South-east Africa. Though it certainly belongs to this group, it is
rather isolated by the peculiar form of the horns, which somewhat
resemble those of the Tora. It nearest allies are no doubt the Blessbok
and Bontebok, which, however, it considerably exceeds in stature, being
nearly as big as a Hartebeest.
The first discovery of the Sassaby is due to the researches of the
celebrated African traveller, Dr. William J. Burchell. On the 10th of
July, 1812, when on the Makkwárin River, in what is now the Orange Free
State, Burchell’s hunters obtained a single specimen of an Antelope
which was at once recognized as “new,” and was subsequently described
in the second volume of the author’s ‘Travels’ (published in 1824), as
the “Crescent-horned Antelope, _Antilope lunata_” Burchell states
that it seemed to be an extremely scarce animal, as he never met with
it again during the whole of his journeyings, the fact being that he
had only just entered within the southern boundary of the range of this
species. Burchell’s typical specimen, or rather portions of it, viz.
the frontlet and horns, is still in the National Collection, to which
he presented it.
Between the period of the discovery of the Sassaby by Burchell and the
publication of its description this Antelope attracted the attention
of another observer, Samuel Daniell, an artist who accompanied Dr.
Somerville on two expeditions into the interior of the Cape Colony
early in the present century. One of the copperplates engraved by
William Daniell from the drawings made by his deceased brother Samuel,
and published in 1820, gives a good representation of this species,
which is stated in the accompanying letterpress to be “an Antelope,
heretofore not described, found in the Booshwana country.” But no
further particulars are given of it.
Hamilton-Smith, in his volume on the Ruminants, published in Griffith’s
Translation of Cuvier’s ‘Règne Animal,’ correctly brought together
Daniell’s “Sassaby” and Burchell’s _Antilope lunata_ under one
head and added a copy of Daniell’s figure.
Except in the quotations of its names by various systematists we
find little more recorded of the Sassaby until 1840, when Capt. W.
Cornwallis Harris gave an excellent account of it in his beautiful work
on the ‘Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa.’ This experienced
sportsman and artist devoted one of his life-like plates to the
representation of this Antelope, with which he had made himself well
acquainted. “The Sassaybe,” he tells us, “like its congener, the
Hartebeest, delights in the neighbourhood of hills, frequenting the
open country with island-looking mimosa-groves, as well as the patches
of scraggy forest that skirt the foot of many of the superior mountain
ranges, which, however, neither species ever ascends. Among the parks
of mokaala trees about the Cashan and Kurichane mountains we constantly
saw them.” The painted skins of the Sassaby were in those days, Harris
tells us, “in great request amongst the savages for kobos or leathern
mantles, as well on account of their brilliant colours as from their
extreme suppleness.” In this article of dress, Harris tells us, “the
shining black tail, opened and squeezed flat, was usually fastened
on so as to depend like a queue from the back of the neck, and the
universal admiration in which this elegant appendage was held rendered
its wearer the subject of many a quarrel.”
Very shortly after the publication of Harris’s ‘Portraits,’ Dr.
Andrew Smith published his scientific account of the Sassaby in one
of the numbers of his ‘Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa.’
After an accurate description Dr. Smith well remarks that “between
the appearances of the horns of the Sassaby and the Caama there are
such marked differences, that we must at once conclude that no valid
importance ought to be attached either to the form or direction of
horns in the grouping of species. The subocular glands also differ
materially in these two animals: in the Caama they are covered with
short hair, similar to that of the other parts of the face; in the
Sassaby they are without covering. In the Caama, the last portion of
the tail is completely encircled with hair; in the Sassaby the sides
and upper surface only are so furnished, the under surface being bare.
In general appearance the two animals present a strong resemblance to
each other.” Dr. Smith adds the following note on the habits of this
species:--
“While _B. caama_ seems to prefer the open grassy plains for
its feeding-places, the Sassaby apparently delights to resort to
situations in the vicinity of wood, or to such as are actually
wooded, and in districts of the latter description large herds are
often observed feeding among the dense brushwood without apparent
concern. All the individuals we saw near to Latakoo were vigilant
in watching our motions, and apparently little disposed to trust
themselves within our reach; while those, again, on the other side of
Kurrichane were comparatively tame, and though they did not actually
resist our approach, yet they often continued in the situations in
which we discovered them, until they were quite within the range of
our guns; and even after being fired at they only retreated slowly,
and rarely without frequently turning round as they retired to watch
our movements. Their retreat, after each examination of the kind
mentioned, was commonly preceded by some significant springs or
strange gesticulations, such as are often made by common domestic
cattle when they are put to flight by any object which excites their
alarm. In point of manners, both the Sassaby and the Hartebeest show a
considerable resemblance to the bovine tribe, and, except the Gnu, more
so than any of the other Antelopes.”
