according to Herr Matschie, was met with by Böhm in Uniamwezi, south
of Lake Victoria. Here it is the “Jimela” of the natives, which term
Herr Matschie has adopted as its specific designation. In a recent
letter, however, Herr Matschie tells Sclater that the specimens of this
Antelope lately obtained by Herr Oscar Neumann in Kavirondo and other
localities west of Lake Victoria, and by Lieut. Werther on the Rovana
Steppe near Speke Gulf, more nearly resemble _D. korrigum_ of the
West Coast, but it seems to us hardly possible that the western form
should extend so far.
It is certain, however, that we have much more to learn concerning the
distribution of this Antelope and its allied forms before the question
of their specific relations and the areas which they respectively
occupy can be deemed settled.
Besides the skull from the Juba, received from Sir John Kirk, the
British Museum possesses a mounted specimen of the adult male of this
Antelope obtained by Mr. Jackson in the Kilimanjaro district in 1893,
and a flat skin procured by the same gentleman near Malindi.
_January, 1895._
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. VIII
The Bontebok.
DAMALISCUS PYGARGUS.
_Published by R. H. Porter._
_Wolf del. Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._]
13. THE BONTEBOK.
DAMALISCUS PYGARGUS (PALL.).
[PLATE VIII.]
_Antilope dorcas_, =Pall.= Misc. Zool. p. 6 (1766) (nec _Capra
dorcas_, L.).
_Antilope pygarga_, =Pall.= Spic. Zool. fasc. i. p. 10 (1767),
fasc. xii. p. 15 (1777); =Erxl.= Syst. R. A. p. 287 (1777);
=Zimm.= Geogr. Gesch. ii. p. 119 (1780); =Gatt.= Brev. Zool.
i. p. 82 (1780); =Schreb.= Säug. pl. cclxxiii. (1784); =Bodd.=
Elench. Anim. p. 143 (1785); =Gmel.= Linn. S. N. i. p. 187
(1788); =Kerr=, Linn. An. K. p. 311 (1792); =Donnd.= Zool.
Beytr. p. 628 (1792); =Bechst.= Uebers. vierf. Thiere, i. p. 87,
ii. p. 644 (1800); =Shaw=, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, p. 352 (1801);
=Turt.= Linn. S. N. i. p. 113 (1802); =Desm.= N. Dict. d’H. N.
(1) xxiv. tabl. p. 33 (1804); =G. Cuv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p.
233 (1804); =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freund. Berl. vi. p. 166 (1814);
=G. Fisch.= Zoogn. iii. p. 435 (1814); =Afzel.= N. Act. Upsal.
vii. p. 220 (1815); =Desm.= N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 186
(1816); =Goldf.= in Schreb. Säug. v. p. 1187 (1820); =Schinz=,
Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 388 (1821); =Desm.= Mamm. ii. p. 456 (1822);
=Desmoul.= Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. p. 443 (1822); =Burch.= List
Quadr. pres. to B. M. p. 5 (1825) (Swellendam); =Less.= Man.
Mamm. p. 373 (1827); =Smuts=, Enum. Mamm. Cap. p. 73 (1832);
=Waterh.= Cat. Mamm. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 41 (1838); =Wagn.= Schr.
Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 412 (1844), v. p. 447 (1855); =Schinz=, Syn.
Mamm. ii. p. 402 (1845).
_Capra cervicapra_, =Müll.= Naturs. i. p.414 (1773) (_nec_ L.).
_Antilope grisea_, =Bodd.= Elench. Anim. p. 139 (1785).
_Capra scripta_, =Thunb.= Resa, ii. p. 50 (1789); Engl. Transl.
ii. p. 44 (1793) (_nec_ _Antilope scripta_, Pall.).
_Antilope maculata_, =Thunb.= Mém. Ac. Pétersb. iii. p. 315
(1811).
_Cerophorus (Gazella) pygarga_, =Blainv.= Bull. Soc. Philom.
1816, p. 75.
_Cemas pygargus_, =Oken=, Lehrb. Naturgesch. iii. pt. 2, p. 738
(1816).
_Antilope personata_, =Woods=, Zool. Journ. v. p. 2 (1835)
(young).
