xii. p. 16 (1777); =Müll.= Naturs. Suppl. p. 54 (1776); =Erxl.=
Syst. R. A. i. p. 291 (1777); =Zimm.= Spec. Zool. Geogr. p. 544
(1777); =id.= Geogr. Gesch. ii. p. 122 (1780); =Gatt.= Brev.
Zool. i. p. 83 (1780); =Bodd.= Elench. Anim. p. 143 (1785);
=Schreb.= Säug. pl. cclxxvii. B (animal) (1787); =Gm.= S. N.
i. p. 188 (1788); =Kerr=, Linn. An. K. p. 314 (1792); =Donnd.=
Zool. Beytr. p. 633 (1792); =Bechst.= Uebers. vierf. Thiere, i.
p. 95 (1799), ii. p. 645 (1800); =Shaw=, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2,
p. 331 (1801); =Virey=, N. Dict. d’H. N. iii. p. 525 (1803);
=Turt.= Linn. S. N. i. p. 114 (1806); =Ill.= Prodr. Syst. Mamm.
p. 106 (1811); =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freund. Berl. vi. p. 163
(1814); =G. Fisch.= Zoogn. iii. p. 417 (1814); =Afzel.= N. Act.
Ups. vii. p. 220 (1815); =G. Cuv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 241
(1816); =Desm.= N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 195 (1816); =Goldf.=
in Schreb. Säug. v. p. 1171 (1820); =Schinz=, Cuv. Thierr. i.
p. 390 (1821); =Desm.= Mamm. ii. p. 466 (1822); =F. Cuv.= H. N.
Mamm. (fol.) iii. livr. li. (animal) (1825); =Less.= Man. Mamm.
p. 381 (1827); =Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 473 (1829); =Less.= N.
Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 180 (1842); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Supp. iv.
p. 469 (1844), v. p. 444 (1855); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 443
(1845); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 296 (1859); =Nachtigal=, Sahara and
Soudan, i. p. 572, ii. p. 678 (1879).
_Capra dorcas_, =Müll.= Natursyst. i. p. 416 (1773) (_nec_
Linn.).
_Cerophorus (Alcelaphus) bubalis_, =Blainv.= Bull. Soc. Philom.
1816, p. 75.
_Damalis bubalis_, =H. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 347, v. p.
362 (1827).
_Acronotus bubalis_, =A. Sm.= S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii. p. 221
(1833); =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 157 (1843); =id.= List Ost.
B. M. p. 58 (1847).
_Bubalus mauritanicus_, =Og.= P. Z. S. 1836, p. 139.
_Bubalis mauretanica_, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844,
p. 208 (1846); =id.= Hornschuh’s Transl. p. 83 (1848); =Temm.=
Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 195 (1853); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 195
(1893).
_Boselaphus bubalis_, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 233
(1846); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 139; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 20, pl.
xx. fig. 1 (young) (1850); =Blyth=, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 51, fig. 3
(horns).
_Alcelaphus bubalis_, =Gray=, Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 123 (1852);
=Tristram=, Great Sahara, p. 387 (1860); =id.= P. Z. S. 1866,
p. 86 (Palestine); =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 643; =Gray=,
Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 43 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. p. 114 (1873);
=Rütimeyer=, Rind. Tert.-Epoch. p. 47 (1877); =Schmidt=, P.
Z. S. 1880, p. 307 (length of life); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd.
Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 139 (1887); =id.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd.
Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 171 (1892); =Lyd.= Field, lxxvii. p. 858
(1891).
_Alcelaphus bubale_, =Gerrard=, Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 243
(1862).
_Alcelaphus bubalinus_, =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 335 (1891).
_Boselaphus caama_ (partim), =Heugl.= Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr.
(N. Act. Leopold. xxx. pt. ii.) p. 22, pl. 1. fig. 3 (horns)
(1863).
_Acronotus lelwel_, =Heugl.= Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 124 (1877).
VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Begra el Ouach_, Arabs of Algeria
(_Lataste_); _Bekker-el-wash_, Arabs of Palestine (_Tristram_);
_Kargum_ of Saharan Tuaregs; _Karia_ in Bagirmi (_Nachtigal_).
