Hunter’s Antelope
DAMALISCUS HUNTERI.
_Published by R. H. Porter_]
9. HUNTER’S ANTELOPE.
DAMALISCUS HUNTERI (SCL.).
[PLATE VI.]
_Damalis hunteri_, =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1889, p. 58 (woodcut of
head), and p. 372, pl. xlii. (animal) (Tana R.); =Hunter=, in
Willoughby’s E. Africa, p. 290, pl. iv. fig. 6 (head) (1889).
_Alcelaphus hunteri_, =Lyd.= Field, lxxvii. p. 858, fig. (head)
(1891).
_Alcelaphus (Damalis) hunteri_, =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 336
(1891).
_Bubalis hunteri_, =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 70, fig. (head) (1892);
=Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 200, fig. 40 (head) (1893).
VERNACULAR NAME:--_Herola_ of Gallas (_Hunter_).
Size medium, form more delicate and graceful than in most of the other
species. Facial hairs wholly reversed upwards from the muzzle to the
horns.
Colour uniform rufous, with no darker markings anywhere, on face, chin,
or limbs, and the caudal crest even, black in every other species, is
here wholly white. On the face, however, there is a well-defined white
line passing from one eye to the other across the forehead. Lower part
of rump not markedly lighter than upper.
Skull slender and lightly built. Basal length 12·9 inches, greatest
breadth 5·2, muzzle to orbit 9·1.
Horns quite different from those of any other species; at their base
they start upwards, then curve down and out, then diverge and slant
backwards, and finally they curve evenly forwards, so that their
terminal halves point directly upwards. In general form, therefore,
they present a slight resemblance to those of the Pallah, a very
different animal in all other respects. Good male horns attain a length
of 20 to 25 inches (largest recorded 26¼ inches) measured round the
curve, but female horns are in this species but little inferior to male.
_Hab._ Southern Somaliland, north bank of River Tana.
[Illustration: Fig. 7 _a_.
Head of _Damaliscus hunteri_.
(P. Z. S. 1889, p. 373.)]
We take this species of _Damaliscus_ first in the present work
because it is clearly divergent from the typical members of the genus,
as seen in the Blessbok and Bontebok, and approaches in some respects
the genus _Bubalis_. It is, however, as already pointed out,
quite different from all the other species of both these genera in the
shape of its horns, and is also unique in exhibiting the curious white
line between the eyes across the forehead, which renders it easily
recognizable.
[Illustration: Fig. 7 _b_.
Skull and horns of _Damaliscus hunteri_, ♂ ad.
(P. Z. S. 1889, p. 374.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 7 _c_.
Skull and horns of _Damaliscus hunteri_, ♀ ad.
(P. Z. S. 1889, p. 375.)]
Hunter’s Antelope has been called after its discoverer Mr. H. C. V.
Hunter, F.Z.S., who met with it under the following circumstances:--
In the year after Sir Robert Harvey’s celebrated sporting-expedition
to Kilimanjaro (in 1886–87), of which Sir John Willoughby has given
us the history in his well-known volume on ‘East Africa and its Big
Game,’ Sir Robert returned to Mombasa in company with Mr. Greenfield
and Mr. Hunter, and, after another visit to the “Hunter’s Paradise of
Taveta,” near Kilimanjaro, made a second trip, in quest of sport, up
the valley of the River Tana, which forms the northern boundary of
the dominions of the Imperial British East-African Company. Of this
excursion Sir Robert prepared a short account, which has been printed
as an appendix to the above-mentioned work. The party arrived at the
mouth of the Tana in September, and proceeded up the river in boats to
Golbanto, where they were hospitably received at the mission-station
on the river. Leaving Golbanto on September 28th they reached, about
ten days later, a village called Durani, some 150 miles from the mouth
of the river. Here on the north bank Mr. Hunter, on October 16th,
shot the first specimen of the Antelope which now bears his name, and
immediately proceeded to take the photograph of its head, from which
the accompanying engraving (fig. 7 _a_, p. 54) was taken. Other
examples of this species were subsequently procured by Mr. Hunter and
Mr. Greenfield. These include two heads (male and female) which are now
in Sclater’s custody, and on which he established the species, and the
mounted specimen which is now in the gallery of the British Museum. We
are not aware that besides the examples procured on this occasion any
other specimens of this rare and interesting Antelope have ever been
brought to Europe.
The female Hunter’s Antelope differs from the male in its rather
smaller size and in its longer and more slender horns, as shown in the
accompanying woodcuts (figs. 7 _b_ and 7 _c_) kindly lent to
us by the Zoological Society of London.