_Gazella pygarga_, =Harr.= Wild Anim. S. Afr. (fol.) pl. xvii.
(animal) (1840); =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 161 (1843).
_Damalis pygarga_, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 233
(1846); =id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 59 (1847); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850,
p. 141; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 21, pl. xx. fig. 3 (young), pl.
xxii. figs. 2 & 3 (adult) (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 127
(1852); =Layard=, Cat. S. Afr. Mus. p. 77 (1861); =Gerr.= Cat.
Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 244 (1862); =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt.
1, p. 181 (1869); =Layard=, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 625, footnote
(scarcity); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 45, pl. iii. fig. 6
(skull) (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 116 (1873); =Jent.=
Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 140 (1887); =id.=
Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 171 (1892); =Nicolls &
Egl.= Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 32, pl. vii. fig. 27 (head) (1892).
_Bubalis pygarga_, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844,
p. 209 (1846); =id.= ibid. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand.
Beitr. ii. p. 159; Reprint, p. 84 (1848); =Temm.= Esq. Zool.
Guin. p. 195 (1852); =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 217 (1880);
=Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 69 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 202
(1893).
_Alcelaphus pygargus_, =Scl.= List Anim. Z. S. (8) p. 150
(1883); =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Ost. Coll. Surg. p. 273 (1884);
=Bryden=, Kloof and Karroo, p. 295 (1889); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p.
335 (1891).
_White-faced Antelope_, =Penn.= Hist. of Quad. i. p. 82.
VERNACULAR NAME:--_Bontebok_ of Dutch and English colonists.
Height at withers about 40 inches. Ground-colour of body, as seen on
the anterior half of the back, rufous fawn. Crown, sides of face and
neck, flanks, thighs, and the anterior half of the rump darkened nearly
or quite to black, which colour also runs down the limbs to the knee
and hock, where it passes as a dark ring right round the limbs. Face
with a large strongly contrasted blaze of pure white, which covers the
whole breadth of its upper surface on the muzzle, but is much narrower
above the eyes, where it runs up to the bases of the horns. In the
young the facial blaze is simply brown. Posterior half of rump, base of
tail, belly, and lower limbs also white. Terminal half of tail, which
reaches just to the hock, black-crested.
Hairs of face reversed upwards to horns. No glandular suborbital
brushes.
Skull narrow and lightly built, its measurements about as in the next
species.
Horns somewhat like those of _D. korrigum_ and its allies, but
their bases more compressed and twisted inwards towards each other in
front; above they curve evenly backwards and outwards, their terminal
five or six inches again gently recurved upwards. Their ridges are 15
or 16 in number, very prominent in front, less so on the sides and
behind; their substance is quite black. In length they attain 15 or 16
inches, with a basal circumference of about 6.
_Hab._ Cape Colony, south of Vaal River (now nearly extinct).
The “Bontebok,” or “Pied Goat,” of the Dutch colonists of the Cape, was
amongst the earliest Antelopes known to science. In his first essay on
the genus _Antilope_, published in 1766, Pallas described it as
_Antilope dorcas_, having confounded it with the _Dorcas_
of Ælian. But in his second essay upon the same group, issued in
the following year, he selected for it the very appropriate name
_pygarga_, by which it has been generally known ever since. The
Bontebok and Blessbok together constitute a distinct section of the
present genus, readily known from their congeners by their smaller
stature and conspicuous white faces.
Lichtenstein, in his celebrated memoir on the genus _Antilope_,
published at Berlin in 1814, made _Antilope pygarga_ the tenth
species of the genus, and gave original particulars of it from
specimens which he had himself obtained during his visit to South
Africa. He states, however, that this animal is the _Blessbok_,
and not the _Bontebok_, of the Cape; and there can be no doubt
that both these names have been applied to it, though the former term
is now by general consent restricted to the next following species,
_Damaliscus albifrons_. For example, Smuts, in his ‘Enumeratio
Mammalium Capensium,’ gives both “Bontebok” and “Blessbok” as the
colonial names of the present species. In fact these animals were never
correctly discriminated till Harris gave figures and descriptions
of them in his ‘Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of Southern
Africa,’ published in 1840.