“_Lelwel_,” “_Alalüehl_,” and some others of Schweinfurth’s
names also probably belong here.
Size small; height at withers only about 43 inches, and therefore
markedly less than in the other species. Facial hairs reversed upwards
for about two inches on the nose, then slanting downwards from a point
on the forehead just below the horns, where there is a twisted whorl
from which the hairs radiate in all directions. Colour uniform pale
rufous or fawn, entirely without darker patches on forehead, chin, or
limbs; there is, however, an ill-defined patch of greyish on each side
of the muzzle above the nostrils; lower part of rump not whitish. Tail
black on the terminal tuft only, the rest like the back.
Skull long, but the elongation less than in _B. caama_. _Approximate_
dimensions:--basal length 13 inches, greatest breadth 4·8, muzzle
to orbit 10[3]. Facial length from between the horns to the tip of
the nasals 13·5 inches; breadth of the forehead, across the frontal
horn-support, 4·0. Horns diverging from each other at an even rounded
curve, so as together to form a U when viewed from the front, a method
of curvature only found in this and the next species. In length, when
measured round the curves, they attain to a little more than 14 inches.
_Hab._ Northern Africa (interior of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis)
and Arabia.
The Bubal (_Bubalis_ or _Bubalus_) is one of the few Antelopes known
to the ancient writers, being included by Herodotus among the beasts
of Libya, and being likewise mentioned by Aristotle, Æschylus, and
Pliny. The Bubal is also referred to in the Old Testament and called
“Yachmur”--a term which has been incorrectly translated in the
authorized version as “Fallow Deer.” Under this name it is included in
the list of the daily provisions of King Solomon (i. Kings, iv. 23) as
one of the animals brought to the royal table.
Coming to more modern days we find that in the time of Dr. Thomas Shaw,
F.R.S., of Queen’s College, Oxford (who was resident twelve years at
Algiers as British Chaplain), the Bubal was abundant on the north of
the Atlas. Dr. Shaw (‘Travels in Barbary and the Levant,’ Oxford,
1738), in his “Physical and Miscellaneous Observations on the Natural
History of Algiers and Tunis,” tells us:--
“Of cattle that are not naturally tame and domesticated, these Kingdoms
afford large Herds of the Neat kind called _Bekker el Wash_ by the
_Arabs_. This _Species_ is remarkable for having a rounder Turn of
Body, a flatter Face, with Horns bending more towards each other
than in the tame kind. It is therefore, in all Probability, the _Bos
africanus_ of _Bellonius_, which he seems justly to take for the
_Bubalus_ of the Ancients; though, what he describeth is little bigger
than the _Caprea_ or Roe-Buck, whereas ours is nearly of the same size
with the Red-Deer, with which also it agreeth in Colour. The young
Calves of this _Species_ quickly grow tame, and herd with other Cattle.”
Since the days of Shaw, however, the Bubal has retired far beyond the
Atlas into the recesses of the desert, and has become a difficult
animal to meet with. Loche (Expl. Sc. de l’Algérie) tells us that it
is now confined to the mountainous districts of the Sahara, where it
roams about in small troops. Canon Tristram states that “the hunters
of Souf frequently obtain this, the largest of game in North Africa.”
But he does not think that it “ever ventures north of the Wed R’hir
and M’zab districts, while its home is certainly further south. It is
considered to be the most savoury meat of the desert-epicure.” During
his extensive explorations in the Great Sahara Canon Tristram saw this
Antelope only on one occasion: this was at a distance, in the south of
the Djereed of Tunis.
From the Algerian Sahara the Bubal extends no doubt into Morocco on
one side and Tripoli on the other; but our knowledge of the animals of
both these countries is still very meagre, and we are unable to quote
precise authorities. In Egypt, so far as we know, the Bubal appears to
be now quite extinct, but on the other side of the Red Sea it reappears
in Arabia and extends even up to the confines of Palestine. Canon
Tristram never saw it alive in Palestine; “but it certainly exists on
the borders of Gilead and Moab,” and is well known to the Arabs, who
assured him that “it sometimes comes down to drink at the head-waters
of the streams flowing into the Dead Sea, where they not unfrequently
capture it.” Canon Tristram has kindly allowed one of us to examine
a pair of horns obtained from the Arabs in this locality, which are
apparently referable to a female of this species.