Coming to more modern times, Mr. T. E. Buckley, in his excellent
article on the “Geographical Distribution of South-African Mammals,”
read before the Zoological Society of London in 1876, gives us the
subjoined notes of his experience of this species:--“Although, in
Harris’s time, the Sassaybe appears to have been common on the plains,
at the present day it is essentially a bush-loving animal. According
to Dr. A. Smith the Sassabye was rarely known to advance to the south
of Latakoo; at present its southern limit appears to be the Amaswazi
country; along the Limpopo it is very common, and continues so into
the Matabili country up to the Zambesi. The old males do not seem to
associate with the females; nor do they appear so common, as out of
nearly a dozen obtained by us only two were males, and one of these was
immature. We observed very young calves in October. The Sassabye runs
with a peculiar gait, reminding one of a rocking-horse; its shoulders
are very high, sloping away to the rump; it does not seem to be a very
shy animal.”
Five years later the experienced African hunter and naturalist, Mr.
F. C. Selous, in the same Journal, gives us the following notes on
this Antelope:--“In travelling up the centre of South Africa, the
first place in which the Sassaby is to be met with now-a-days is in
the neighbourhood of the Marico River, a tributary of the Limpopo; and
from there it is found throughout Central South Africa wherever I have
been, south of the Zambesi, in all those parts of the country that are
suitable to its habits. I say south of the Zambesi, because during
my journey through the Manica country to the north of that river in
1877–78, although the terrain appeared well suited to its habits and
requirements, I saw none of these Antelopes. I have heard, however,
from the natives that they are very common in the neighbourhood of
Sesheke.
“This Antelope is never found in hilly country or in thick jungle, but
frequents the open downs that are quite free from bush, or else open
forest-country in which treeless glades are to be met with. On the
Mababe Flat at the end of the dry season large herds of these animals
congregate together, and I have often seen, I am sure, several hundreds
of them at once. They are, without exception, the fleetest and most
enduring Antelope in South Africa. In 1879 all the Tsessebe and Blue
Wildebeest cows calved on the northern bank of the Chobe during the
first week in September, whilst on the Mababe Flat, only about one
degree further south, the same animals did not calve before the first
week in November.”
Mr. Bertram L. Sclater, R.E., who was at Beira for a week in April
1892, on his way home from Nyasaland, informs us that he was told in
that town that the Sassaby is one of the commonest Antelopes on the
banks of the Lower Pungwe, and that he was shown several frontlets of
this species said to have been obtained between Beira and Chimoio. So
far as we know, this is the furthest northern locality recorded for
this species, which, as shown by Mr. Selous, does not appear to be
found anywhere north of the Zambesi.
[Illustration: Fig. 12.
Head of supposed hybrid between _Damaliscus lunatus_ and
_Bubalis caama_.
(P. Z. S. 1893, p. 2.)]
At a meeting of the Zoological Society of London in January 1893
Mr. Selous made another interesting communication on this Antelope,
exhibiting a skull which he believed to be that of a hybrid between
it and the Hartebeest. This curious animal was shot in 1890 on the
Tati River, Matabeleland, by Cornelius van Rooyen, a well-known Boer
hunter. While this skull, which is now in the British Museum, closely
resembles that of the Hartebeest, its horns partake of the characters
of both the supposed parents. They stand nearly straight up from the
skull as in the Hartebeest, but are slightly lunate in form and ringed
as in the Sassaby. Mr. Selous was informed that the general colour
of its skin was precisely that of the Sassaby, but that it carried
the comparatively large bushy tail of the Hartebeest. As hybrids
amongst the larger mammals are excessively rare in a wild state,
this occurrence is well worthy of record, and we have to thank the
Zoological Society for kindly permitting us to use their woodcut to
illustrate it.
