legs below knees and hocks fawn-coloured: adult male
slate-grey, with mane of long hairs extending along
throat, nape, and sides above belly; females and young
chestnut, with white stripes 126. _T. angasi._
_b1._ Tail with tuft of hairs only at tip; inner sides of
legs below knees and hocks white in front; adult male
without mane and, like the female, chestnut with
white stripes 125. _T. eurycerus._
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LXXXVIII.
_Wolf del. Smit lith._
_Hanhart imp._
The Decula Antelope.
TRAGELAPHUS DECULA.
_Published by R. H. Porter._
]
120. THE DECULA ANTELOPE.
TRAGELAPHUS DECULA (Rüpp.).
[PLATE LXXXVIII.]
_Antilope decula_, =Rüpp.= Neue Wirb. Abyss. p. 11, pl. iv., ♂ ♀
(1838–1840); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 427 (1845); =Huet=, Bull.
Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 78 (1887).
_Calliope decula_, =Rüpp.= Verz. Senck. Mus. iii. pt. 2, p. 182 (1839).
_Antilope_ (_Tragelaphus_) _decula_, =Gerv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. Suppl. i.
p. 266 (1840); =Less.= N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 181 (1842);
=Reichenb.= Säug. iii. p. 78 (1845); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 311 (1853).
_Tragelaphus decula_, =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 166 (1843); =Sund.=
Pecora, K. Vet.-Akad. Handl. lxv. p. 189 (1846); =id.= Hornschuch’s
Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 141; Reprint, p. 65 (1848);
=Wagn.= Schreb. Säug., Suppl. iv. p. 442 (1844), v. p. 443 (1855);
=Schinz=, Mon. Antil. p. 26 (1848); =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 145;
=id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 28 (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 139 (1852);
=Heugl.= N. Acta Leop. xxx. p. 20, pl. i. figs. 5 a, b (1863); =id.=
Faun. Roth. Meer. p. 16; Fitz. SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 174
(1869); =Heugl.= Reise Weiss. Nil, p. 319 (1869); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B.
M. p. 50 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. p. 120 (1873); =Flower=, P. Z. S.
1875, p. 186 (skull char.); =Heugl.= Reise in Nordost-Afr. ii. p. 120
(1877); =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 884 (skull char.); =Jent.= Cat.
Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. P.-Bas, ix.) p. 141 (1889); =id.= Cat. Mamm.
Leyd. Mus. (Mus. P.-Bas, xi.) p. 173 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs,
p. 252 (1893); =Ward=, Rec. Big Game, p. 196 (1896), p. 286 (1899);
=Pousarg.= Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. pp. 81, 83 (1897).
_Tragelaphus scriptus decula_, =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1891, p. 388; Trouess.
Cat. Mamm. p. 959 (1899).
_Tragelaphus bor_, =Heugl.= Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 122 (1877).
Vernacular Names:—_Husch_ (Arabic); _Dakula_, _Daggula_, _Dekula_, or
_Dekuela_ (Amharic); _Ber_ (Djengish) (_Heuglin_).
Height at withers of adult male about 26 inches. Prevailing colour a
yellowish or sandy brown, becoming darker upon the chest and belly and
upon the shoulder and lower portion of the hind-quarters. Edge of upper
lip, chin, and inter-ramal area white; a white spot on the cheek below
the eye, a white patch at the upper and a second at the lower extremity
of the throat. Hairs along spine darker brown and not noticeably
tipped with white. A few white spots upon the haunches and a row of
them extending along the sides of the body above the belly. Upper
half of the body marked in front with a distinct white stripe, which
extends longitudinally backwards from the shoulder. Transverse stripes
generally entirely absent. Fore leg white on inner side at base and
behind knee, also white on inner side of cannon-bone; a brown stripe
extending along front of cannon-bone; white pastern-spots large and
confluent. Hind limb coloured like the fore limb, but with the hocks
white in front, not behind. Tail bushy, white below, with a darker tip.
No collar of short hairs round base of neck. Horns short, scarcely 12
inches in length, black-tipped.