The Bubal has been long introduced to the zoological gardens of Europe,
and its name occurs in the MS. Catalogues of the Zoological Society
as early as 1832. It bred in the Derby Menagerie, and the young one
was figured in the drawings illustrative of that splendid collection
(pl. xx.). It is not, however, very common in captivity, and of late
years but few specimens have been received. At the present time there
is only a single example of this Antelope in the Zoological Society’s
collection. It is a female, presented by Mr. Robert Pitcairn, of Oran,
in October 1883, and obtained, no doubt, in the interior of Western
Algeria. Mr. Smit’s illustration (Plate I.) was prepared from this
specimen.
The series of specimens of this Antelope in the British Museum is not
by any means a full one. There are an adult male (stuffed) and an adult
female (in skin) from the Zoological Society’s old collection, and a
young one obtained by Fraser in the Djereed of Tunis in 1846, besides
some pairs of horns and frontlets. Fresh examples of this species from
definite localities would therefore be highly valued by the Trustees.
_May, 1894._
2. THE WEST-AFRICAN BUBAL.
BUBALIS MAJOR (BLYTH).
_Boselaphus bubalis_, var. 1, =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 139 (?).
_Alcelaphus bubalis_, var. _tunisianus_, =Gray=, Cat. Ung. B. M.
p. 123 (1852); id. Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 44 (1872) (?).
_Boselaphus major_, =Blyth=, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 52, fig. A 1
(horns).
_Alcelaphus major_, =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 44 (1872); =id.=
Hand-l. Rum. p. 114 (1873).
“_Bubalis lelwel_, Heugl.,” =Matsch.= Arch. f. Nat. 1891, pt. i.
p. 355 (Cameroons).
_Bubalis major_, =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 62 (1892); =Matsch.=
Mitth. deutsch. Schutzgebiet, vi. pt. iii. p. 17 (1893) (Togo);
=Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 196 (1893).
Essential characters as in _B. buselaphus_, but larger in all its
dimensions.
“Body of a uniform greyish brown; face deep brown; fore legs streaked
with dark brown or blackish from the knees downwards. Terminal tuft of
tail black.
“Frontal bone between the base of the horns and orbit convex, the same
part being remarkably flat in other species.” (_Brooke_, MS.)
Facial length 17½ inches, muzzle to orbit 13, breadth of forehead 4·4.
Horns curved as in the Bubal, but longer and heavier, their length
round the curves amounting to over 20 inches.
_Hab._ Gambia, Lower Niger district, and interior of Cameroons.
There can be no doubt of the existence of a Bubal allied to _B.
buselaphus_ in several districts on the West Coast of Africa. But
there are no perfect specimens of this Antelope at present available
for comparison, and its distinctness from its northern representative
may still be a matter of some uncertainty, although we have good
reason to believe that the two species will ultimately prove to be
specifically different.
The well-known naturalist Edward Blyth, for many years Curator of the
Indian Museum, Calcutta, and a good authority on the larger Mammals,
was the first writer to call attention to the existence of this
Antelope. In a communication made to the Zoological Society in 1869,
Blyth states that he had examined a “perfect skin” of what he at once
recognized as a “distinct though closely allied species,” differing
from _B. buselaphus_ “in being fully as large as a Hartebeest, and
in having black markings in front of all four feet above the hoofs.”
Blyth’s opinion was that some mounted specimens which he saw in the
Museums of Leyden and Amsterdam referred to _B. buselaphus_
belonged strictly to this new form. He also exhibited on the same
occasion a pair of frontlets belonging to Ward, of Vere Street, as
referable to what he proposed to designate _Boselaphus major_.
These frontlets, which were subsequently figured in the Society’s
‘Proceedings,’ are now in the British Museum.
[Illustration: Fig. 1 _a_.
Fig. 1 _b_.