Besides the typical frontlet of this species in the British Museum,
already mentioned, there are a mounted pair in the Gallery obtained by
Dr. Andrew Smith, and skeletons of both sexes made from specimens shot
on the Manyame River, Mashonaland, by Mr. Selous.
The Sassaby is rarely seen in captivity. So far as we know, the only
specimens ever brought alive to Europe are two females imported by Mr.
C. Reiche, of Alfeld, from the Transvaal in 1888. One of these was sold
to the Amsterdam Gardens (where Sclater inspected it in April 1889),
and the other to the Antwerp Gardens.
Our figure of this species (Plate X.) was put on the stone by Mr. Smit
from a sketch made for Sir Victor Brooke by Mr. Wolf.
_January, 1895._
GENUS III. CONNOCHÆTES.
Type.
_Connochætes_, =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freund. Berl.
vi. p. 152 (1814) C. GNU.
_Cemas_, =Oken=, Lehrb. Naturgesch. iii. Zool.
pt. ii. p. 727 (1816) C. GNU.
_Catoblepas_, =Ham. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv.
p. 366 (1827) C. GNU.
_Gorgon_, =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 139 C. TAURINUS.
_Butragus_, =Bly.= _apud_ Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M.
p. 43 (1872) C. TAURINUS.
Size large, form thick and clumsy; the withers not disproportionately
higher than the rump; head massive, with a broad and bristly muzzle;
face with a large median tuft of thick black hairs uniting the
suborbital tufts; nostrils widely separated, hairy within; neck maned;
hoofs narrow; tail with its tuft reaching nearly to the ground,
long-haired throughout; mammæ four.
Colour grey, brown, or black, the long hairs of the dorsal and throat
manes and of the tail generally black, sometimes white.
Skull broad and heavy, not specially elongated; ends of premaxillæ
expanded.
Horns present in both sexes; thickened and expanded at their bases;
starting outwards or downwards for their proximal halves, their points
abruptly curved upwards.
_Range of the Genus._ South and East Africa.
This genus, that of the curious and eccentric-looking animals known
as Gnus, contains two very different sections, almost worthy of being
considered distinct genera. One of these consists of two closely
allied forms, the Brindled and White-maned Gnu, and the other of the
White-tailed or “Common” Gnu, the most peculiar and specialized of all.
Their differences may be summarized as follows:--
A. Hairs of facial tuft pointing downwards. Horns directed first
outwards and then upwards. Tail black.
_a._ Throat-mane black 1. _C. taurinus_.
_b._ Throat-mane whitish 2. _C. albojubatus_.
B. Hairs of facial tuft pointing upwards. Horns directed first
downwards, and then recurved upwards. Tail white
3. _C. gnu_.
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XI.
_Wolf del. Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._
The Brindled Gnu.
CONNOCHÆTES TAURINUS.
_Published by R. H. Porter_]
16. THE BRINDLED GNU.
CONNOCHÆTES TAURINUS (BURCH.).
[PLATE XI.]
_Antilope gnu_, var., =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freund. Berlin, vi. p.
166 (?).
_Kokoon_, =Daniell=, Afr. Scenery, p. 37 (1820).
_Antilope taurina_, =Burchell=, Travels, ii. p. 278 (1824);
=id.= List Quadr. pres. to B. M. p. 7 (1825) (Maadji Mts.);
=Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 476 (1829); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p.
447 (1845); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 299 (1859).
_Catoblepas taurinus_, =Ham. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 369,
v. p. 368 (1827); =Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 642 (1830); =Smuts=,
Enum. Mamm. Cap. p. 94 (1832); =A. Sm.= S. Afr. Quart. J. ii. p.
233 (1834); =Less.= Compl. Buff. x. p. 305 (1836); =Gray=, List
Mamm. B. M. p. 154 (1843); =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l.
1844, p. 205 (1846); =id.= ibid. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch.
Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 156; Reprint, p. 80 (1848); =A. Sm.= Ill.
Zool. S. Afr. pl. xxxviii. (♀ & yg.) (1849) =Fitz.= SB. Wien,
lix. pt. 1, p. 182 (1869); =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 290, fig.
(animal) (1880).