_Female_ like male, but smaller, without horns, and with less dark
colour upon the upper portions of the limbs and lower parts of body.
A male skull gives the following measurements:—Basal length 8 inches,
nose to orbit 4·25, width 3·6.
_Hab._ Wooded districts of Abyssinia and Upper Nubia.
Like many other characteristic animals of North-eastern Africa, the
present Antelope was one of the discoveries of the great explorer
and naturalist Rüppell, who first described it in his volume upon
new Mammals from Abyssinia which contained the results of his
long investigations in that country. Rüppell called this species
“_decula_,” from the Latin transliteration of its Amharic native
name, remarking at the same time that this word must not be confounded
with “_thecula_,” which is the Abyssinian name for the Hunting-dog
(_Lycaon pictus_). He remarks that the species belongs to the
subgenus _Tragelaphus_ of Blainville, and is closely allied to
_T. sylvaticus_ of the Cape, from which it is distinguishable
by its smaller size and different colouring. Rüppell obtained a good
series of this Antelope, and gives excellent descriptions of the adult
male, the adult female, the two-year-old male, and the newly-born calf.
He met with it in the bushy valleys of Central Abyssinia, round the
lake of Dembea or Tana, where it feeds principally on small leaves of
trees, and is said to be specially fond of the ripe fallen fruits of
the sycamore fig-tree. The Deculas pair in the month of May in this
district, and produce their young ones in October. They are very quick
and shy, but are occasionally hunted by the natives with dogs. Their
flesh, according to Rüppell, is not particularly palatable.
The only other African explorer that appears to have come across this
Antelope in its native wilds is Heuglin, who, however, does not favour
us with a very distinct account of his experiences of it. In his
memoir on the Antelopes and Buffaloes of North-east Africa, published
in 1863, Heuglin states that the range of this species extends over
the districts of Upper Nubia bordering on Abyssinia, Galabat, the
River Settite, and Takeh. He also gives a figure of the skull of a
specimen obtained by him, which he points out differs slightly in the
shape of the horns from that figured by Rüppell and in some other
particulars. In a subsequent work (‘Reise in Nordost-Afrika’) Heuglin
has described what he considered to be possibly a different animal
(although closely allied to the Abyssinian _T. decula_) from the
banks of the White Nile, where it is called by the Djengs “_Bor_,”
in Bonga “_Towa_,” and by the Dgurs “_Burah_.” This Antelope
he met with in pairs amongst the high grass and thick bushes of
_Bauhinia_ and _Acacia_-trees in the above-named districts.
In case of its proving different from _T. decula_ he proposed to
designate it _Tragelaphus bor_.
As will be seen by our subsequent remarks, it is not quite certain
which of the species of this group of _Tragelaphus_ occurs on the
White Nile. It may be either the present _T. decula_ or one of the
forms of _T. scriptus_.
In the British Museum there is a skin of an immature male of this
species, together with its skull, belonging to the series obtained by
Rüppell in Abyssinia. There are also in the National Collection an
adult mounted male and female from the Upper Atbara obtained in 1874
and 1876.
Our illustration (Plate LXXXVIII.), which was put upon the stone by Mr.
Smit from a sketch prepared by Mr. Wolf under the directions of the
late Sir Victor Brooke, is believed to have been taken from the mounted
specimens in the British Museum.
So far as we know, no examples of this form of the Bushbuck have ever
been brought to Europe alive.
_November_, 1899.
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LXXXIX.
_J. Smit del. et lith._
_Hanhart imp._
The Harnessed Antelope.
TRAGELAPHUS SCRIPTUS
_Published by R. H. Porter._
]
121. THE HARNESSED ANTELOPE.
TRAGELAPHUS SCRIPTUS (Pallas).
[PLATE LXXXIX.]
Subspecies _a._ Tragelaphus scriptus typicus.