Horns of _Bubalis major_.
(Gambia, _Carter_, 1891.)]
Whether the “variety 1” of the Bubal, established by Gray in 1850 upon
a skin without horns or hoofs, said to have been brought by Fraser
from Tunis, really belonged to this species, must ever remain doubtful.
This skin is no longer to be found, and if it were really referable to
_B. major_ it was probably brought by Fraser from West Africa and
not from Tunis, where the typical _B. buselaphus_ is found. Gray’s
inaccuracy as regards localities is notorious, and Fraser visited both
parts of Africa. Under these circumstances we may altogether neglect
the name “_tunisianus_” bestowed on this “variety” in 1852, as
being highly doubtful as well as inapplicable.
[Illustration: Fig. 1 _c_.
Fig. 1 _d_.
Horns and skull of _Bubalis major_.
_c._ Front view; _d._ Side view. (Brooke.)]
It is probable that the horns from the Cameroons, referred by Herr
Matschie to “_B. lelwel_, Heuglin,” and those from Togoland,
referred by the same author to _B. major_, also belong to this
species, which would appear to inhabit suitable districts in Western
Africa from Senegal to the Cameroons.
A pair of horns of this Antelope was amongst the specimens obtained by
Dr. Percy Kendall from the Gambia in 1890. Another very fine pair was
brought by Sir Gilbert Carter from the Gambia in 1891, from which the
accompanying drawings (figs. 1 _a_ and 1 _b_, p. 12) have
been taken. These horns are in Sclater’s possession.
The two other figures (figs. 1 _c_ and 1 _d_, p. 13) were
prepared by Sir Victor Brooke, probably from horns in his collection.
Besides Blyth’s frontlets already mentioned, there are a pair of horns
of the Bubal in the British Museum obtained by Mr. E. Bower on the
Lower Niger in 1892, and several other specimens of horns without exact
localities. Sclater has also examined, casually, a mounted specimen
in the Senckenbergian Museum at Frankfort-a/M., labelled _Bubalis
mauritanica_, which is probably of this species. According to his
notes it is “nearly uniform brown; forehead ferruginous; black round
the feet.”
_May, 1894._
3. THE TORA.
BUBALIS TORA (GRAY).
_Buselaphus bubalis_, =Heugl.= Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act.
Leopold. Carol. xxx. pt. ii.) p. 21 (1863) (_nec_ Pall.).
_Tétel (Antilope bubalis)_, =Baker=, Nile Tributaries, p. 179
(1867).
_Alcelaphus tora_, =Gray=, Nature, viii. p. 364; =id.= Ann. Mag.
N. H. (4) xii. p. 341 (1873); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. p. 172, pl.
xli. (skull and horns) (1873); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1873, pp. 729 and
762 (Settite R.), 1875, p. 529; =Rütimeyer=, Rind. Tert.-Epoch.
p. 47, pl. v. figs. 7 & 8 (1877); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus.
(Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 139 (1887); =Lyd.= Field, lxxvii. p.
858 (1891); =Jent.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 171
(1892).
_Acronotus bubalis_, =Heugl.= Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 122 (1877).
_Bubalis bubalis_, =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 217, pl. (animal)
(1880).
_Bubalis tora_, =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 59, fig. (head) (1892);
=Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 198 (1893).
VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Tora_ in Amhar, Abyssinia; _Tori_ in Tigre;
_Guragua_ or _Quaraqua_ in Belen; _Tétel_ of Arabs in Sennaar
(_Heuglin_).
Size large, height at withers about 48 inches; hairs of face directed
as in _B. buselaphus_. Colour uniform pale fulvous, decidedly
paler than in other species, and, with the exception of the usual black
chin and tail-tuft, entirely without black markings. Lower part of rump
behind decidedly lighter than the dorsal surface.
Skull slenderer and more lightly built than usual; frontal narrow; its
elongation medium.
Basal length 15·7 inches, greatest breadth 5·3, muzzle to orbit 12·5,
facial length 16·5, breadth of forehead 3·4.