Mr. Hunter’s field notes on this Antelope (as supplied by him to
Sclater) are as follows:--
“We first met with this Antelope about 150 miles up the Tana River. It
is only found for certain on the north bank of the river. It frequents
the grassy plains principally, but I have also often seen it in thin
thorny bush. It is generally met with in herds of from 15 to 25
individuals.
“At the time of the year when I came across them (October and November)
I saw several young ones in the herds. The banks of the Tana River are
fringed with a thin belt of forest, then the ground rises slightly and
one sees extensive plains dotted here and there with large patches of
bush, composed principally of euphorbias and aloes. The Lesser Koodoo
(_Strepsiceros imberbis_) lives principally in these patches,
and feeds outside of them in the early mornings and evenings. When I
first saw the new Antelope I was stalking two examples of _Gazella
walleri_, and though I saw the Hunter’s Antelope in the distance I
mistook them for Impálas, which, however, are not found on the Tana on
either bank.
“It was only when I fired at the Gazelles, and the Hunter’s Antelopes
(a pair of young males) ran away, that I noticed that they were
something new to me. They ran with rather a heavy gallop, like a
Hartebeest. I then had a very long track after them, and managed to
kill the young male which I first sent you.
“We did not come across these Antelopes again for some days, but then
met with them in large numbers and got several specimens. They seemed
to me to have more vitality than any other Antelope I have ever killed.
This species certainly does not extend down to the coast, but we saw
them as far as the furthest point we reached (about 250 miles) up the
river, at a place called Mussa. Their Galla name is ‘_Herola_,’
not ‘_Haranta_’ as given in your original description.”
_May, 1894._
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. VII.
_Wolf del. Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._
The Korrigum.
DAMALISCUS KORRIGUM.
_Published by R. H. Porter._]
10. THE KORRIGUM.
DAMALISCUS KORRIGUM (OGILB.).
[PLATE VII.]
_Antilope senegalensis_, =Children=, Denh. & Clapp. Trav., App.
p. 192 (1826) (_nec_ Cuv.); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Suppl. v. p. 447
(1855).
_Damalis senegalensis_, =Ham. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p.
351, v. p. 363 (1827); =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 233
(1846); =id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 59 (1847); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850,
p. 140; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 21, pl. xxi. (♀) (1850); =Gerr.=
Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 244 (1862); =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt.
1, p. 181 (1869); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 45 (1872); =id.=
Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 115 (1873); =Matschie=, Nat. Wochenschr.
1894, p. 417.
_Antilope korrigum_, =Ogilb.= P. Z. S. 1836, p. 103.
_Damalis korrigum_, =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 158 (1843);
=id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 145 (1847).
_Bubalis senegalensis_, =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 195 (1853);
=Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 217, plate (animal) (1880).
_Alcelaphus senegalensis_, =Lyd.= Field, lxxvii. p. 858 (1891).
_Bubalis korrigum_, =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 201 (1893).
VERNACULAR NAME:--_Korrigum_ in Bornou (_Denham & Clapperton_).
Size medium. General colour reddish fawn, with distinct black patches
on face, shoulders, hips, and thighs. No dorsal dark line, and no dark
markings on feet. Tail barely reaching to hock, its terminal third with
a blackish crest along the top.
Skull heavily built; its basal length (♂) 14·8 inches, greatest breadth
5·7, muzzle to eye 10·8.
Horns thick, rising abruptly upwards and backwards from the skull, and
evenly curving backwards, diverging as they go; their extreme tips
showing a tendency to be recurved upwards. Good male horns are of a
length over the curves of 21 inches.
This and the two next species are very closely allied in all their
essential characters; but their colour-differences appear to be
sufficiently constant in their respective localities to entitle them to
specific recognition.
_Hab._ Senegambia and the interior of West Africa.
The Antelope described by Buffon, in his ‘Histoire Naturelle,’ as
the “Koba”[7] or “Grande Vache Brune” of Senegal, has proved a great
stumbling-block to naturalists. This has been largely due to the fact
that Buffon appended to his description of the Koba the figure of some
horns from a totally different source, and clearly of a different
animal, which, indeed, we believe to have been simply those of the
Pallah (_Æpyceros melampus_). Not noticing this confusion, many
good authorities have identified the Koba with the present species,
while others have been inclined to refer it, owing to the figure of
the horns erroneously given by Buffon, to the Bontebok of the Cape and
to other Antelopes. The description by itself is quite unrecognizable,
and under the circumstances, as the matter must ever remain uncertain,
the best course seems to be to ignore Buffon’s animal altogether,
and to reject the specific names _koba_ and _senegalensis_
that have been founded upon it; although there can be no doubt that
the Korrigum, as now described, is the _Antilope_ and _Damalis
senegalensis_ of Children, Hamilton Smith, Gray, and many other
authors.