_Le Guib_, =Buffon=, Hist. Nat. xii. pp. 305,327, pls. xl., xli. (1764),
whence
_Antilope scripta_, =Pallas=, Misc. Zool. p. 8 (1766); =id.= Spic. Zool.
i. p. 15 (1767), & xii. p. 18 (1777); =Erxl.= Syst. R. A. p. 276
(1777); =Zimm.= Spec. Zool. Geogr. p. 539 (1777); =id.= Geogr. Ges.
ii. p. 111 (1780); =Gatt.= Brev. Zool. pt. i. p. 79 (1780); =Schreb.=
Säug. pl. cclviii, (1784) (_ex_ Buff.); =Bodd.= Elench. Anim. p. 140
(1785); =Gm.= Linn. S. N. i. p. 191 (1788); =Kerr=, Linn. An. K. p.
317 (1792); =Donnd.= Zool. Beitr. i. p. 640 (1792); =Link=, Beytr.
Nat. p. 99 (1795); =Shaw=, Gen. Zool. p. 322, fig. 186 (1801); =Turt.=
Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 115 (1802); =Desm.= N. Dict. d’H. Nat. x. p. 256
(1803); =G. Cuv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 245 (1804); =G. Fisch.=
Zoogn. iii. p. 441 (1814); =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freunde, vi. p. 169
(1814); =Afz.= N. Acta Ups. vii. p. 220 (1815); =Goldf.= Schreb. Säug.
v. p. 1212 (1818); =Schinz=, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 396 (1821); =Desmoul.=
Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. p. 447 (1822); =H. Sm.= Griff. An. K. iv. p.
274, v. p. 351 (1827); =J. B. Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 472 (1829);
=Masson=, Cuv. R. A., Atlas, pl. xl. fig. 1 (1836); =Waterh.= Cat.
Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 42 (1838); =Cuv. & Geoffr.= Hist. Nat. Mamm. vii.
tabb. 380, 381 (1842); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 428 (1845); =id.=
Mon. Antil. p. 28, tab. xxx. (1848); =Huet=, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4)
iv. p. 273 (1887).
_Cemas scriptus_, =Oken=, Lehrb. Nat. iii., Zool. p. 734 (1816).
_Calliope scripta_, =Rüpp.= Verz. Senck. Mus. iii. pt. 2, p. 182 (1839).
_Antilope (Addax) scripta_, =Laurill.= Dict. Univ. d’H. N. p. 621
(1861).
_Tragelaphus scriptus_[_a_], =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 166 (1843);
=Jard.= Nat. Libr., Mamm. xxii. p. 95, pl. i. (1845); =Sund.= Pecora,
K. Vet.-Akad. Handl. lxv. p. 189 (1846); =id.= Hornschuch’s Transl.,
Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 141; Reprint, p. 65 (1848); =Gray=, Cat.
Ost. B. M. p.146 (1847); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 145; =id.= Knowsl.
Menag. p. 28, pl. iv. (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 138 (1852);
=Wagner=, Schreb. Säug., Suppl. iv. p. 442 (1844), v. p. 443 (1855);
=Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 197 (1853); =Gerv.= H. N. Mamm. ii. p.
201, fig. p. 202 (1855); =Gerr.= Cat. Bones B. M. p. 246 (1862);
=Fitz.= SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 174 (1869); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B.
M. p. 50 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. p. 120 (1873); =Flow.= P. Z. S.
1875, p. 186 (skull char.); =Garrod=, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 44 (anatomy);
=Brehm=, Thierl. p. 242, fig. p. 243 (1880); =Scl.= Cat. An. Z. S. (8)
p. 137 (1883), (9) p. 161 (1896); =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Coll. Surg. p.
259 (1884); =Johnst.= River Congo, pp. 385, 391 (1884); =Jent.= Notes
Leyd. Mus. x. p. 25 (1888); =Büttik.= Reisebilder, etc. ii. p. 380
(1890); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 347 (1891); =Ward=, Horn Meas. (1) p.
154 (1892), (2) p. 196 (1896); =id.= Rec. Big Game, p. 282 (1899);
=Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 141 (1887); =id.=
Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (ibid. xi.) p. 172 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and
Hoofs, p. 251 (1893); =id.= Royal Nat. Hist. ii. p. 277, fig. (1894);
=Trouess.= Cat. Mamm. p. 959 (1899); =Pousarg.= Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. 6,
p. 82 (1899) (French Congo).