Horns shaped somewhat like an inverted bracket, a comparison that is,
however, better borne out by the two following species, as in the Tora
the diverging parts of the two horns start up at a slight angle with
each other, instead of being in the same straight line. The horns
themselves are unusually slender, and attain a length of about 19
inches.
_Hab._ Upper Nubia, Northern Abyssinia, and Kordofan.
The Tora or Tétel was confounded by von Heuglin and Sir Samuel Baker,
its first discoverers, with the Bubal. But these two Antelopes, though
alike of uniform colour, are easily distinguishable on comparison by
the larger size and higher gait of the Tora and by the different shape
of its horns. The Tora would also seem to inhabit more wooded and
broken country than the open deserts that are the home of the allied
species.
Heuglin tells us that this Antelope is found in families and herds
in the valleys at the foot of Mount Takah, in the district of the
Beni-Ammer Arabs, in Upper Barca, on the Anseba and Atbara and their
confluents, and in the lower districts of Northern Abyssinia. He found
it likewise plentiful on the sources of the Dender and Rahad, and in
Galabat. It inhabits the sheltered country where there is high grass
and underwood, is not particularly timid, and sometimes even stupidly
bold, resorting regularly in the morning and evening to the usual
pastures and drinking-places.
In his volume on ‘The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia’ Sir Samuel Baker
frequently mentions the “Tétel,” as he calls this Antelope.
In August 1861, being on the banks of the Atbara, he writes:--
“The country being now bright green, the Antelopes are distinctly
visible on the opposite side. Three Tétel graze regularly together in
the same place daily. This Antelope is a variety of the Hartebeest of
South Africa; it is of a reddish-chestnut colour, and is of about the
size of an Alderney cow.”
A month later Sir Samuel tells us:--
“When about halfway to the river, as we were passing through grass
about 4 feet high, three Tétel bounded from a ravine, and passing
directly before us, gave me a splendid shot at about sixty yards. The
Ceylon No. 10 struck the foremost through the shoulder, and it fell
dead after running a few yards. This was also my first Tétel; it was in
splendid condition, the red coat was like satin, and the animal would
weigh about five hundred pounds live weight.”
Shortly afterwards the skin of the Tétel was taken off entire, the
apertures at the neck and knees tied up, and the hide inflated and
ingeniously converted into a waterproof bag, to be used for the
conveyance of the flesh of the animal across the river Atbara.
In a subsequent part of his journey in the valley of the Settite, a
confluent of the Atbara, Baker again records his adventures with this
Antelope as follows:--
“We had hardly ridden half a mile when I perceived a fine bull Tétel
standing near a bush a few hundred yards distant. Motioning to the
party to halt I dismounted, and with the little Fletcher rifle I
endeavoured to obtain a shot. When within about a hundred and seventy
yards he observed our party, and I was obliged to take the shot,
although I could have approached unseen to a closer distance had his
attention not been attracted by the noise of the horses. He threw his
head up preparatory to starting off, and he was just upon the move as
I touched the trigger. He fell like a stone to the shot, but almost
immediately he regained his feet and bounded off, receiving a bullet
from the second barrel without a flinch; in full speed he rushed away
across the party of aggageers about three hundred yards distant. Out
dashed Abou Do from the ranks on his active grey horse, and away he
flew after the wounded Tétel, his long hair floating in the wind, his
naked sword in hand, and his heels digging into the flanks of his
horse, as though armed with spurs in the last finish of a race. It
was a beautiful course; Abou Do hunted like a cunning greyhound; the
Tétel turned, and taking advantage of the double, he cut off the angle;
succeeding by the manœuvre, he again followed at tremendous speed over
the numerous inequalities of the ground, gaining in the race until he
was within twenty yards of the Tétel, when we lost sight of both game
and hunter in the thick bushes. By this time I had regained my horse,
that was brought to meet me, and I followed to the spot, towards which
my wife and the aggageers encumbered with the unwilling apes were
already hastening. Upon arrival I found, in high yellow grass beneath
a large tree, the Tétel dead, and Abou Do wiping his bloody sword,
surrounded by the foremost of the party. He had hamstrung the animal so
delicately that the keen edge of the blade was not injured against the
bone. My two bullets had passed through the Tétel: the first was too
high, having entered above the shoulder--this had dropped the animal
for a moment; the second was through the flank.”
