kraal of an Amatonga head-man named Gugawi, who, I
was told, lived a few miles up the Usutu River, on the very edge
of the jungle where _Inyala_ were said to be plentiful. I noticed,
however, that my informants were not over confident about my being
likely to shoot any of these animals.

“That night we had a most tremendous thunderstorm, the rain
falling in torrents; and, as the place in which I was sleeping was
not water-tight, I had rather a bad time of it, and was very glad
when day broke.

“The thunderstorm had cleared the air, and Sunday, Sept. 27,
dawned bright and clear, with every prospect of its being a fine
day. I had all my things packed up pretty early, and with four new
women-carriers, and accompanied by two men who knew the way to
Gugawi’s kraal, managed to get off about an hour after sunrise,
and reached my destination before 10 o’clock. On our way we
crossed the Usutu River—here a clear, swift-flowing stream, about
200 yards in breadth, running over a bed of sand. We waded across
it, and found the water quite shallow for the most part, and never
more than 3 feet deep.

“On reaching the kraal we were making for, I told Longman to cook
me some breakfast, and whilst he was frying me some Reedbuck
steaks, I had a talk with the head-man, Gugawi, and told him the
reason of my visit. He replied that the ‘unbala-intendi’ were
numerous in the jungle just behind his kraal, and promised to do
his best to help me to secure the specimens I wanted, though, like
everyone else, he said the animals were very cunning and difficult
to get a sight of. As soon as I had had my breakfast I asked
Gugawi to give me a man who was well acquainted with the habits of
the _Inyala_, as I wished to go into the bush after them without
any loss of time. He gave me one of his sons, and, accompanied by
Longman and one of the Kaffirs who had come from Mr. Wissels’
store, we forthwith entered the jungle, which extended to within a
few yards of the kraal. From this we were not distant more than
200 yards before we saw fresh _Inyala_-spoor plainly imprinted in
the wet ground. The rain at least had done us this service, that
it had washed out all old spoor and rendered any fresh tracks
quite conspicuous. We now commenced to creep very cautiously
through the thick thorny bush, making our way for the most part
through tunnels made by hippopotami during their night excursions
in search of food. We had usually to walk bent nearly double,
often having to creep on our hands and knees; and, as the air was
now very hot and steamy, we were soon bathed in perspiration. Now
and again we came to little open spaces in the bush, and in one of
these which we passed through soon after leaving the kraal I saw a
very handsome Crested Guinea-fowl, which looked very much like the
birds I have seen on the Central Zambesi, to the east of the
Victoria Falls.

“We had been creeping about the bush in the uncomfortable manner I
have described for about an hour, when we came suddenly upon a
little circular opening some fifty or sixty yards in diameter. As
we approached the edge of this open space, advancing very
cautiously in a stooping attitude down a hippopotamus-path, my
guide suddenly dropped to the ground. As he did so, I got a clear
view past him, and saw standing amongst the grass and bush, just
on the further side of the opening, what I knew was an _Inyala_
ewe, as I could distinctly see it was reddish in colour. I could
see no other animal near her, and, as I required two specimens of
_Inyala_ ewes, the one for the British and the other for the
South-African Museum, I lost no time about firing at the animal in
question, which I saw drop instantly to the shot. But even as she
did so, there appeared in her place, or very close to where she
had stood, a great black shaggy form, which, indistinctly as I
could see it in the deep shadow of the bush, I knew was an
_Inyala_ ram, the first that my eyes had ever looked upon in the
flesh. My rifle was a single-barrelled one; and before I could
fire the shot that might make that rare and beautiful beast mine,
I had to open the breech of my rifle, take another cartridge from
my belt, slip it into the chamber, close the breech again, and
then raise the rifle to my shoulder and take aim. All this meant
time and noise. Would the _Inyala_, which stood like a statue by
the dead body of its mate, give me the few seconds I required to
take his own life too? I little thought he would; but he did; and
as I raised my rifle once more, and took a quick but careful sight
at his dark shoulder, I felt, as I pulled the trigger, that he was
mine.