_Tragelaphus scriptus typicus_, =Thomas=, P. Z. S. 1891, p. 388;
=Bryden=, in Ward’s Great and Small Game of Africa, p. 480 (1899).
_Antilope phalerata_, =H. Sm.= Griff. An. K. iv. p. 275, v. p. 351
(1827); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 429 (1845).
_Antilope (Tragelaphus) phalerata_, =A. Sm.= S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii.
p. 219 (1834); =Less.= Compl. Buff. x. p. 296 (1836); =Gerv.= Dict.
Sci. Nat. Suppl. i. p. 266 (1840); =Less.= N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p.
181 (1842); =Reichenb.= Säug. iii. p. 81 (1845).
_Tragelaphus phaleratus_[_a_], =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Akad. Handl. lxv.
p. 189 (1846); =id.= Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p.
141; Reprint, p. 65 (1850); =Fitz.= SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 174
(1869).
_Antilope leucophæa_, =Forst.= Descr. An. p. 386 (1844) (nec Pall.).
_Tragelaphus gratus_, =Rochebrune=, Bull. Soc. Philom. Paris, 1882, p.
9; =id.= Faune de la Sénégamb., Mamm. p. 123, pl. viii. fig. 1 (1883)?
_Tragelaphus obscurus_, =Trouess.= Cat. Mamm. pt. iv. p. 958 (1898).
_Harnessed Antelope_, =Penn.= Hist. Quadr. (1) p. 71 (1781), (3) p. 81
(1793).
Subspecies _b._ Tragelaphus scriptus ornatus.
“_A new Antelope_,” =J. Chapman=, Travels &c. vol. i. pp. 229–230
(1868).
_Bushbuck from the Chobe River_, =Selous=, Hunter’s Wanderings, p. 208,
& p. 285, pl.; id. P. Z. S. 1881, p. 753.
_Tragelaphus scriptus ornatus_, =Pocock=, Ann. & Mag. N. H., Jan. 1900.
Vernacular Names:—_Guib_ of Negroes of Senegal (_Adanson_); _Zaloufe_ or
_Oualof_ of the Gambia (_Whitfield_); _Red Deer_ of the Liberians
(_Büttikofer_); _Thamma_ by the Batawana and _Tugwumgo_ by the Bazèyè
of the Upper Zambesi (_Chapman_).
_Male adult._ Height about 28 inches. General colour a rich dark
red, passing in places into black. Head fawn-colour, with an ashy-black
band extending from between the eyes to the muzzle; upper lip white at
the sides; chin and inter-ramal area white; two white spots on each
cheek, the lower fusing with the white of the inter-ramal area; a small
white stripe running inwards from the eye, sometimes but not always
present; whitish patch at base of ear; ear ashy black behind, a dark
spot near the outer edge in front. Neck greyish fawn above, clouded
with black towards the shoulders. Throat with two, upper and lower,
white patches; area between the patches a dusky yellowish grey. Body
a rich dark red at the sides, passing into black below, marked with
about half-a-dozen transverse white stripes; a few white spots on the
shoulders, and a large, though variable, number of white spots on the
haunches; a white line, sometimes broken up into a series of spots,
running longitudinally along the lower portion of the sides above
the belly between the shoulder and the hind-quarters, and an upper
longitudinal white stripe, sometimes long, sometimes short, running
backwards from the shoulder. Tail red, with white edges and usually a
black tip. Belly and chest blackish. Outer side of fore and hind legs
blackish above the knees and hocks, reddish fawn below; inner sides
white at the bases close up to body; a broad black band above the knee
and hock; back and inner sides of the knee and front and inner side of
hock white, whence a white stripe extends downwards along the inner
side and anterior edge of the cannon-bone to the fetlock; fetlocks and
pasterns blackish; pasterns with a large white patch in front.