This being decided, the proper name to adopt for this Antelope will be
_korrigum_ of Ogilby. Ogilby proposed this name in a communication
made to the Zoological Society of London in 1836, basing it on the head
and horns brought home from Bornou by Denham and Clapperton on their
return from their celebrated expedition into Central Africa in 1822–24.
This skull is still in the collection of the British Museum.
About the year 1840 Whitfield, a collector employed by Lord Derby to
procure living animals for his private Menagerie, obtained specimens
of the Korrigum from the vicinity of Macarthy’s Island on the River
Gambia, and brought them safely to Knowsley. Here they seem to have
thriven and reproduced their kind, for on reference to the ‘Gleanings’
(published in 1850) there will be found a beautiful coloured figure by
Waterhouse Hawkins of a mother and young of this Antelope drawn from
life. It is a great misfortune that so few records were ever kept or,
at all events, ever published of the many fine and rare animals living
in this splendid collection. In the Derby Museum, now at Liverpool, are
two mounted specimens of this Antelope--we believe the only perfect
examples in this country. They are, no doubt, individuals formerly
living in the Knowsley Menagerie.
Herr Matschie is inclined to believe that certain specimens of a
_Damaliscus_ recently obtained by German collectors on the north
and west of Lake Victoria should be referred to the present species,
and not to _D. jimela_. This, if correct, would indicate a much
greater extension of the area of the Korrigum towards the east than we
should consider to be probable, and further evidence on the subject is
much wanted.
Besides the skulls of both sexes obtained in Bornou by Denham and
Clapperton, there are other skulls of this species in the National
Collection, procured by Whitfield on the Gambia, and, more recently, in
the same district by Dr. Percy Rendall. We much regret that we have no
further details to offer upon this fine and interesting Antelope, of
the life-history of which, as is the case with most of the West-African
Antelopes, we know exceedingly little. The figure of this species
(Plate VII.) was put upon the stone by Mr. Smit from a drawing by Mr.
Wolf, probably taken from the specimens at Liverpool; but upon this
point we are not quite certain.
_January, 1895._
11. THE TIANG.
DAMALISCUS TIANG (HEUGL.).
_Bubalus lunatus_, =Sund.= K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1842, pp. 201 &
243 (1843) (_nec_ Burch.).
_Bubalis koba_, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844, p. 209
(1846); =id.= Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p.
159; Reprint, p. 83 (1848) (_nec_ Erxl.).
_Damalis tiang_, =Heugl.= Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act.
Leopold. xxx. pt. ii.) p. 22, pl. 1. fig. 1 (head) (♂) (1863);
=Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 181 (1869); =Matsch.= SB. nat.
Freund. Berl. 1892, p. 136 (distribution).
_Damalis tiang-riel_, =Heugl.= tom. cit. p. 23, pl. ii. fig. 9
(horns) (♀); =Fitz.= loc. cit.
_Damalis senegalensis_, =Heugl.= tom. cit. p. 22; =Gray=, Ann.
Mag. N. H. (3) iv. p. 296 (1859) (Bahr-el-Ghazal, Petherick);
=Baker=, Ismailia, pp. 68, 74.
_Antilope senegalensis_, =Emin=, Reise-Briefen, p. 144 (Magungo)
(?).
VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Tiang_ and _Tian_ (_Heuglin_).
Size rather smaller than that of the Korrigum. General colour purplish
red; the face, a line beneath the eye, another along the nape and back
brown or black; front of the limbs and tip of the tail deep black.
Skull with a comparatively short nasal region, the nasal bones
themselves unusually short and broad. Measurements (♀):--basal length
13·8 inches, greatest breadth 5·75, muzzle to eye 10·2.
Horns as in the Korrigum; those of a female 20·5 inches in length over
the curve.
The colour-characters above given are taken from Heuglin’s description
and figure, as no skin has been seen by us. A skull obtained by Consul
Petherick on the Bahr-el-Ghazal has, however, furnished the cranial
dimensions.
_Hab._ Sennaar, Kordofan, and Bahr-el-Ghazal.