As we have already stated, both Heuglin and Baker confounded the Tora
with the Bubal. In 1873 the British Museum first received specimens of
this Antelope from the Bogos district west of Massowa. The keen eye of
the then keeper of the Zoological Department quickly recognized the
essential differences of the new species from the previously known
members of the genus, and it was briefly described, first in ‘Nature’
and afterwards in the ‘Annals of Natural History.’
[Illustration: Fig. 2.
Head of _Bubalis tora_.
(P. Z. S. 1873, p. 762.)]
In December of the same year Sclater exhibited a mounted head of this
Antelope at one of the meetings of the Zoological Society, from whose
‘Proceedings’ the accompanying figure of the specimen in question (fig.
2) has been borrowed by leave of the Publication Committee.
Two years later, in July 1875, a female example of this Antelope was
obtained alive for the Zoological Society’s Menagerie; and in the
following year, in October, a fine pair of the Tora was purchased by
the Society for the sum of £100, of Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, the well-known
dealer of Hamburg. These animals had been obtained along with others
from the Arabs of Upper Nubia and brought out _viâ_ Kassala and
Suakim by Mr. Hagenbeck’s agents. Other specimens of the Tora from the
same source reached several zoological gardens on the Continent about
the same date; but we believe that they have one and all disappeared,
and, so far as we know, the Tora is no longer to be seen anywhere in
captivity.
There is a good pair of this Antelope in the Gallery of the British
Museum mounted from skins stated to have been procured at Dembelas, in
Northern Abyssinia. There are also a skeleton and other specimens from
the same locality in the National Collection.
_May, 1894._
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. II.
_Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._
Swayne’s Hartebeest
BUBALIS SWAYNEI.
_Published by R. H. Porter._]
4. SWAYNE’S HARTEBEEST.
BUBALIS SWAYNEI, SCL.
[PLATE II.]
_Boselaphus caama_, =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1884, p. 539; =id.= in
James, Unknown Horn of Afr. p. 262 (1888).
_Alcelaphus_, sp. inc., =Lort Phillips=, P. Z. S. 1885, p. 932.
_Alcelaphus caama_, =Gigl.= Ann. Mus. Genov. (2) vi. p. 19
(1888) (Shoa).
_Bubalis swaynei_, =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1892, p. 98, pl. v. (head),
pp. 118, 257; =Swayne=, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 303 (habits and
distribution); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 60, fig. (head) (1892);
=Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 198, fig. 39 (head) (1893).
VERNACULAR NAME:--“_Sig_” of Somalis (_Lort Phillips_).
Size medium, height at withers about 47 inches. General colour a
peculiar pale chocolate-brown, finely speckled over with white, each
hair being brown with the extreme tip white. Face black, except a
line across between the eyes to lips and tip of nose, which are
fawn-coloured. Chin black. Shoulders and all round forearms black;
there is also a black patch inside and a less distinct one outside the
thighs. Lower legs and feet fawn, except that the backs of the pasterns
are black. Hams paler than back, but not white and not sharply defined.
Tail with its hairs reaching just to the hock, black-edged above for
its terminal half.
Hairs of face reversed upwards for only about 1½ inch on the tip of the
muzzle, then directed downwards from a whorl just below the bases of
the horns. Glandular suborbital brushes prominent.
Skull of medium proportions; its measurements as follows:--basal length
14·5 inches, greatest breadth 5·5, muzzle to orbit 8·3, facial length
14, breadth of forehead 3·5.
Horns bracket-shaped, the median portion of each in nearly the same
straight line as that of its fellow; terminal portion very short. In
length good male horns attain to about 18 inches.
_Hab._ Interior of Northern Somaliland and Shoa.
Although this fine Hartebeest was pursued and slain by several
energetic hunters before Captain Swayne met with it in Somaliland, it
is to the last-named distinguished explorer that we are indebted for
our first perfect specimens and for an account of its range and habits,
and it is therefore appropriately named after him.