“As the report of the rifle sounded, he plunged madly forward and
was instantly lost to sight in the thick scrub. But I felt sure he
carried death with him, and so it proved, for we found him lying
dead not twenty yards from where he had stood when the bullet
struck him. The fatal missile had passed right through his
shoulders, and, having expanded on impact, had torn his heart to
pieces. I had the dead ewe brought to where the ram had fallen,
and laid them side by side; and then stood admiring them for a
long time before I could bring myself to skin them. To thus secure
a very fine pair of _Inyala_ Antelopes—whose excellently-mounted
skins are now safe in the Mammalian Gallery of the new Natural
History Museum in Cromwell Road—on the very first day I had hunted
for them, and after a little more than an hour’s search, was
indeed a most glorious and exceptional piece of good fortune;
which, however, has been balanced by many and many a day that I
can remember of unrequited labour in search of game.

“As soon as I had stripped the skins, with the leg-bones still
attached, from my two beautiful specimens, I had them carried,
together with the skulls, to Gugawi’s kraal on the edge of the
bush, and there spent the remainder of the day in preparing them
for mounting. Of the meat, which was all brought in, I sent a
couple of haunches over to Mr. Wissels, and then, after keeping a
small piece for myself, gave the remainder to Gugawi to divide
amongst his people as he thought fit.

“Next morning I was up and out in the bush just as day was
breaking, accompanied only by my guide of yesterday and Longman,
who, however, kept some distance behind, in order to allow my
guide and myself to approach our game as noiselessly as possible.
We had been creeping about in the dense jungle for some three
hours without having seen anything, although there was a good deal
of fresh spoor about, and twice we had heard _Inyalas_ dash away
through the bush without getting a sight of them, when suddenly my
guide crouched to the ground, at the same time pointing towards a
large ant-heap growing out of the dense scrub, and itself covered
with undergrowth. Following the direction of his arm, I made out a
reddish patch not fifteen yards away in the gloom of the bush; and
taking it for an _Inyala_ ewe, I fired into it point blank, as I
required another specimen for mounting. At the shot the animal
fell, and, on creeping up to it, I found that it was a young ram.
It was something less in size than a full-grown female, from which
it did not differ in any way in coloration, and the number and
distribution of white stripes and spots. It was thus interesting,
as showing that the _Inyala_ changes in general colour from red to
grey, only losing the rufous and orange tints on the ears and
forehead, which were still conspicuous in the type-specimen
described by Mr. Angas, when fully adult.

“On returning to the kraal, Gugawi proposed to take me to a spot
some few miles higher up the Usutu, where he said there were
plenty of _Inyalas_, whilst at the same time the bush was not so
dense as near his kraal. Being by this time thoroughly sick of
crawling about bent nearly double, I hailed with delight the idea
of finding the game I was seeking in a country where I could walk
upright, and visions of _Inyala_ feeding through open glades
passed through my mind; visions, alas! which were never realized,
for in my small experience I never found these Antelope anywhere
except in dense bush. However, I was glad of the change, and soon
had everything ready for a move.

“In the afternoon we travelled some five or six miles up the
river, and pitched camp in a bit of jungle near the water’s edge.
The Usutu River is here very broad, and reminded me strongly of
parts of the Chobi; but whereas the banks of the latter river, as
I knew it in the early seventies, abounded in game of many
descriptions, from the elephant downwards, there was not a track
to be seen along the Usutu of any kind of animal with the
exception of the _Inyala_. All the wealth of wild life which
Baldwin saw in this same district forty years ago has melted away
before the guns of the native Amatonga hunters; for, be it noted,
this is a country in which but very little game has been killed by
white men. Rhinoceroses, buffaloes, koodoos, waterbucks, impalas,
lions, all are gone—the only game left being the _Inyalas_, which
owe their preservation to the dense jungles in which they live;
and even they are being rapidly killed off, as the natives are
always after them, lying in wait for them in the paths made by the
hippopotami, or creeping stealthily through the bush in their
pursuit.