Harris tells us that in his time the Bontebok was “common” in the
interior of the Cape Colony, and was also found in one valley near Cape
Agulhas. On the plains lying south of the Vaal River he visited the
headquarters of the Bontebok, where “thousands upon thousands were seen
and numbers were daily slain.” They were frequently seen congregated on
the salt-flats, near the stagnant pools of brackish water, licking up
the crystallized efflorescence.
Thirty years later a very different tale was told of the Bontebok,
which by that date had become nearly extinct except in one isolated
spot. Mr. E. L. Layard (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 625) gives the following
account of this animal at that period:--“The Bontebok is very nearly
exterminated, and, but for the fostering care of Messrs. Breda and Van
der Byl, would be quite so in a couple of years.
“They are now confined to one spot in the extreme south of the
continent of South Africa, to a portion of the country called the
‘Strand Veldt.’ It is an extensive flat, bordered by the sea on the
south-west, south, and south-east, and by a range of undulating country
or low hills rising to the Caledon Ranges and Zwart Bergen on the
northern side. It is, in fact, the nearest plateau to the L’Agulhas
Bank, and is called ‘Cape L’Agulhas.’ The whole of this country belongs
chiefly to the families of Breda and Van der Byl; and they preserve the
animals as much as they can. A Government permit is also required to
shoot them, which must be visa’d by the magistrate at Bredasdorp, the
name of the village on this range of land.
“They are, however, poached and destroyed by one or two small holders,
who have patches of land surrounded by the large properties, and who
refuse all offers of purchase, and plant corn on purpose to tempt the
animals into it, and then at night shoot them. They roam in herds of
about eight or ten, or twenty; but sometimes fine old bucks are found
solitary. They are usually shot from a cart, which they will suffer to
approach them, or from horseback. If wounded and approached they will
charge desperately; and I have heard of a Hottentot being killed by
them thus.”
Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington in their ‘Sportsman in South Africa,’
which contains the most recent account of the Antelopes of the Colony,
tell us that the Bontebok can no longer “be considered as a part of the
wild game of the country,” as it now exists only on Van der Byl’s farm
(as mentioned by Mr. Layard) and has become totally extinct elsewhere.
Mr. H. A. Bryden, a well-known authority upon the game of the Cape,
tells us the same story. One of the last resorts of this Antelope was
the Bontebok Flats, to the north of the present Queenstown district,
where a few of these Antelopes existed up to 1851. It appears certain,
however, that except in the farm above mentioned, where a few have been
carefully preserved for many years, the Bontebok is, at the present
time, an extinct animal.
The Bontebok was amongst the many splendid Antelopes that were to be
seen in the celebrated Knowsley Menagerie, and which bred in that
establishment. The young is figured in one of Waterhouse Hawkins’s
large plates in the ‘Gleanings,’ and the adult pair in another plate
along with the Blessbok.
At the dispersal of the Knowsley collection in 1851 a pair of adult
Bonteboks were purchased by Mr. D. W. Mitchell, then Secretary, for the
Zoological Society of London, whilst another pair, bred at Knowsley,
were sold to Prince Demidoff.
In August 1871 two females of this Antelope were brought home alive
by the Captain of one of the Cape mail-steamers, and purchased by the
Zoological Society for £50. So far as I know, these were the last
Bonteboks ever brought to Europe.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.
_Damaliscus pygargus._]
In the National Collection, we regret to say, the Bontebok is only
represented by a single stuffed specimen--a male, received in 1839 from
Dr. Smuts. There are also several skulls and horns of this Antelope,
but none of them are of recent date. We fear it will now be a matter
of some difficulty to obtain fresh specimens of this once so abundant
Antelope.
The coloured illustration of the Bontebok (Plate VIII.) and the woodcut
(fig. 10) were both prepared under Sir Victor Brooke’s directions. The
plate was lithographed by Smit from one of Mr. Wolf’s sketches.
_January, 1895._
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. IX.
_Wolf del Smit lith_ _Hanhart imp._
The Blessbok
DAMALISCUS ALBIFRONS
_Published by R. H. Porter._]
14. THE BLESSBOK.
DAMALISCUS ALBIFRONS (BURCH.).
