handsome Antelope ever since its gardens were instituted, but it does
not appear to have bred there. Dr. Percy Rendall, F.Z.S., brought home
a fine male from the Gambia in 1890, and in the following year a pair
was presented to the Society by Sir R. B. Llewelyn, K.C.M.G., the
Governor of that Colony. In Mr. Smit’s illustration of this species
(Plate LXXXIX.) the figures of the male and female were taken from the
Zoological Society’s specimens; the young one in the front was drawn
from a specimen from Fantee, in the British Museum.
_November,_ 1899.
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XC.
_Smit del. et lith._
_Hanhart imp._
Fig 1. Cumming’s Bush-bok.
TRAGELAPHUS ROUALEYNI.
Fig 2. The Cape Bush-bok.
TRAGELAPHUS SYLVATICUS.
_Published by R. H. Porter._
]
122. THE CAPE BUSHBUCK.
TRAGELAPHUS SYLVATICUS (Sparrm.).
[PLATE XC. Fig. 2.]
_Antilope sylvatica_, =Sparrm.= Act. Holm. 1780, p. 197, pl. vii.; =id.=
Reise etc. p. 517, pl. iii. (1784); =id.= Engl. Tr. i. p. 270, ii. p.
220, pl. vi. (1786); =id.= French Tr. i. p. 293, pl. iii. (lower fig.)
(1787); =Schreb.= Säug. pl. cclvii. B (1784); =Bodd.= Elench. Anim. p.
141 (1785); =Gm.= Linn. S. N. i. p. 192 (1788); =Kerr=, Linn. An. K.
p. 318 (1792); =Donnd.= Zool. Beitr. p. 643 (1792); =Link=, Beytr.
Nat. ii. p. 99 (1795); =Shaw=, Gen. Zool. pt. ii. p. 348, fig. 193
(upper) (1801); =Turt.= Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 115 (1802); =G. Cuv.=
Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 246 (1804); =Thunb.= Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. iii.
p. 315 (1811); =Licht.= Reise, i. p. 647 (1811); =Fisch.= Zoogn. iii.
p. 441 (1814); =Afz.= N. Acta Upsal. vii. p. 220 (1815); =Burchell=,
List Quadr. p. 7 (1817); =Goldf.= Schreb. Säug. v. p. 1209 (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. 275, v. p. 350
(1827); =J. B. Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 472 (1829); =Smuts=, En. Mamm.
Cap. p. 87 (1832); =Waterh.= Cat. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 42 (1838);
=Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 428 (1845); =id.= Mon. Säugeth. p. 27, pl.
xxix. (1848); =Huet=, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 480 (1887).
_Antilope (Gazella) sylvatica_, =Licht.= Mag. nat. Fr. vi. p. 173
(1814).
_Antilope (Addax) sylvatica_, =Laurill.= Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 621
(1861).
_Cemas sylvatica_, =Oken=, Lehrb. Nat. iii., Zool. p. 733 (1816).
_Calliope sylvatica_, =Rüpp.= Verz. Senck. Mus. iii. pt. 2, p. 182
(1839).
_Antilope (Tragelaphus) sylvatica_, =Desm.= Mamm. p. 469 (1822); =Less.=
Man. Mamm. p. 383 (1827); =A. Sm.= S. Afr. Quart. J. ii. p. 218
(1834); =Less.= Compl. Buff. x. p. 296 (1836); =Reichenb.= Säug. iii.
p. 78 (1845); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 309 (1853).
_Tragelaphus sylvaticus_, =Blainv.= Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75;
=Desm.= N. Dict. d’H.N. (2) ii. p. 197 (1816); =Harris=, Wild Anim. S.
Afr. pp. 144–149, pl. xxvi. (1840); =Gerv.= Dict. Sci. Nat., Suppl. i.
p. 266 (1840); =Less.= N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 181 (1842); =Gray=,
List Mamm. B. M. p. 165 (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); =Gray=, Cat. Ost. B. M. pp. 59, 60,
146 (1847); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850, p. 145; =Wagner=, Schreb. Säug.,
Suppl. iv. p. 441 (1844), v. p. 443 (1855); =Gray=, Knowsl. Menag. p.
28 (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 139 (1852); =Gerr.= Cat. Bones
Mamm. B. M. p. 246 (1862); =Wood=, Ill. Nat. Hist. i. p. 666, fig.
(1862); =Chapman=, Travels &c. ii. p. 335 (1868); =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); =Drumm.= Large Game, p. 425 (1875);
=Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 884; Selous, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 752; =id.=
Hunter’s Wand. p. 208 (1881); =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Coll. Surg. p. 260
(1884); =Bryden=, Kloof and Karroo, p. 300, fig. (1889); =Jent.= Cat.
Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. P.-Bas, ix.) p. 141 (1887); =Scl.= f. Cat. Mamm.
