Somaliland was a flat native skin contained in a collection brought
home by Herr Menges along with a lot of living animals imported for
Mr. Hagenbeck, of Hamburg. In some notes on these skins (P. Z. S.
1884, p. 539) Sclater referred the specimen in question to _B.
caama_. Again, Mr. E. Lort Phillips, F.Z.S., who was one of Mr.
James’s party in Somaliland in the winter of 1885, shot a single young
male Hartebeest near the northern boundary of the high plateau south
of Berbera in April of that year (see P. Z. S. 1885, p. 932), but
unfortunately lost the skull which he had preserved, and did not meet
with the species again.
The next record of this Hartebeest is from a different locality. The
Italian naturalist Dr. Traversi in 1886 transmitted to Florence a
Hartebeest’s head which, in his list of Traversi’s collection, Dr.
Giglioli referred to _B. caama_. After examining the specimen
in the Museum of Florence, and receiving a drawing of it from Dr.
Giglioli, Sclater (see P. Z. S. 1892, p. 258) was able to assure
himself that it was in all probability the same as _B. swaynei_ of
Somaliland.
In his “Field-notes” on the Antelopes of Somaliland (P. Z. S. 1892,
p. 303) Captain Swayne furnishes us with an excellent account of this
animal, which we now reproduce:--
“South of the highest ranges of Somaliland, and at a distance of about
100 miles from the coast, are open plains some four or five thousand
feet above the sea-level, alternating with broken ground covered with
thorn-jungle, with an undergrowth of aloes growing sometimes to a
height of six feet.
“This elevated country, called the ‘Haud,’ is waterless for three
months, from January to March; it was crossed by Mr. James’s party in
1884, when their camels were thirteen days without water.
“Much of the Haud is bush-covered wilderness or open semi-desert, but
some of the higher plains are, at the proper season, in early summer,
covered, far as the eye can reach, with a beautiful carpet of green
grass, like English pasture-land. At this time of the year pools of
water may be found, as the rainfall is abundant.
“This kind of open grass country is called the ‘Ban.’ Not a bush is to
be seen, and some of these plains are thirty or forty miles each way.
“There is not always much game to be got at in the Haud; but a year
ago, coming on to ground which had not yet been visited by Europeans,
I found one of these plains covered with herds of Hartebeests, there
being perhaps a dozen herds in sight at one time, each containing three
or four hundred individuals. Hundreds of bulls were scattered singly on
the outskirts and in spaces between the herds, grazing, fighting, or
lying down.
“The scene I describe was at a distance of over a hundred miles from
Berbera; and the game has probably been driven far beyond that point by
now.
“The Hartebeest bulls are very pugnacious, and two or three couples may
be fighting round the same herd at one time. Often one of the bulls
will be sent rolling head over heels.
“The easiest way to get a specimen is to send a couple of Midgans round
above the wind to drive the Hartebeest towards you, at the same time
lying down in the grass. A shot may be got within fifty yards, but no
one would care to shoot many Hartebeests, as the trophy is poor.
“Often Oryxes and Sœmmerring’s Gazelles are seen in company with these
great troops of Hartebeests, but the Oryxes are much wilder. The
Hartebeests are rather tame, and they and the Sœmmerring’s Gazelles are
always the last to move away.
“Hartebeests have great curiosity, and rush round a caravan,
halting now and then within two hundred yards to gaze. This sight
is an extraordinary one, these Antelopes having heavy and powerful
forequarters, head, and chest, of a different shade of chestnut to the
hindquarters, which are poor and fall away. In the midday haze on the
plains they look like troops of Lions.
“The pace of the Hartebeest is an ungraceful lumbering canter; but
this species is really the fleetest and most enduring of the Somali
Antelopes. The largest herd I have ever seen must have contained a
thousand individuals, packed closely together, and looking like a
regiment of cavalry, the whole plain round being dotted with single
bulls. Their coats are glossy, like that of a well-groomed horse.
“From their living so much in open grass plains the Hartebeests must
subsist entirely on grass, for there is nothing else to eat; and they
must be able to exist for several days without water.
“Hartebeests are the favourite food of Lions, and once, when out with
my brother, I found a troop of three Lions sitting out on the open
plains, ten miles from the nearest bush. They had evidently been out
all night among the herds, and on their becoming gorged, the rising sun
had found them disinclined to move.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.
Skull of _Bubalis swaynei_.
(P. Z. S. 1892, p. 99.)]
“Hartebeest horns vary greatly in shape and size. There are short
massive horns and long pointed ones, and all the gradations between.