[PLATE IX.]
_Antilope albifrons_, =Burch.= Travels, ii. p. 335 (1824);
=Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Supp. iv. p. 413 (1844), v. p. 448 (1855).
_Gazella albifrons_, =Harris=, Wild Anim. S. Afr. (fol.) pl.
xxi. (animal) (1840).
_Damalis albifrons_, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 233
(1846); =id.= P.Z. S. 1850, p. 141; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 22,
pl. xxii. fig. 1 (animal) (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 129
(1852); =id.= Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 45 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum.
B. M. p. 116 (1873); =Layard=, Cat. S. Afr. Mus. p. 77 (1861);
=Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 181 (1869); =Drummond=, Large
Game S. Afr. p. 425 (1875); =Nicolls & Egl.= Sportsm. S. Afr. p.
31, pl. iii. fig. 9 (head) (1892); =Jent.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus.
(Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 171 (1892).
_Bubalis albifrons_, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844,
p. 210 (1846); =id.= ibid. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand.
Beitr. ii. p. 159; Reprint, p. 84 (1848); =Temm.= Esq. Zool.
Guin. p. 195 (1853); =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 217 (1880);
=Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 68 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 202
(1893).
_Alcelaphus albifrons_, =Buckley=, P. Z. S. 1876, pp. 286, 292
(distribution); =Scl.= List Anim. Z. S. (8) p. 149 (1883);
=Bryden=, Kloof and Karroo, p. 295 (1889); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm.
p. 335 (1891).
VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Blessbok_ of Dutch and English colonists;
_Nunni_ of Bechuana natives (_Harris_); _Inoni_ of Kaffirs
(_Drummond_); _Inoni_ or _Inpemfu_ of Zulus (_Rendall_).
Similar to _D. pygargus_ in nearly every respect; but the rufous
ground-colour is much more widely extended, owing to the parts which
are black in that animal being here scarcely darker than the rest.
White blaze on face divided into two parts by a narrow line between the
eyes. Posterior half of rump not prominently white, a small area only
round the base of the tail slightly paler than the rest.
Skull and horns as in _D. pygargus_, except that the latter are of
a more or less whitish colour.
Skull-measurements of a male:--basal length 11·5 inches, greatest
breadth 5·1, muzzle to orbit 8·3.
_Hab._ Northern plains of Cape Colony, Orange Free State,
Transvaal, and Bechuana-land (now nearly extinct).
The Blessbok, so called from the white blaze on its forehead (“_bles_”
in Dutch), is of exactly the same form and general appearance as the
Bontebok, so that these two close allies have often been confounded
together. But the present species is at once distinguishable by the
absence of the broad anal white disk above the tail, which ornaments
the Bontebok, and by the paler colour of the sides and flanks.
Whether Burchell, whose scientific term “_albifrons_” has been
universally adopted for the Blessbok, really intended to affix that
name to the present species or to the Bontebok, is, to say the best of
it, very doubtful. As we have already stated, both the vernacular names
“Blessbok” and “Bontebok” were occasionally applied by the Boers to
_Damaliscus pygargus_, and therefore, although Burchell expressly
invented his name “_albifrons_” for what he called the “Blessbok,”
he equally intended by that term to designate the long-known Bontebok,
from which he did not distinguish the Blessbok. It so happened,
however, that this was done in reference to a specimen of the latter,
so that his name has been rightly retained for it. As we have pointed
out in the previous article, these two near allies were first correctly
discriminated by Harris, and it is therefore in any case wise to
abide by his decision as to their proper names, both scientific and
vernacular. Indeed Harris’s lead on this difficult question has been
generally followed.
In Harris’s days, 1836–37, the Blessbok inhabited “the elevated tracts
to the eastward of the Colony known as the Bontebok Flats,” and was
found on the great plains south of the Vaal River in “astounding
herds.” Here it was that his first introduction to this splendid
Antelope took place. Harris gives us a graphic account of how he lost
himself in the wilderness when engaged in the pursuit of these herds
and barely escaped with his life.