“It would be but tedious reading were I to continue to describe in
detail my further bush-crawling experiences in search of
_Inyalas_. Suffice it to say that on Oct. 1 and 2 I secured two
more good rams, and preserved their heads for my own Collection.
Although I should have liked to get a fourth ram for the South-
African Museum, I did not think it prudent to remain any longer in
my camp on the edge of a swamp, where I knew the air must be
reeking with malarial poison, as, besides the exhalations from the
marsh, the ground (from which I was only separated at nights by a
little dry grass and a blanket) had been soaked to the depth of 2
feet by the recent rain, thus rendering the conditions more than
usually unhealthy. The weather, too, was now again looking very
threatening, and I did not relish the idea of any further lying
out in the rain; as I knew, from former experience, that I should
probably have to pay for the wettings I had already suffered by
some attacks of fever—a disease from which I had been entirely
exempt for seven years, but the poison of which I knew was still
in my blood, and would be likely to be again stirred into activity
by my recent exposure to unhealthy conditions.

“Hence, on Saturday, Oct. 3, I packed up my things and returned to
Gugawi’s kraal, walking on in the afternoon to Mr. Wissels’s
store, and thence to Lourenço Marques, Delagoa Bay, which I
reached on October 7th, after a hot and weary tramp.”

Until lately the Inyala was believed to be restricted to the coast-lands of Eastern Africa south of the Zambesi. Recently, however, it has been discovered that this Antelope is likewise found further northward on the Upper Shiré, where it is known to the natives as the “Bō,” the _o_ being pronounced very long. Mr. Alfred Sharpe, C.B., on his return to England at the end of 1891, first brought home a single flat skin of the so-called “Bō,” which was identified by Sclater as belonging to the male of this species, and other specimens have since been obtained in the same district. Mr. Sharpe’s information was that it is found only in a piece of thick scrubby country bordering the Moanza River, which enters the Shiré on its right bank, near the Murchison Cataracts.

In 1895 a fine specimen of this Antelope was forwarded to the British Museum by Mr. Gerald Oliver, R.N., of H.M.S. ‘Herald,’ with the following information in an accompanying letter:—

“On the 5th of October, last year, I was shooting near a village
called Mantana’s (lat. 16° 30´ S., long. 35° E.), about 7´ W. by
S. of Chilomo, near the right bank of the Shiré River. Impala
(_Æpyceros melampus_) are very plentiful about this particular
spot, but I had not been able to get a shot at a good head. Later
in the day, wanting meat, I decided to kill what I could, and
coming across a solitary doe I fired. Great was the astonishment
of myself and boys to find I had killed a female Inyala. I took
the skin to Chilomo, and was told it was the first Inyala ever
known to have been killed about these parts, and that it was
practically an unknown animal there.

“On the 26th of October, near the same spot, a male Inyala was
killed by the then Surgeon of this ship. On the 29th of October I
saw together 2 Inyalas and 8 Impalas. On the following day, at
dusk, I met with and killed a solitary male Inyala, whose skin I
forward. The natives were tremendously excited, dancing about and
exclaiming ‘Bōōh,’ ‘Bōōh,’ the local name for the Inyala. They
examined the body with great care. I was told in the village that
the natives, on account of some superstition, would not touch the
meat. Our bluejackets, however, ate it, and it was very good. The
skin was _remarkably_ glossy and soft, and the hair was long under
the neck.”