Some curve forward, with the points thrown back; others curve outwards
in the same plane as the forehead, the points turning upwards”[4].
Our coloured figure of this Antelope (Plate II.) has been drawn by
Mr. Smit from the mounted specimen in the British Museum, obtained by
Captain Swayne on the Haud plateau of Somaliland.
The woodcut (fig. 3, p. 24) gives a front view of the first skull
and horns received from Captain Swayne, upon which Sclater based the
species. This specimen is now likewise in the National Collection.
_May, 1894._
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. III.
_Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._
Cokes Hartebeest.
BUBALIS COKEI.
_Published by R. H. Porter._]
5. COKE’S HARTEBEEST.
BUBALIS COKEI (GÜNTH.).
[PLATE III.]
_Antilope (Alcelaphus) caama_, =Peters=, Von der Decken’s Reise,
iii. pt. i. p. 9 (1869) (Lake Jipe).
_Alcelaphus cokei_, =Günth.= Ann. Mag. N. H. (5) xiv. p. 426,
woodcut of horns (1884) (Usagara); =Thomson=, Masailand, p. 220,
fig. (horns) (1885); =Johnston=, Kilimanjaro, p. 65 (1886);
=Hunter=, Willoughby’s E. Africa, p. 288, pl. i. fig. 1 (head)
(1889); =Von Höhnel=, Zum Rudolph-See, p. 819 (1892) (Lake
Jipe); =Lugard=, E. Afr. i. p. 532, pl. (animal), and pl. p. 448
(horns) (1893).
_Alcelaphus lichtensteini_, =Pagenst.= JB. Mus. Hamb. ii. 1884,
p. 40 (1885) (Masailand).
_Alcelaphus cookei_, =Lyd.= Field, lxxvii. p. 858, fig. (horns)
(1891).
_Bubalis cokei_, =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 61, fig. (head) (1892);
=Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 197, fig. 38 (horns) (1893);
=Jackson=, Big Game Shooting, i. pp. 285, 291.
VERNACULAR NAME:--_Kongoni_ in Swahili (_Lugard_).
Size small, height at withers about 45 inches. General colour bright
fawn all over, without dark markings, except that the lower lip is
rather browner than the rest. Lower part of rump paler than the back,
but not sharply defined. Tail long, its hairs reaching to the middle
of the lower leg; black-crested for about its terminal three fourths.
Face-hairs as in _B. swaynei_ and _B. tora_. Glandular suborbital
brushes short and not conspicuous.
Skull of medium proportions. Measurements:--basal length 14 inches,
greatest breadth 5·2, muzzle to orbit 10·7, facial length 14·7, breadth
of forehead 3·5.
Horns short and thick, bracket-shaped, the middle portions of the two
sides in exactly the same straight line; their tips as long as their
middle portions.
_Hab._ Eastern Africa, from Usagara northwards to Kilimanjaro
and Masailand.
The first recorded specimen of Coke’s Hartebeest was a frontlet
obtained by the German traveller Von der Decken in 1862 at Lake Jipe
in Masailand. These horns were referred by Peters, in his account of
the mammals of Von der Decken’s expedition, to _B. caama_ of the
Cape. But Sir Victor Brooke, who subsequently examined them at Berlin,
as we know from his MSS., was convinced of their distinctness from
the species of the Cape Colony, and had determined to call the new
species after Von der Decken, although he never published the name. The
subjoined figures (4 _a_ and 4 _b_) were prepared under Sir
Victor Brooke’s direction, and show a front view and a three-quarter
view of these horns.
[Illustration: Fig. 4 _a_.
Horns of _Bubalis cokei_, front view.]
In June 1880 Col. the Hon. W. C. W. Coke, F.Z.S., a renowned English
sportsman, started from Zanzibar on a shooting-expedition towards
Mpapwa, along the caravan-route from the port of Saadani. On reaching
the open plains on the plateau of Usagara he met with several herds of
this Antelope, and obtained the frontlet (fig. 4 _c_), now in the
British Museum, upon which the species was established by Dr. Günther.
Colonel Coke has kindly permitted us to refer to his journal, in which
we find it recorded that he first met with this Hartebeest on June
28th, between the Missionary Stations of Mamboia and Mpapwa. On July
10th, when encamped near M’lalli, at the edge of the plains, though
sick with fever, he went out and shot the animal, upon the head of
which the species was afterwards based. After this Colonel Coke was
taken so ill that he had to be carried back to the coast in a hammock,
and was unable to shoot any more of these Antelopes.
In Sir John Kirk’s collection are two fine heads of this Hartebeest,
likewise obtained by him in Usagara.