“The absence of fuel shortly obliged us to continue our march
over a succession of salt-pans, upon which numerous great herds
of Blessboks were busily licking the crystallized efflorescence.
Alarmed at the approach of our cavalcade, vast troops of them were
continually sweeping past against the wind, carrying their broad
white noses close to the ground like a pack of harriers in full cry.
Having never obtained any specimens of this species, and our stock of
provisions, moreover, grievously requiring to be recruited, I mounted
_Breslar_, my favourite Rosinante, and, little heeding whither I
sped, dashed into the very thick of the Antelopes. The pine-apple hill
bearing east about five miles, must, I concluded, prove a never-failing
landmark to direct my return to the road, which, however faint it
had become, could still readily be distinguished by a practised eye.
Dealing death around, I thus continued to scour the ensanguined plain,
and to use my pleasure with the herd before me, which had in the
meantime increased from hundreds to thousands--reinforcements still
pouring in from all directions when, crying ‘hold, enough,’ I stayed
my hand from slaughter, and having divested some of the primest of
their brilliant party-coloured robes, I packed the _spolia_ on my
horse, and, well satisfied with my performance, set out to rejoin the
waggons. But ah! vainly was it that I sought for them. Cantering to and
fro between the string of frosted salt-pans and the little hill, which,
floating in the sea of mirage that environed it, seemed as though
poised in the sky, again and again I strained my eyes for the road.
The monotony of the landscape baffled all attempts at recognition, and
my search proved utterly fruitless. Every feature of the scene was
precisely the same--the table mountains were completely obscured by the
midday haze--and in the constant recurrence of similar forms, I lost
the points of the compass, and at last became totally bewildered.”
In fact it took Harris on this occasion nearly three days and three
nights wandering before he managed to rejoin his waggons.
At the present time these mighty herds have altogether vanished. So
late as 1861 Mr. E. L. Layard wrote that the Blessbok was “still found
in considerable herds on the north-eastern border of Colony.” But in
1889 Mr. Bryden (‘Kloof and Karroo’) tells us that this Antelope had
become quite extinct within the limits of Capeland. Messrs. Nicolls and
Eglington, however, inform us that the Blessbok is still to be found on
some farms in the Transvaal, and in one or two spots in the Orange Free
State. “Previous to Sir Charles Warren’s Expedition in 1884 they were
fairly common on the open flats in Southern Bechuanaland, particularly
in the neighbourhood of Groot Choiang, and also in the district of
Rhamathlabama, a few miles north of Mafeking. They are now practically
extinct there, an occasional troop only straying into that district
from the preserved farms in the Transvaal.”
[Illustration: Fig. 11.
_Damaliscus albifrons._]
Of the Blessbok, so far as I know, Lord Derby never procured for the
Knowsley Menagerie but a single female, which was figured by Waterhouse
Hawkins on the same plate of the ‘Gleanings’ as the Bonteboks. At
the sale of the Knowsley Menagerie in August 1851, this animal was
purchased by Mr. Westermann for the Zoological Society of Amsterdam.
In 1861 the Zoological Society of London received, as a present from
Sir George Grey, then Governor of the Cape Colony, a single female of
this Antelope along with other valuable animals. A male of the same
species was obtained by purchase in 1862 and a female about two years
later. These animals throve and bred in the Society’s Gardens, and
young ones were born in 1866, 1869, and 1870. But in the absence of
fresh importations the whole stock was lost, and no Blessboks have
been exhibited in the Society’s Gardens since 1880, when a single
specimen was received “on deposit.” In many of the continental gardens
also Blessboks were formerly to be seen, but of late years they have
become extremely scarce; although we are informed that there are
still solitary examples living at Berlin, Antwerp, and Amsterdam, and
Mr. Reiche kindly tells us that he imported three females from the
Transvaal this summer.
In the National Collection at the British Museum the Blessbok, we
regret to say, is even more imperfectly represented than the Bontebok.
Besides a mounted female specimen in bad condition there are only a
few frontlets of this species, so that additional specimens of this
beautiful Antelope, before it becomes quite extinct, would be specially
acceptable.
The drawing of this Antelope (Plate IX.) and the woodcut now given (p.