In 1893 (see P. Z. S. 1893, p. 729) Sclater found a skull of this Antelope in one of Mr. Crawshay’s collections from the district of Lake Mweru, but we are not quite certain that it was actually obtained in that locality. Sir Harry Johnston, in his volume on ‘British Central Africa,’ sums up his information on this species as follows:—

“I am inclined to think that the Inyala Antelope of British
Central Africa is limited in its range, so far as we yet know, to
the Western and Upper Shiré districts and the Lake Mweru district,
and that it may be of a different form from the Inyala of South-
east Africa, inasmuch as the males retain the white spots and
stripes on the skin to a greater extent, and do not assume such a
grey fur at maturity. The Inyala, locally called Bōō, is a very
rare animal, frequenting dense thickets. Its horns somewhat
resemble those of the Bushbuck, but are much larger
proportionately, much wider apart, and slenderer. They may measure
as much as 22½ inches in length along the curve (I have a pair of
horns giving this measurement). I have only twice seen skins of
the adult animal. They were extraordinarily beautiful in colour,
the females a deep chestnut, with narrow stripes and spots in pure
white, and a black line along the middle of the back from the neck
to the base of the tail; the male purplish-grey, with white
markings.”

There is also some reason for suspecting that the Inyala, or a nearly allied form, extends even as far north as British East Africa. This suspicion rests upon the evidence supplied by a pair of horns, not specifically distinguishable from those of the typical _Tragelaphus angasi_, which were procured from the Mau Forest by Mr. F. J. Jackson, C.B. These horns, which are now in the British Museum, were exhibited by Sclater before the Zoological Society of London in May 1897, and are figured on p. 455 of the Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for that year (see fig. 107, p. 147). Unfortunately no skin accompanied the horns; and the specific determination of the Antelope that bore them is rendered uncertain on account of the description of the animal given by the native hunter who killed it. This description, if accurate, certainly applies to a species of Bushbuck distinct both from the Inyala and from all the other known species of _Tragelaphus_. Hence it is earnestly to be hoped that Mr. Jackson will soon be successful in his attempt to clear up the mystery in which the identity of this interesting Antelope is involved.

We are not aware that any specimen of Angas’ Antelope has ever been brought to Europe alive, and it is by no means commonly met with in our museums. The British Museum contains an adult pair mounted, obtained in St. Lucia Bay by Mr. R. S. Fellowes in 1871, also specimens from the Pongolo River, Zululand, obtained by Mr. Eastwood, and from the Maputa River, obtained by Proudfoot. There are also in the National Collection the specimens from Nyasaland procured by Mr. Sharpe, Sir Harry Johnston, Mr. Crawshay, and Lieut. Oliver, of which we have made mention above. Finally, there is a good mounted pair of specimens obtained by Mr. Selous during his special expedition in quest of this Antelope.

Our principal illustration of Angas’ Antelope (Plate XCII.) was put upon the stone by Mr. Smit, under the directions of the late Sir Victor Brooke, from sketches made by Wolf, and was probably taken from the mounted specimens then in the British Museum. At the same time the woodcut (fig. 106, p. 146), also containing figures of both sexes, was prepared by Mr. Smit.

_November_, 1899.

Genus III. LIMNOTRAGUS (nom. nov.).

Type.

_Hydrotragus_, =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 49 (1872)
(_nec_ Fitz.)[11] L. spekii.

Medium or large-sized Antelopes allied to _Tragelaphus_, but with rougher and shaggier coats, longer legs, and with horns which more nearly approach those of _Strepsiceros_, as they show a strong tendency to assume a third twist. Further, _Limnotragus_ differs strikingly from _Tragelaphus_ and _Strepsiceros_ in the structure of its feet, the hoofs being often nearly three times as long (measured along the front edge) as thick (measured along the margin of the pastern). Moreover, the skin which covers the back of the pastern is denuded of hair, and thick and horny, being practically of the same consistency as the upper rim of the posterior side of the hoof.