Proceeding northwards to the country round Kilimanjaro we find that
Mr. H. C. V. Hunter, in his appendix to Sir John Willoughby’s ‘East
Africa and its Big Game,’ records Coke’s Hartebeest as, at the date
of his visit (1887), “quite the most common Antelope in the plains”
of that district, “being found everywhere in immense herds.” From the
same part of the British East-African Company’s territory we have seen
and examined numerous other heads of this Hartebeest, including fine
examples of both sexes belonging to Consul-General Holmwood, obtained
during a shooting-excursion from Zanzibar to this attractive district.
[Illustration: Fig. 4 _b_.
Horns of _Bubalis cokei_, side view.]
Mr. Ernest Gedge, who traversed British East Africa in company with Mr.
F. J. Jackson, has kindly compiled from his note-books the following
account of his experiences with Coke’s Hartebeest:--
“These Antelopes range over a very wide extent of country in both
British and German East Africa. In the latter sphere I have procured
specimens on the south shore of the Victoria Nyanza which in all
respects were identical with those found nearer the coast; hence it is
reasonable to suppose that they occupy the entire region lying between
the lake and the coast. In British East Africa the northern limit of
their extension seems to be somewhere about Lake Naivasha in the Masai
country. On one occasion, however, I obtained an odd specimen in the
valley of the Ngare Rongri, to the south of Lake Baringo, but, as a
rule, they are not to be found so far north, as in this district they
give place to _B. jacksoni_.
[Illustration: Fig. 4 _c_.
Horns of _Bubalis cokei_, front view.
(Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, xiv. p. 426.)]
“Between Lake Naivasha and the coast _B. cokei_ is very commonly
met with. It frequents every kind of locality, and is equally at home
in the bush-covered wilderness lying behind the coast-line and on
the vast treeless plains around the base of Kilimanjaro which extend
northwards towards Lake Naivasha, and during the hottest seasons of
the year it is often encountered in the most arid and pastureless
localities many miles distant from the nearest water.
“Being of a sociable disposition, Coke’s Hartebeest is usually seen
in company with other game, and the sight of these vast mixed herds,
which include Zebras and Grant’s and Thomson’s Gazelles, is one not
easily forgotten. Like all Hartebeest it is very wary and difficult
to approach, its senses of sight and scent being extremely keen.
During the time that the herd is grazing there are usually one or two
sentinels posted on the nearest elevations to give warning of the
approach of danger. The white-ant-hills with which the entire country
abounds are usually selected for this purpose, and are patronized to
such an extent, that I have seen as many as eight or ten occupying the
summit of one of these hills, which looked as if it could only support
a third of that number. The reddish colour and general contour of these
mounds bears in many cases so close a resemblance to the Antelopes
themselves (particularly when grazing) that I have frequently been
deceived by their appearance.
“When alarmed they utter a few short whistling snorts and take
to flight. If surprised suddenly in the bush they usually run a
considerable distance before halting, but when the danger has been
perceived from a distance in the open they run but a short distance at
a time, pausing frequently to turn round and scrutinize the object of
their alarm. In this case there are generally one or two bulls keeping
at some distance in the rear of the herd, whose fatal curiosity will
often delay them until they fall victims to the rifle.
“The speed of this Antelope is very great, and when thoroughly alarmed
they will cover the roughest ground in the most airy and graceful
fashion, striking the earth with all four feet together, and springing
up with immense bounds like an india-rubber ball. Their tenacity of
life is also remarkable, and I have known them travel a long distance
with several bullets in different parts of their bodies. The hunter who
would be successful must in consequence possess a good rifle and hold
it very straight.
“They vary in colour from a light tawny red to chestnut. Age has
probably something to do with this, though the males are usually darker
than the females, and they are inferior both in size and strength to
_B. jacksoni_ further north.
“The cows calve during the latter part of November and December, and on
several occasions I have come across their young lying concealed in the
long grass, whilst the anxious mother was watching the proceedings from
a short distance.”
Our coloured illustration of this species (Plate III.) has been
prepared by Mr. Smit from a mounted specimen in the British Museum,
which was brought from the Kilimanjaro district by Mr. F. J. Jackson.
There is in the same collection a head from the mountains of Taita,
obtained by Mr. J. Wray.
_May, 1894._
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. IV.
_Wolf del. Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._
The Cape Hartebeest.
BUBALIS CAAMA.
_Published by R. H. Porter._]
6. THE CAPE HARTEBEEST.
Bubalis Caama (G. CUV.).
[PLATE IV.]