82) were both prepared under Sir Victor Brooke’s directions. The Plate
was engraved by Smit from one of Mr. Wolf’s sketches.
_January, 1895._
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. X.
_Wolf del. Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._
The Sassaby.
DAMALISCUS LUNATUS.
_Published by R. H. Porter._]
15. THE SASSABY.
DAMALISCUS LUNATUS (BURCH.).
[PLATE X.]
_Sasayby_, =Daniell=, Afr. Sketch, pl. 18 (1820).
_Antilope lunata_, =Burchell=, Travels, ii. p. 334 (1824); =id.=
List Quadr. pres. to B. M. p. 5 (1825) (Makkwarin R., Orange
Free State); =Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 642 (1830); =Wagn.= Schr.
Säug. Supp. iv. p. 471 (1844), v. p. 446 (1855); =Schinz=, Syn.
Mamm. ii. p. 444 (1845); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 298 (1859).
_Damalis lunata_, =Ham. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 352,
plate (copied from Daniell), v. p. 364 (1827); =Smuts=, Enum.
Mamm. Cap. p. 89 (1832); =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p.
233 (1846); =id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 59 (1847); =id.= P. Z.
S. 1850, p. 140; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 21 (1850); =id.= Cat.
Ung. B. M. p. 125 (1852); =Gerr.= Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 244
(1862); =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 180 (1869); =Gray=,
Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 45 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 115
(1873); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p.
139 (1887); =id.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 171
(1892); =Nicolls & Egl.= Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 33, pl. vi. fig. 19
(head) (1892).
_Acronotus lunatus_, =A. Sm.= S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii. p. 222
(1834); =Harr.= Wild An. S. Afr. pl. viii. (1840); =Gray=, List
Mamm. B. M. p. 157 (1843); =id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 59 (1847).
_Bubalus lunatus_, =A. Sm.= Ill. Zool. S. Afr. pl. xxxi.
(animal) (1841).
_Bubalis lunata_, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844,
p. 209 (1846); =id.= ibid. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand.
Beitr. ii. p. 159; Reprint, p. 83 (1848); =Temm.= Esq. Zool.
Guin. p. 195 (1853); =Drummond=, Large Game S. Afr. p. 426
(1875); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 66 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs,
p. 202 (1893); =Selous=, P. Z. S. 1893, p. 1 (hybrid with _B.
caama_).
_Alcelaphus lunatus_, =Buckley=, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 285
(distribution); =Selous=, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 764; =id.= Hunter’s
Wanderings S. Afr. p. 225 (1881); =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Ost.
Coll. Surg. p. 273 (1884).
VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Bastard Hartebeest_ of Cape colonists;
_Sassaybe_ (_Tsess[=e]be_) of Bechuanas, now Anglicized into
_Sassăby_ by sportsmen generally; _Incolomo_ and _Incomazan_ of
Matabili; _Inkweko_ of Masubias; _Unchuru_ of Makubas; _Inyundo_
of Makalakas; _Luchu_ or _Lechu_ of Masaras (_Selous_); _Myunzi_
of Zulus (_Rendall_).
Size large; height at withers nearly 4 feet. General colour dark
chestnut-rufous; front of face, outer sides of shoulders, and hips
black. Chin and end of muzzle paler than cheeks. Belly purplish rufous,
the groins and back of horns only white. Limbs with the dark colour of
shoulders and hips passing round them just above knees and hocks; below
these the legs are all reddish brown. Tail with its tuft reaching to
the hock, its base like the back, its crested terminal half black.
Face-hairs reversed up to horns. No glandular suborbital brushes.
Skull-measurements of an adult male:--basal length 14·9 inches,
greatest breadth 6·2, muzzle to orbit 10·8.
Horns cylindrical, evenly curved, starting outwards and backwards,
gradually turning inwards and backwards. There is also a slight
lyration of the horns, so that both points and bases are directed a
little upwards, the general lunate curve being thereby disturbed.
Good male horns attain a length of 14 or 15 inches, with a basal
circumference of 7 or 8.
_Hab._ S.E. Africa, north of the Orange River up to the Zambesi,
and westward to the district of Lake Ngami.