Calc. Mus. p. 154 (1891); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 347 (1891); =Nicolls
& Egl.= Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 37 (1892); =Ward=, Horn Meas. (1) p. 152
(1892), (2) p. 194 (1896) (part.); =Jentink=, Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus.
(Mus. P.-Bas, xi.) p. 173 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 252
(1893); =Kendall=, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 359 (Transvaal); =Pousargues=,
Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. pp. 81, 83 (1897).
_Tragelaphus scriptus sylvaticus_, =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1891, p. 389;
=Kirby=, in Ward’s Great and Small Game of Africa, p. 484, pl. xiii.
fig. (1899); =Trouess.= Cat. Mamm. p. 959 (1899).
_Tragelaphus scriptus_, =Ward=, Rec. Big Game, p. 282 (1899) (part.).
_Le Bosbok_, =Buff.= Hist. Nat., Suppl. v. p. 35, pl. xv. (1782).
_Forest Antelope_, =Penn.= Hist. Quadr. (3) i. p. 86 (1793).
Vernacular Names:—_Boschbok_ of the Dutch; _Bushbuck_ of the English at
the Cape; _Inkonka_ (♂), _Imbabula_ (♀) of the Zulus (_Selous_).
General colours much as in the other species of this section, and
especially as in _T. roualeyni_, but without any traces of
transverse stripes either in the adult or immature stages. Adult male
of a deep dark brownish black, with only a few small white spots on
the haunches and one or two on the shoulders. Younger males reddish
brown on the rump and sides, almost greyish brown above; a narrow white
spinal stripe over the rump and about nine white spots on the haunches,
with a line of white spots extending inferiorly above the belly. Horns
12 or 14 inches in length, rarely attaining to 16 inches.
_Female._ Without horns, of a light reddish brown, as in the
immature male, with white spots on the hind-quarters, and sometimes a
lateral line of white spots above the belly.
_Hab._ Forest-districts of South Africa up to the Limpopo, north
of which it is replaced by _T. roualeyni_.
The Bushbuck, so named by the Dutch settlers at the Cape from its
being an inhabitant of the forest (_bosch_), was first made
known to science by the famous Swedish traveller and naturalist
Sparrman, who obtained specimens of it during his expedition to the
Cape, and described it on his return home in the ‘Acta Holmiensia,’
and subsequently in the several editions of his ‘Travels.’ Sparrman
specially mentions Groot Vaders-bosch and Houtniquas-bosch, in the
south of the Colony, as the districts in which he had encountered this
Antelope.
The Bushbuck was also described and figured by Buffon in the
‘Supplement’ to his ‘Histoire Naturelle’ from information received from
Allamand and first published in Schneider’s edition of the ‘Histoire
Naturelle’ issued at Amsterdam. It was likewise mentioned by Thunberg,
Lichtenstein, and other earlier writers, who adopted Sparrman’s
scientific name for it. Little of moment, however, is added to our
knowledge of its habits and range until we come to Harris’s illustrated
volume on the ‘Game-Animals of Southern Africa,’ published in 1840.
In this work a special chapter is devoted to an account of the sport
of hunting the Bushbuck along with the Grysbok and the Blue Duiker,
which are all figured together in the twenty-sixth plate of Harris’s
‘Portraits.’ This author discourses eloquently on the first-named
Antelope as follows:—
“Aptly enough has this elegant and game-looking Antelope been
designated the ‘Bush-goat’; since, concealing itself during the
day in the deepest glens of the wooded mountains, it quits not its
retreat except during the matin hours, when it warily sallies
forth to graze along the outskirts of the forest, or tempted by
the bright moonlight nights, makes a foray upon the neighbouring
gardens and cultivation. Slow of foot, and easily overtaken if
surprised in open situations, it is wise to lie thus close in its
native jungles, the thickest of which it traverses with
ease—darting from one shrubbery to another, and forcing its
elastic form through the plaited undergrowth, with its horns so
crouched along the neck as to prevent their impeding progress by
becoming entangled in the sylvan labyrinth. So perfectly does the
voice of this singular species counterfeit the barking of a dog
that the benighted wayfarer is said to have been decoyed by it
into the most lonely depths of the forest, vainly hoping to
discover some human habitation, whereas every step has but removed
him further from the abodes of man. Combining singular elegance
and vigour with the most marked and decided colouring, the
Bushbuck stands quite by itself among the Antelopes of Southern
Africa, and is to be found only in those parts of the Colony and
of Caffraria where sufficient cover exists to afford it a safe
asylum. Naturally preferring solitude, the buck is nevertheless
frequently found in the society of the doe, accompanied during the
breeding-season by one or two kids, but never by adult
individuals. Every specimen that I have seen displayed a bare ring
around the neck, from which, by some process not satisfactorily
explained, the hair had been removed as if through long
confinement by a chain and collar. Very old subjects wear white
stockings, gartered above the knee, and it is usual to find a
narrow white tape along the back, partially concealed by the goat-
like mane which bristles from the ridge of the spine. But of these
characters none are constant, all being often absent in the
female, and even in the non-adult male, whose lighter coloured
coats are never so prominently ‘picked out’ as the dark robes of
the patriarchs.”
Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington, in their ‘Sportsman in South Africa,’
inform us that at the present time the Bushbuck is still plentiful in
all the maritime divisions of the Cape Colony and Natal, wherever there
are any considerable belts of thick bush. It is not usual to find more
than a pair of adults together, and the animals seldom emerge from
the impenetrable bush except at night-time, when they come out into
the open glades to feed. The bare patches on the neck alluded to by
Harris are explained by these authors to be caused by the horns being
constantly thrown backwards along the neck, which thus becomes denuded
of hair.
In the neighbourhood of Port Elizabeth we are told, and in other
districts of the Colony, the Bushbuck is very strictly preserved, and
battues are held every year about Easter-time, when large drives of
them take place. Numbers of natives are employed with the assistance of
dogs to beat the wooded kloofs, and to drive the game towards the guns,
which are placed in the narrow necks of the valleys. Excellent sport is
thus obtained.
When we proceed as far up the coast as the Limpopo the Cape Bushbuck,
as we shall presently more fully explain, is replaced by Cumming’s
Bushbuck (_Tragelaphus roualeyni_). In this Bushbuck, as Mr.
Selous informs us, the adult rams are of a brownish grey, often without
a sign of any spots, and the adult females of a dark red with a few
white spots. The young rams, however, are of a red colour and a good
deal spotted, and have a few faint transverse stripes, while the young
females are also more spotted than the old ones. If, however, Mr.
Selous continues, we examine the Bushbucks found on the Zambesi to
the east of the Victoria Falls, the adult rams are in colour like the
young rams of the Limpopo, being of a dark red thickly spotted on the
haunches, shoulders, and sides with small white spots, with three or
four faint white stripes down each side. On the other hand, if we take
the Bushbucks found on the banks of the Chobé and in the country to the
west of the Victoria Falls we find an animal of a very dark red colour,
most beautifully spotted with large white spots, and ornamented in some
cases with as many as eight well-defined white stripes and a long mane
of white hair. This Bushbuck of the Chobé is that which, following Mr.
Pocock, we have called _Tragelaphus scriptus ornatus_ (v. s. p. 110).
On the whole, there seems to be little doubt that there are
intermediate forms between what we have here treated of as three
species of Bushbuck, but the question is by no means finally settled,
and waits for a better and larger series of specimens than is at our
command before a satisfactory conclusion can be arrived at.
The Cape Bushbuck does well in captivity, and is frequently brought
to Europe. Living specimens of it may often be seen in the principal
Zoological Gardens. The first example possessed by the Zoological
Society of London appears to have been acquired in April 1859, when it
was presented by the late Sir George Grey. Other specimens arrived in
1881 and 1887, and the Society has lately received good examples of it
presented by its excellent correspondents Mr. J. E. Matcham of Port
Elizabeth and Mr. W. Champion of Natal.
Our illustration of this species (Plate XC. fig. 2) was prepared by
Mr. Smit from one of the specimens living in the Zoological Society’s
Gardens in May of the present year.
_November_, 1899.
123. CUMMING’S BUSHBUCK.
TRAGELAPHUS ROUALEYNI (Cumming).
[PLATE XC. Fig. 1.]
Subspecies _a._ Tragelaphus roualeyni typicus.
_Antelopus roualeynei_, =Cumming=, Hunter’s Life in S. Afr. ii. pp. 165,
168 (1850); =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 146; =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p.
140 (1852).
_Tragelaphus roualeynei_, =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 175 (1869);
=Selous=, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 753; =id.= Hunter’s Wand. p. 209 (1881);
=Matschie=, Säug. D.-O.-Afr. p. 138 (1895); =id.= in Werther’s
Hochländ Deutsch-Ost-Afr. p. 257, plate (1898).
_Tragelaphus sylvaticus_, =Pet.= Reise n. Mossamb. p. 183 (1852); =Scl.=
P. Z. S. 1864, p. 105; =Kirk=, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 659; =Johnst.= P. Z.
S. 1885, p. 218; =id.= Kilima Njaro Exped. p. 354 (1886); =Hunter=, in
Willoughby’s E. Afr. pp. 194, 288 (1889); =Crawshay=, P. Z. S. 1890,
p. 655; =Lugard=, Rise E. Afr. Emp. i. p. 536, fig. (1893); =Jacks.=
P. Z. S. 1897, p. 456 (Mau Plateau); =Johnst.= Brit. Centr. Afr. p.
309 (1897).