The Tiang, as the well-known German traveller and naturalist Theodor
von Heuglin proposed to call this Antelope, after its native name, is
a representative form of the Korrigum in the upper valley of the Nile,
and, so far as we are acquainted with it at present, agrees in all
essential respects with its West-African ally, except in its slightly
smaller bulk, and some differences in the black markings on the face
and limbs. The Tiang, Topi, and Korrigum have been until lately
generally regarded as conspecific; but in 1892 Herr Paul Matschie, of
the Royal Natural History Museum of Berlin, came to the conclusion
that previous authors had been in error in uniting the present animal
and its allied forms of West and East Africa respectively under one
head, and that they should be distinguished as different species. We
follow Herr Matschie’s lead on this question, and have little doubt
that his views will ultimately prove to be correct, although, from
the great scarcity of specimens of all these Antelopes in European
collections, it is not possible at present to arrive at a positive
decision.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.
Skull of _Damaliscus tiang_, ♀.]
The Stockholm Museum appears to have been the first to receive examples
of this Antelope; but Sundevall referred them first of all to the
Sassaby (_Bubalis lunata_), and, when he found that this was quite
wrong, named them _Bubalis koba_, supposing them to be identical
with the West-African Korrigum. Sundevall’s specimens were received
from Sennaar, and are accurately described in his classical memoir on
the “Pecora.”
As already mentioned, v. Heuglin met with this Antelope during
his lengthened explorations on the Upper Nile and its affluents.
He described it in his memoir on the Antelopes and Buffaloes of
North-east Africa (published in 1863 in the ‘Nova Acta’ of the
Leopoldino-Carolinian Academy) as _Damalis tiang_, and tells us
that it is one of the commonest Antelopes on the Sobat, Ghasal, and Kir
rivers. He gives a coloured figure of its head. Whether v. Heuglin’s
_Damalis tiang-riel_, described in the same memoir (based on some
horns from the Bahr el Abiad), is referable to the Tiang is not quite
certain, but Sclater, who has examined the horns upon which the species
was founded, now in the Naturalien-Cabinet of Stuttgardt, believes them
to be so.
The only other explorer of these distant regions who has sent home
examples of the Tiang is, so far as we know, Petherick, from whom
skulls of an immature male and an adult female of this Antelope were
received by the British Museum in 1859. The latter are represented in
the accompanying figure (fig. 8).
Besides Petherick, Sir Samuel Baker appears to have met with the Tiang
during his journey along the Upper Nile (see ‘Ismailia,’ i. pp. 68–74);
and the _Antilope senegalensis_ of Emin Pasha (‘Reise-Briefen,’
p. 144), which he encountered near Magungo, on the Albert Nyanza, may
probably be referable to this species.
_January, 1895._
12. THE TOPI.
DAMALISCUS JIMELA (MATSCH.).
_Damalis senegalensis_, =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1886, p. 176 (Lamu);
=Noack=, Zool. JB. ii. p. 208 (1887); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1890,
p. 354 (woodcuts of head and horns, excl. all synonyms, which
mostly belong to _D. korrigum_ and _D. tiang_); =Kirk=, ap.
=Scl.= l. c. p. 357, footnote (distribution); =Ward=, Horn Meas.
p. 64, fig. (head) (1892).
_Damalis jimela_, =Matsch.= SB. nat. Fr. Berl. 1892, p. 135.
_Bubalis jimeru_, =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 203 (1893).
_Alcelaphus senegalensis_, =Lugard=, E. Africa, i. p. 532, pl.
p. 448 (head) (1893).
_Senegal Antelope_, =Willoughby=, East Afr. p. 283 (Tana River).
VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Jimela_ of Uniamwezi (_Matschie_); _Topi_,
_Tope_, or _Topee_ of Swahili; _Nemira_ of Uganda (_Lugard_).
Size small, height at withers 43–44 inches. Fur very short and close,
but mingled with it there are numerous patches of longer hairs, so that
a somewhat brindled appearance is produced. General colour a peculiar
purplish brown, blackish on face and chin, shoulders, and round the
upper fore legs and thighs, but these darker markings are not really
black and are not sharply defined. Hams scarcely lighter than the rest.
Limbs and feet without dark patches, except that the backs of the
pasterns are black. Fur on face directed upwards, from the extreme tip
between the nostrils up to the horns, without break. Tail reaching just
to the hock, its terminal half black-crested.
Skull comparatively small, with an unusually long nasal region; the
nasal bones very long and narrow. Basal length (♀) 13·3 inches,
greatest breadth 5·2, muzzle to orbit 9·5.
Horns as in the Korrigum, but shorter and slenderer; those of a female
16·4 inches in length.