_Catoblepas gorgon_, =Ham. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 371,
v. p. 369 (1827); =Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 643 (1830); =A. Sm.=
S. Afr. Quart. J. ii. p. 233 (1834); =Less.= Compl. Buff. x. p.
306 (1836); =Harris=, Wild Anim. S. Afr. pl. iv. (1840); =Gray=,
List Mamm. B. M. p. 154 (1843); =id.= Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii.
p. 232 (1846); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850, p. 139; =id.= Knowsl. Men.
p. 20 (1850); =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 195 (1853); =Sclater=,
P. Z. S. 1864, p. 103 (Uzaramo, _Speke_); =Kirk=, P. Z. S.
1864, p. 660 (Zambesia); =Fitz.= loc. cit.; =Drummond=, Large
Game S. Afr. p. 425 (1875); =Selous=, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 764
(distribution); =id.= Hunter’s Wanderings S. Afr. p. 226 (1881);
=Bryden=, Kloof and Karroo, p. 293 (1889).
_Antilope gorgon_, =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Supp. iv. p. 474 (1844),
v. p. 448 (1855); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 446 (1845);
=Peters=, Säug. Mozamb. p. 192 (1852).
_Connochætes gorgon_, =Gray=, Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 121 (1852);
=Gerr.= Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 243 (1862).
_Gorgon fasciatus_, =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 43 (1872); =id.=
Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 114 (1873).
“_Butragus corniculatus_, Blyth, MS.,” =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M.
p. 43 (1872).
_Connochætes gnu_, =Hunter=, in Willoughby’s East Africa, p. 288.
_Connochætes taurinus_, =Scl.= List An. Z. S. (8) p. 150 (1883);
=Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Ost. Coll. Surg. p. 275 (1884); =Jent.=
Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 139 (1887);
=Crawshay=, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 663 (Nyasa); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm.
p. 336 (1891); =Nicolls & Egl.= Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 47, pl. iii.
fig. 8 (head) (1892); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 72, fig. (horns)
(1892); =Jent.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p.
170 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 205, fig. 42 (head)
(1893).
_Catoblepas reichei_, =Noack=, Zool. Anz. 1893, p. 153 (Upper
Limpopo).
VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Blue Wildebeest_ of English colonists
(_Selous_); _Bastard_ or _Blauw Wildebeeste_ of Dutch colonists
(_Harris_); _Kokoong_ of Bachapins (_Burchell_); _Kokoon_ of
Bechuanas (_Harris_); _Nyumbo_ in Zambesia (_Peters & Kirk_);
_Kaop_ and _Baas_ of Namaquas and Hottentots (_Harris_);
_Imbutuma_ of Kaffirs (_Drummond_); _Ink[=o]ne-kn[=o]e_ of
Matabilis; _Ee-vumba_ of Makalakas; _Numbo_ of Masubias;
_Minyumbwe_ of Batongas; _Unzozo_ of Makubas (_Selous_);
_Ink[=o]ne-k[=o]ne_ of Swazis (_Rendall_).
Height at withers about 48 inches.
Fur short and close, with peculiar vertical lines of differently
directed hairs on the sides of the neck and body, whence the epithet
“Brindled.” General colour dull grey, lighter and more tinged with
rufous on the rump and limbs. Face (except a paler area between the
eyes), chin, dorsal and throat manes deep black. Tail long, its
vertebræ almost reaching to the hock; its upper surface coloured like
the rump, its under surface and the long tuft black.
Lower part of face and lacrymal region heavily tufted, the hairs
directed downwards; the short ones of the terminal inch on the tip of
the muzzle, however, pointed upwards.
Skull large and heavy, with a long muzzle. That of an old male measures
as follows:--basal length 18·1 inches, greatest breadth 7·7, muzzle to
orbit 13·3.
Horns placed so that the hinder edge of their palm is little more than
level with the back of the skull; the palm itself comparatively low,
smooth, small in comparison with the enormous palm of _C. gnu_.
Beyond the palm the basal two-thirds of the horn points directly
outwards, while the ends are curved upwards, forwards, and inwards. A
fine pair of horns will measure 26 or 28 inches between the outer sides
of the curves of the two horns.
_Hab._ Eastern Africa, from the Vaal River northwards through
Zambesia, Nyasaland, and German East Africa to the north of
Kilimanjaro.