_Hartebeest_, =Sparrm. K.= Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1779, p. 151, pl.
v.; =id.= Voy. to Cape (Engl. transl.) ii. pp. 96, 199, pl. i.
(1786).
_Le Caama ou Bubale_, =Buff.= Hist. Nat. Suppl. vi. p. 135, pl.
xv. (1782).
_Antilope bubalis_, =Schr.= Säug. pl. cclxxvii. (animal) (1787)
(and in part of other early authors, not of Pallas).
_Antilope caama_, =G. Cuv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 242 (1816);
=Desm.= N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 196 (1816); =Goldf.= in
Schr. Säug. v. p. 1174 (1820); =Schinz=, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 390
(1821); =Burchell=, Trav. i. p. 420 (1822); =Desm.= Mamm. ii. p.
467 (1822); =Desmoul.= Dict. Class. i. p. 444 (1822); =Less.=
Man. Mamm. p. 382 (1827); =Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 474 (1829);
=Waterh.= Cat. Mamm. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 41 (1838); =Less.= N.
Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 180 (1842); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv.
p. 469 (1844), v. p. 444 (1855); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 443
(1845); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 297 (1859); =Drummond=, Large Game S.
Afr. p. 425 (1875).
_Antilope dorcas_, =Thunb.= Mém. Ac. Pétersb. iii. p. 316 (1811).
_Cerophorus (Alcelaphus) caama_, =Blainv.= Bull. Soc. Philom.
1816, p. 75.
_Damalis caama_, =Ham. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 348; =id.=
v. p. 362 (1827); =Smuts=, En. Mamm. Cap. p. 88 (1832).
_Acronotus caama_, =A. Sm.= S. Afr. Q. J. ii. p. 221 (1834);
=Harris=, Wild Sport S. Afr. p. 377 (1839); =id.= op. cit. 5th
ed. pl. x. (animal) (1852); =id.= Wild An. S. Afr. (fol.) pl.
vii. (animal) (1840); =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 157 (1843);
=id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 58 (1847).
_Bubalus caama_, =A. Sm.= Ill. Zool. S. Afr. pl. xxx. (animal)
(1840).
_Bubalis caama_, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844, p.
208 (1846); =id.= Hornschuh’s Transl. p. 83 (1848); =Temm.= Esq.
Zool. Guin. p. 195 (1853); =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 218, woodcut
(animal) (1880); =Nicholls & Egl.= Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 45, pl.
iv. fig. 13 (head) (1892); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 56 (1892);
=Selous=, P. Z. S. 1893, p. 1
(hybrid with _Damaliscus lunatus_); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p.
196, fig. 37 (animal) (1893).
_Boselaphus caama_, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 233
(1846); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850, p. 139; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 20,
pl. xx. fig. 2 (animal) (1850); =Blyth=, Cat. Mus. As. Soc. p.
170 (1863); =id.= P. Z. S. 1869, p. 52, figs. 4 & 5 (horns).
_Alcelaphus caama_, =Gray=, Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 124, pl. xvi.
figs. 1–3 (skull and horns) (1852); =Gerr.= Cat. Bones Mamm.
B. M. p. 243 (1862); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 44 (1872);
=id.= Hand-l. Rum. p. 115 (1873); =Buckley=, P. Z. S. 1876,
pp. 285 & 292; 1877, p. 454 (distribution); =Rütimeyer=, Rind.
Tert.-Epoch. p. 47 (1877); =Selous=, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 763
(distribution); =id.= Hunter’s Wanderings, p. 224, pl. vii.
figs. 5 & 6 (head) (1881); =Scl.= List Anim. Zool. Soc. (8) p.
148 (1883); id. P. Z. S. 1890, p. 411; =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Ost.
Coll. Surg. ii. p. 272 (1884); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus.
(Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 139 (1887); =Bryden=, Kloof and Karroo,
p. 291 (1889); =Lyd.= Field, lxxvii. p. 858, fig. 1 (animal)
(1891); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 335, fig. 137 (animal) (1891);
=Scl.= f. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 170 (1891); =Jent.= Cat.
Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 171 (1892); =Distant=,
Transvaal, p. 12 (1892); =Bryden=, Gun and Camera, p. 505 (1893)
(Kalahari Desert).
VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Hartebeest_ of Cape Dutch and English;
_Khama_ of Bechuanas, and the same, with a click, of Masaras;
_Ingama_ of Makalakas (_Selous_); _Inhluzele_ of Zulus
(_Drummond_).