_Hab._ British East-African coast, from the River Juba to the
River Sabaki, and extending thence into Uganda and Uniamwezi.
The “Topi,” as we propose to designate another local representative
of the Korrigum, from the native name given to it by the Swahili, has
been known for some years to the sportsmen who have visited British and
German East Africa as an abundant Antelope in certain districts, and
has been generally called by them the “Senegal Antelope,” from being
supposed to be the same as the “Korrigum.” But, as Herr Matschie first
pointed out, it differs from the typical Senegal form in the absence of
the black band on the inner side of the thigh, in the front legs being
black down to the hoofs, and in the restriction of the black on the
hinder flanks to the hips.
So far as we know, Sir John Kirk, then Consul-General at Zanzibar,
was the first to obtain examples of this fine Antelope on the East
Coast. Sir John has kindly supplied us with the following notes on this
species:--
“The ‘Tope,’ or Senegal Antelope, was very common on the maritime plain
of Formosa Bay when I first went to Zanzibar in 1866; before I left, in
1886, it had become rather rare near the coast. On the maritime plain
it used to be seen in numerous herds of from 5 to 20. The herds of
Tope generally kept alone, but you would see the herds of _Gazella
granti_ grazing near by. I am, however, not satisfied that this
Gazelle was the real _Gazella granti_, for the horns seem to show
a permanent difference of sweep.
“However, to return to the Tope, I may say that I shot it again on the
south bank of the River Juba.
“The River Sabaki (near Malindi) is, so far as I know, the southern
limit of the species _on the coast_; I have little doubt that
further inland it may be met with further south, just as you find the
Oryx, the Vulturine Guinea-fowl, and other species (which never occur
south of the River Sabaki _on the coast_), to be common if you go
inland, and in a latitude far south of Malindi, such as at Mpwapwa in
Usagara.
“The Tope was at one time so common near Witu, and in the district
about Lamu, as to supply a considerable number of hides that were
exported from Zanzibar.”
In 1885 Mr. F. J. Jackson obtained examples of this Antelope near Lamu,
and transmitted to Lord Walsingham a head, which Sclater exhibited at
one of the Zoological Society’s meetings in 1886. During his subsequent
stay in British East Africa and on his journey to Uganda Mr. Jackson
again met with this Antelope, and tells us (‘Big Game Shooting,’ vol.
i. p. 291) that it is the “commonest species in the Galla country, and
ranges from the coast right away N.E. to Uganda, passing round to the
north of Mount Kenia, but is not known either in Leikipia or south of
Lake Baringo.”
[Illustration: Fig. 9.
Skull of _Damaliscus jimela_, from Lamu.
(P. Z. S. 1890, p. 356.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 9 _a_.
Head of _Damaliscus jimela_, from Malindi.
(P. Z. S. 1890, p. 355.)]
In 1890 Sclater exhibited at one of the meetings of the Zoological
Society a head of this Antelope obtained near Malindi by Commander
Montgomerie, R.N.
At that time Sclater did not distinguish between this species and
the two allied forms, and referred them all three to _Damalis
senegalensis_, which he believed to extend from Senegal to the east
coast.
Mr. Ernest Gedge, the companion of Mr. Jackson in his Uganda
expedition, has favoured us with the following interesting notes on
this Antelope:--
“Though the Topee ranges over a very wide extent of the country in
the sphere of British East Africa, it is met with in no great numbers
between the coast and the Victoria Lake. The nearest point to the
coast-line at which I have seen and obtained specimens was a short
distance north of Kikumbuliu, on the borders of the Kiboko River. In
this district it is only occasionally met with, and is generally found
in company with Hartebeest. Further north, in the vast plains amongst
the stony hills of Turquel and Karamojo, and round the bases of Mts.
Elgon and Lekakisera, it is fairly common, scattered in twos and threes
amongst the herds of Hartebeest. Further northwards, in the countries
lying to the west and north of Uganda proper, and indeed throughout
the whole district bordering the Victoria Nyanza in this direction,
it is very common, and on one occasion when traversing a plain of
considerable extent in the district of Buddu I encountered several fine
herds of this Antelope. It differs very little from the Hartebeest in
its general habits, and, like them, it is usually shy and difficult to
approach. It is easily distinguished from the latter species by the
rich dark bluish-brown coat, the smaller head, and the shape of its
horns, which have, on more than one occasion, caused it to be mistaken
for the Sable Antelope (_Hippotragus niger_). It appears to be
equally at home in swampy localities as on the dry open plains, though
it shows a certain partiality for those districts which afford some
cover.”