Hairs on body longish. At the base of the neck there is a more or less
well-defined collar of short hair passing inferiorly above the lower
white neck-band. Along the back from the shoulders to the root of the
tail extends a crest or mane of long hairs, black over the withers,
tipped with white on the rest of the back. Horns as in preceding
species.
The skull of an adult male gives the following measurements:—Basal
length 8·25 inches, nose to orbit 4·75, width 3·5, horn 9·5.
_Female_ similar to the male, but without horns, and without the
black tints on the body; white markings very conspicuous.
_Young_ like the female.
_Hab._ Forest-districts of Western Africa from Senegal to Angola,
and extending thence to the Chobé on the south.
The Bushbucks of the typical section of the genus _Tragelaphus_
appear to be spread all over Africa south of the Sahara, wherever
wooded districts suitable for their mode of life are met with. But
although they are all nearly similar in general structure they vary
much in their markings and other minor characters, and it is an
exceedingly difficult task to decide how far these differences should
be regarded as specific or subspecific, or in some cases as merely
individual variations. A much larger series of specimens from the
various localities in the wide area over which this animal ranges
than we can yet command is necessary before any certain conclusions
can be arrived at on this subject. Meanwhile we propose to follow, as
probably approximately correct, the view already put forward on this
group by Thomas in his article on the _Tragelaphi_, published
in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1891, merely elevating
the four forms there treated of as subspecies to the rank of species.
Of these four species thus recognized we have already treated of
one—_Tragelaphus decula_, which appears to be a somewhat
isolated form only met with in Abyssinia and the immediately adjacent
districts. We have now come to the true _T. scriptus_, which, on
the contrary, seems to have a very wide distribution under its various
phases.
The “Harnessed Antelope,” as it is usually called in English, was
first discovered in Senegal by the celebrated naturalist and traveller
Adanson, who visited that Colony in the middle of the last century,
and communicated many of his notes and specimens to Buffon. The latter
described and figured it in his ‘Histoire Naturelle’ under the name
“_Le Guib_” which Adanson gave as its native name in Senegal,
stating that it is found in the woods and plains of the country of the
Jaloufs and on the Senegal River. From Senegal also living specimens of
both sexes of this Antelope were subsequently received at the Jardin
des Plantes, and figured under the same name by F. Cuvier and Geoffroy
St.-Hilaire in their great work upon Mammals. Pallas established his
“_Antilope scripta_” upon Buffon’s “_Guib_,” stating that
he had not himself met with examples of it. There can be no doubt,
therefore, that this particular local form is entitled to be called
_Tragelaphus scriptus_. Like most of the Senegalese mammals, it
also occurs on the Gambia, where Whitfield, and, in more recent days,
Dr. Rendall procured specimens which are now in the British Museum.
Descending the West-African coast we find the same species also
recorded from Liberia, where Herr Büttikofer and his fellow-explorers
of that Republic, as recorded by Dr. Jentink, met with it in many
localities and obtained a good series of specimens of it for the Leyden
Museum.
In his ‘Reisebilder aus Liberia’ Büttikofer tells us that this Antelope
is universally known to the Liberians as the “Red Deer,” and is found
wherever the forest is interspersed with meadows and plantations. Its
palatable meat is often brought to the market in Moravia. It is the
more easily obtained by the hunter because it is by no means shy, and
often comes to feed into the vegetable-gardens adjoining the planters’
dwellings. It is also frequently caught alive, and does well in
captivity.
Pel, another well-known collector for the Leyden Museum, obtained for
that institution examples of this Antelope on the Gold Coast, and there
are specimens of it in the British Museum from Fantee, and from Mount
Victoria in the Cameroons. We may therefore consider it established
that the typical form of _Tragelaphus scriptus_ is found all along
the wooded districts of Western Africa from the Senegal River to the
Cameroons. But as we proceed further south soon after this a slight
alteration in the characters of this Antelope begins to appear.