It is not without some hesitation that we refer to a separate genus those species of Tragelaphine Antelopes (hitherto placed in _Tragelaphus_) which have undergone certain special modifications of structure in adaptation to a semi-aquatic mode of life. In the species of _Tragelaphus_ discussed in the preceding part of this work, as well as in all the other genera of Tragelaphinæ, the feet adhere to the digitigrade type characteristic of most of the ruminant artiodactyle Ungulates, retaining the short narrow hoofs and strong elastic ankles fitted for easy and swift progress over the firm soil of the veldt or woodland. In the species of _Limnotragus_, on the contrary, the feet are furnished with hoofs of relatively enormous length, which spread far apart at every step, and are obviously designed to enable their owner to pass over the soft soil of marshes and river-banks without sinking deeply into the ground. This modification is accompanied by an increase in the flexibility of the ankle-joints, which are capable of yielding to the weight of the body, so as to allow the false-hoofs and the smooth tough horny skin at the back of the pasterns to rest upon the soil, and thus to further augment the supporting area of the foot. It is these peculiarities in the structure of the feet, in conjunction with a length of limb exceeding that of other Tragelaphines, which impart to the species of _Limnotragus_ that characteristic semiplantigrade aspect and that unusual awkwardness of gait so noticeable in these Antelopes when walking upon firm resisting ground.

Up to the present time three species referable to this genus have been described, namely, _L. spekii_ from E. Africa, _L. gratus_ from Tropical West Africa, and _L. selousi_ from the valley of the Zambesi. Unfortunately there are not at present available materials from the different parts of the area over which the genus ranges, sufficient to enable us to determine satisfactorily the exact value to be assigned to these three forms. Consequently, although the evidence, so far as it goes, tends to show that the characters upon which they have been based may ultimately prove to have merely a subspecific importance, we prefer, for the time being, to allow them to take the rank that was originally assigned to them by their respective describers, and to arrange them as three species.

_Range of the Genus._ Congo Valley and Lake-districts of Southern
and Eastern Africa.

The three species may be shortly distinguished as follows:—

_a_. Size smaller; height at withers about 36 inches: sexes
dissimilar; male blackish, female rufous 127. _L. spekii._
_b._ Size larger; height at withers about 40 inches.
_a1._ Sexes similar, blackish 128. _L. selousi._
_b1._ Sexes dissimilar; male blackish brown, female red. 129. _L. gratus._

127. SPEKE’S SITATUNGA.

LIMNOTRAGUS SPEKII (Sclater).

[PLATE XCIII.]

_Tragelaphus spekii_, =Sclater=, in Speke’s Journ. of Discov. p. 223
(1863); =id.= P. Z. S. 1864, p. 103, pl. xii., 1880, p. 452, 1883, pp.
34–37; =Heugl.= Reise Weiss. Nil, p. 319 (1869); =Brooke=, P. Z. S.
1871, p. 485 (part.); =id.= P. Z. S. 1878, p. 884; =Huet=, Bull. Soc.
Acclim. (4) iv. p. 83 (1887); =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1891, p. 388 (part.);
=Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 347 (1891) (part.); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 155
(1892); =id.= Records, p. 197 (1896), (2) p. 292 (1899) (part.);
=Lugard=, Rise E. Afr. Emp. i. p. 533 (1893); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs,
p. 254 (1893); =id.= Royal Nat. Hist. ii. p. 276 (1894) (part.);
=Jackson=, Big Game Shooting, p. 311 (1894); =Matsch.= Säug. Deutsch-
Ost-Afr. p. 139 (1895); =Trouessart=, Cat. Mamm. p. 958 (1898)
(part.); =Gedge=, in Ward’s Great and Small Game of Africa, p. 476
(1899).

_Eurycerus (Hydrotragus) spekii_, =J. E. Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 49
(1872) (part.).

_Eurycerus spekii_, =Gray=, Hand-l. Rum. p. 119 (1873) (part.).

_Tragelaphus spekii spekii_, =Rothschild=, Novit. Zool. v. p. 206
(1898).

Vernacular Names:—_Nzoé_ of Karagweh (_Speke_); _Chobé_ or _Njobé_ of
Uganda (_Gedge_).