Size large; height at withers about 48 inches. Suborbital gland
present, and provided with a distinct tuft. General colour brownish
fulvous, darker than in any of the previous species; face with a black
blaze running up to the horns, but interrupted between the eyes; back
of neck with a dark line from the horns to the withers; chin blackish,
outer sides of shoulders and hips black. These darker markings are not
visible in the young. Lower part of rump behind whitish or yellowish,
contrasting markedly with its dark upperside.
Skull with the frontal part excessively elongated and narrow.
The measurements of a fine skull in the Leyden Museum are as
follows:--basal length 17·6 inches, greatest breadth 6·1, orbit to tip
of muzzle 12·7; facial length 19·3, breadth of forehead below horns 5·1.
Horns diverging evenly outwards at their bases, so as to form a V when
viewed from the front, then curved forwards and upwards, and finally
bent sharply backwards so as to form almost an abrupt right angle
behind the last bend. Good horns attain a length of about 22 or 24
inches.
_Hab._ South Africa, south of the Limpopo River, but extending
further north along the edge of the Kalahari Desert. Now nearly
extinct in the Cape Colony; still found in the Transvaal.
The Hartebeest was well known to Sparrmann and other travellers in the
Cape Colony at the close of the last century. It was figured by Buffon
in one of the supplementary volumes to his ‘Histoire Naturelle’ as the
“_Caama ou Bubale_,” but was generally confounded by systematists with
the Bubal of North Africa, until Georges Cuvier, in 1816, gave it the
name of _Antilope caama_--“_Caama_” or “_Khama_” being the term applied
to it by the Bechuanas. In the days of Sparrmann the Hartebeest was
very abundant all over the Cape Colony, and was found in large troops
even in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town.
In 1811, when Burchell visited South Africa, the Hartebeest appears to
have become already much less abundant; but Burchell speaks of having
met with it on the Gariep or Orange River and in other localities.
Twenty-five years later, when Harris made his celebrated sporting
excursions into South Africa, the Hartebeest had retreated still
further into the interior. But Harris speaks of it as being at that
date still met with on the plains beyond the Orange River “in immense
herds.” Sir Andrew Smith, who visited the Cape Colonies at about the
same epoch, and who has figured the male of this Antelope in his
well-known ‘Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa,’ speaks
of the occurrence of the Hartebeest far in the interior. He killed
specimens himself close to the Tropic of Capricorn, and had heard
of its occurrence much further northwards. But, according to his
observations, _Bubalis caama_ begins to get rare as soon as the
Sassaby (_Damaliscus lunatus_) commences to occur. His experience
justified him in pronouncing that the former took the place of the
latter in all the territory northward of 25° south latitude. Sir Andrew
Smith gives the following account of the habits of the Hartebeest:--
“The Hartebeest, by preference, inhabits an open country, and hence is
generally observed upon the plains in small herds consisting of from
six to ten individuals, and often, where the plains are extensive, many
of such groups are to be seen within the range of the eye. It is a very
wary animal, and views with strong suspicion the advance of man, so
that, unless favoured by special circumstances, he finds it an animal
difficult to procure. When disturbed, the herd generally scampers off
in the train of some acknowledged leader, and they are rarely seen
when flying, except in a string, one animal upon the heels of another.
Their pace is a sort of heavy gallop, and though they do not appear to
move with rapidity, yet the ground over which they go in a given time
shows that their progressive motion is far from slow. When first they
start, they appear extremely awkward, and generate in the observer an
impression that to overtake them must be no very difficult task. After
they have advanced a little, however, the apparent stiffness in the
joints of the hinder extremities disappears, and even the indications
of weakness of the hinder limbs become so indistinct, that the pursuer
is soon satisfied of the inaccuracy of his first conclusion. This and
the Sassaby are the only antelopes of South Africa which exhibit the
peculiarity alluded to, and have led many to remark their resemblance
in this respect to the Hyænas and Aard Wolf (_Proteles lalandii_).
In all these animals there is a disproportion between the development
of the anterior and posterior parts of the body, and each of them
appears when in motion as if its hinder extremities were too weak for
the duties they are destined to perform.”
We now come to the distribution of the Hartebeest in South Africa in
more modern days. Mr. T. E. Buckley, who published some interesting
notes on the range of the large Mammals in South Africa in the
Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1876 and 1877, tells us that
from being one of the commonest animals throughout the Cape Colony it
had then become one of the rarest. He observed it only on three or
four occasions during his journey into the interior--once just before
reaching the Crocodile River, and once or twice in the Colony of
Natal. In the south-east he says a few then still remained in the Zulu
country, but he could not hear of its occurrence in Swaziland, where
its place seemed to be taken by the Sassaby.