Hamilton Smith, writing in Griffith’s ‘Animal Kingdom’ in 1827, was the
first to notice differences in the specimens of this species from the
Congo, which had been sent home by Tuckey’s Expedition, and proposed
to name the Congo form _Antilope phalerata_. M. Pousargues, who
has recently published an excellent essay on the Mammals of French
Congo-land, informs us that only one of three specimens of this
Antelope received at Paris from that country presented the special
difference upon which Hamilton Smith mainly based his species—that
is, the absence of the longitudinal white stripe on the shoulder and
flanks,—and states his opinion that this character is of no systematic
value. This opinion is supported by the fact that in one of the two
bucks, referred to later on, from Senegambia, now living in the
Society’s Gardens, the stripe in question is very conspicuous, whereas
in the other it is faintly defined and very short. It is significant,
too, that the latter animal is the larger and apparently the older of
the two. Hence it is not unlikely that the stripe tends to disappear in
old individuals and that the type of _T. phaleratus_ was nothing
but an aged example of _T. scriptus_. However that may be, our
knowledge of the Congo form is too incomplete to admit of our regarding
it as distinct from the typical Senegambian _T. scriptus_.
Further to the south, in the valley of the Chobé and Upper Zambesi,
_T. scriptus_ is again met with, but under a modified form,
which may for the present be regarded as a distinct subspecies. This
animal was first discovered by Mr. Chapman on the Botletlie River,
and subsequently on the Chobé by Mr. Selous, who described it in his
‘Hunter’s Wanderings’ and in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’
for 1881. Mr. Selous, in response to an inquiry on this point, kindly
informs us that he has never seen a skin either of adult or young of
the Chobé Bushbuck marked with an upper longitudinal white stripe; and
we learn from his published observations on this animal, and from the
skins of it that are now in the British Museum, that the females and
young are much less strongly striped and spotted with white than are
the adult males.
This does not appear to be the case as regards the typical _T.
scriptus_; and although the entire absence of the upper white band
in the form from the Chobé suggests the possibility of identity between
it and the form from the Congo, we know nothing of the characters of
the females and young of the latter to justify us in assigning the name
_phaleratus_ to the subspecies first figured and described by Mr.
Selous. The animal for which we propose to adopt Mr. Pocock’s name
_T. scriptus ornatus_ may be described as follows:—
_Male adult._ General characters as in _T. scriptus_. Height at
withers of adult male about 28 inches. Colour dark red, with as
many as seven or eight transverse white stripes, about six white
spots on the shoulders, and as many as twenty on the hind-
quarters, and a line of white spots passing longitudinally above
the belly. Belly, chest, and limbs on outer side down to knees and
hocks blackish. Face deep greyish fawn, with very faint white eye-
spots. A dorsal crest of long white hairs extending from the
shoulder to the root of the tail.
_Young male._ Pale reddish yellow, with spots and stripes much
more faintly marked.
_Female._ Smaller than male, chestnut in colour, marked with only
three or four faint white stripes and with fewer spots than in the
other sex; belly reddish yellow, paler than the sides of the body;
outer side of limbs chestnut above and below the knees and hocks.
_Young female._ Lighter red and less spotted than adult.
At the end of our list of synonyms of the typical form of this
Antelope it will be observed that we have added, with a mark of doubt,
_Tragelaphus gratus_ of Rochebrune’s ‘Faune de la Sénégambie,’
upon which Dr. Trouessart has based his _Tragelaphus obscurus_.
All that can be said of Rochebrune’s figure is that, if correctly
drawn, it cannot have been taken from _Limnotragus gratus_,
which is at once recognizable by its elongated hoofs, and that it is
_more likely_ to have been based on an example of the present
species. But we have already on more than one occasion alluded to the
untrustworthiness of Dr. Rochebrune’s work, and think it hardly worth
while to discuss the subject further.
The Harnessed Antelope is frequently brought alive to Europe from the
ports on the West Coast of Africa and does nicely in captivity. It was
well represented in the great Knowsley Menagerie, where it frequently
bred. In May 1845, as we learn from the ‘Gleanings,’ there was at
Knowsley a herd of two males and four females, of which three were
then expected to produce young. Both sexes were figured by Waterhouse
Hawkins on the 28th plate of that work. Several specimens of it were
sold at the dispersal of the Knowsley Menagerie in 1851.