_Adult male._ Height at the withers about 36 inches. General colour a tolerably uniform greyish brown, greyer on the sides of the neck; a dark median dorsal line running down the nape, over the withers, and then passing into white in the middle line of the back. Head with white ocular and cheek-spots and white chin, as in the other species of the genus. A few pale spots low down on the hind-quarters, an indistinct line of similar spots extending along the sides above the belly, and in the adult at last only very ill-defined white stripes on the body. Legs of a richer and darker brown than the body; fore legs pale behind the knee and down the inner side of the cannon-bone, the pastern-spots scarcely distinct; hind legs coloured like fore legs, but pale in front of the hock.

Horns without a third twist.

_Subadult male_ of a darker brown than the adult and with the white markings even less distinct.

_Adult female._ Smaller than the male and of a rich dark red colour, blacker dorsally, with a dark spinal stripe and very faint indications of white stripes on the body. Fore legs blackish from above the knee; hind legs blackish from below the hock; pastern-spots distinct.

_Young female_ more or less distinctly marked with white stripes and spots, and more yellowish in colour than the adult.

[We have taken our descriptions of this species from a series of skins, unfortunately for the most part imperfect and without determination of sex, that were brought from Lake Victoria by Herr Oscar Neumann, who has kindly lent them to us. Three of these skins appear to be those of males, while the remainder, four in number, are, judging by their colour, females, or young of doubtful sex. One of the latter has the hoofs very much worn, and must be regarded from this circumstance as adult, although it is very much smaller than the skin of what we suppose to be the adult male.]

_Hab._ Lakes and swamps of Eastern Africa near Lake Victoria.

The name of John Hanning Speke will ever go down to posterity as that of one of the most enterprising and most successful of African Explorers. Speke, however, was by no means only an Explorer, he was also an ardent lover of Natural History, and during his many expeditions in Africa never failed to bring home such specimens as his rapid mode of travelling would allow him to carry with him. Amongst the discoveries of his celebrated journey of 1859–63 to the Victoria Nyanza was the present Antelope, which he met with in December 1861, when enjoying the hospitality of King Rumanika of Karagweh. The king presented Speke with a living example of a young male of this species, which had been captured in the high rushes at the head of one of the neighbouring Lakes, and also gave him the horns of an adult male specimen. We learn further, from Speke’s ‘Journal,’ that King Rumanika was clad in a wrapper made of the skin of this Antelope, which is said to be much prized by the natives for its excellent quality. For the illustration of his ‘Journal of Discovery,’ published in 1863, Speke had a beautiful woodcut prepared by Wolf from these specimens, which, by the kindness of Messrs. William Blackwood and Sons, we are enabled to reproduce on the present occasion (fig. 108).

Sclater’s original description of this species, published in his report on the Mammal-collection made during Speke’s journey, was based on Speke’s specimens, and contained, besides a coloured illustration of the younger animal by Wolf, a drawing of the horns and feet of the adult, which, by the kind favour of the Zoological Society of London, we are allowed to use again here (see fig. 109, p. 154).

Since the days of Speke the Sitatunga of this district has rarely been met with by travellers, as, in addition to its being exceedingly wary and timid, the impenetrable nature of the papyrus-swamps, which are its habitual resort, precludes easy access to its retreats. It is, however, occasionally trapped or speared by the native fishermen, and pairs of the horns thus obtained have occasionally reached Europe. The only recent traveller, so far as we know, that has personally encountered the ‘Nzoe’ in its native wilds is Mr. Ernest Gedge, who has kindly favoured us with the following notes on this subject:—

“So far as is known at present, Speke’s Antelope is not to be
found anywhere in East Africa between the Victoria Nyanza and the
coast—in fact, the only occasion on which I had the good fortune
to encounter it was during my sojourn in the Budda district of
Uganda along with Capt. R. H. Williams, in the early part of 1893,
under the following circumstances:—