The Brindled Gnu, although, as it seems, previously observed by
Lichtenstein in Bechuanaland, was first actually obtained by the
celebrated African traveller Burchell, who went far into the interior
of the country in 1811 and 1812. In June of the latter year, when
encamped at the great Khosi Fountain in Bechuanaland, as he tells us
in the second volume of his ‘Travels,’ an example of a “new species of
Antelope” was brought in by his hunters. Being well acquainted with the
White-tailed Gnu of the Cape Colony, Burchell at once recognized it as
a second species of that genus. Burchell pointed out its differences
from its southern representative very clearly, and added a scientific
Latin diagnosis in a footnote. He called it _Antilope taurina_, because
its horns resembled those of an Ox more than those of any other
Antelope. The half-bred Hottentots, he observes, give it the name of
the _Bastaard Wildebeest_, while the Bechuanas call it _Kokūn_
or _Kokūng_. Altogether Burchell obtained five specimens of this
Antelope, one of which (a female), shot in the following October near
the Maadji Mountains, was, as we learn from his “List of Quadrupeds,”
presented to the British Museum in 1817, and seems to have formed the
basis of his technical description.
Two years previous to the actual publication of Burchell’s description,
however, the Brindled Gnu had been figured in Daniell’s ‘Sketches of
African Scenery’ under the name of the “Kokoon.”
In 1827 Major Charles Hamilton-Smith, F.R.S., in Griffith’s edition
of Cuvier’s ‘Animal Kingdom,’ besides recognizing _C. gnu_ and
_C. taurina_, added a presumed third species of the genus, which
he based on a specimen then exhibited in the “Museum of the Missionary
Society of London.” It is quite clear, however, from the description
and figure that Hamilton-Smith’s _C. gorgon_ is identical with
Burchell’s previously described _Antilope taurina_, and that the
latter term should take precedence, although many naturalists have
preferred to use Hamilton-Smith’s name for this species.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.
Adult Brindled Gnu.
(Roy. Nat. Hist. vol. ii. p. 314.)]
In 1836 and 1837 the celebrated artist and sportsman, Cornwallis
Harris, met with the Brindled Gnu on the plains of what is now the
Orange Free State in “countless numbers.” “Instantly after crossing
the Orange River,” he tells us, “the Kokoon or Brindled Gnu usurps the
place of the White-tailed species, and, although herds of the former
may actually be seen grazing on the northern bank, not a single
individual has ever been known to pass the barrier.... By the Dutch
Boers the present species is termed the Bastaard or Blauw Wilde Beest:
throughout the country of the Bechuanas, as far as the Tropic, it is
recognized as the Kokoon, and the Hottentot tribes designate it the
Kaop or Baas, both of which terms, signifying _master_, refer, in
all probability, to its bold and terrific bearing. When excited by the
appearance of any suspicious object, or aroused by any unusual noise,
the Kokoon is wont to appear much more grim and ferocious than it
actually proves--not unfrequently approaching with an air of defiance,
as if resolved to do battle with the hunter, but decamping on the first
exhibition of hostility on his part. On being pursued, the herd bring
their aquiline noses low between their knees, and flourishing their
streaming black tails, tear away in long regular files at a furious
gallop, wheeling curiously about at a distance of two or three hundred
yards, advancing boldly towards the danger, tossing their shaggy heads
in a threatening manner--presently making a sudden stop, presenting an
impenetrable front of horns, and staring wildly at the object of their
mistrust.... When engaged in grazing they have an extremely dull and
clumsy appearance, and at a little distance might often be mistaken for
wild buffaloes; but their manner is sportive--at one moment standing
to gaze at nothing, and at the next scampering over the plain without
any apparent object in view, making grotesque curvets and plunges, with
their preposterous Bonassus-looking heads held down between the fore
legs.”
In his valuable ‘Illustrations of South-African Zoology,’ Sir Andrew
Smith gives an excellent account of this species (published in August
1842), accompanied by an indifferent figure of the female and young.
Sir Andrew justly observes that this and the Common Gnu are two of the
most interesting and extraordinary quadrupeds which occur in South
Africa. “When either the one or other of those animals, especially
under excitement, stands in front of an observer, with the head and
anterior parts of the body only distinctly visible, the idea of its
strong resemblance to a small ox immediately arises. When, again, its
body and posterior parts are the portions most conspicuously in view,
the likeness to a horse is remarkable; but when its limbs only are
taken in review, it presents a strong similarity to the more typical
Antelopes.”