_Tragelaphus scriptus_, =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1894, p. 145; =Lorenz=, Ann.
Mus. Wien, ix., Notiz. p. 62 (1894); =Johnst.= Brit. Centr. Afr. p.
306, fig. (1897).
_Tragelaphus scriptus roualeynei_, =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1891, p. 389, 1893,
p. 504; =True=, P. U. S. N. Mus. 1892, p. 471; =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1893,
pp. 507, 728; =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1896, p. 798; =Rendall=, Novitat. Zool.
v. p. 211 (1898); =Trouess.= Cat. Mamm. p. 959 (1899).
_Tragelaphus sylvaticus roualeynei_, =Jacks.= Badm. Big Game Shooting,
pp. 285, 306 (1894); =id.= in Ward’s Great and Small Game of Africa,
p. 481, pl. xiii. fig. (1899).
Subspecies _b._ Tragelaphus roualeyni fasciatus.
_Tragelaphus decula_, =Swayne=, P. Z. S. 1894, p. 317; =id.= Somaliland,
p. 309; =Ghika=, Au Pays des Somalis, p. 184 (1898); =Straker=, in
Ward’s Great and Small Game of Africa, p. 478 (1899).
_Tragelaphus scriptus fasciatus_, =Pocock=, Ann. & Mag. N. H., Jan.
1900.
Vernacular Names:—_Serolomootlooque_ of the Bakalahari on the Limpopo
(_Cumming_); _Babala_ of the Anyanga, _Mbawala_ of the Agawa,
_Imbabala_ of the Angoni, and _Mpatu_ of the Ahenga, and _Anyika_ in
British Central Africa (_Crawshay_); _Mpongo_ in Kinyamwesi (_Böhm_);
_Mbawara_, _Mbala_, or _Mbawala_ in Kisuaheli; _Dol_ of Somalis
(_Swayne_).
The typical form of this species is very nearly allied to the Bushbuck
of the Cape Colony (_T. sylvaticus_), but is more strongly marked
with white. Colour variable. Adult bucks sometimes nearly black or
brownish grey, without traces of stripes and spots; sometimes marked
with a few faint stripes and a few spots.
Females and immature males are redder in colour than adult bucks, and
generally weakly striped and spotted.
_Hab._ From the Limpopo River across the Lower Zambesi to
Nyasaland, and thence northwards to British East Africa and
Somaliland.
The great sportsman Roualeyn Gordon Cumming was the first observer
of this East-African form of the Bushbuck, and with characteristic
audacity named it after himself. He seems to have first met with it on
the Limpopo in June 1847, and in his ‘Hunter’s Life’ has given us the
following account of his discovery:—
“I was in a sequestered bend of the river, where the banks for
several acres were densely clad with lofty reeds and grass which
towered above my head as I sat on my horse’s back. Beyond the
reeds and grass were trees of all sizes, forming a dense shade;
this is the general character of the Limpopo, as far as I have yet
seen. I was slowly returning to my camp, in anything but good
humour at my want of success with the game I had just been after,
when, behold, an antelope of the most exquisite beauty, and
utterly unknown to sportsmen or naturalists, stood broadside in my
path, looking me full in the face. It was a princely old buck of
the ‘_Serolomootlooque_’ of the Bakalahari, or ‘Bushbuck of the
Limpopo.’ He carried a very fine wide-set pair of horns. On
beholding him I was struck with wonder and delight. My heart beat
with excitement. I sprang from my saddle, but before I could fire
a shot this gem of beauty bounded into the reeds and was lost to
my sight. At that moment I would have given half what I possessed
in this world for a broadside at that lovely antelope, and I at
once resolved not to proceed farther on my expedition until I had
captured him, although it should cost me the labour of a month.
“The antelope having entered the reeds, I gave my horse to my
after-rider, and with my rifle on full cock and at the ready I
proceeded to stalk with extreme caution throughout the length and
breadth of the cover; but I stalked in vain; the antelope had
vanished, and was nowhere to be found. I then returned to my steed
and rode slowly up the river’s bank towards my camp. I had ridden
to within a few hundred yards of the wagons, and was meditating
how I should best circumvent the _Serolomootlooque_, when once
more this lovely antelope crossed my path; I had been unwittingly
driving him before me along the bank of the river. He trotted like
a roebuck into the thick cover and then stood broadside among the
thorn bushes. I sprang from my saddle, and guessing about his
position, I fired and missed him; he then trotted along a
rhinoceros’s footpath, and gave me a second chance. Again I fired,
and before my rifle was down from my shoulder the
_Serolomootlooque_ lay prostrate in the dust. The ball had cut the
skin open along his ribs, and entering his body had passed along
his neck, and had lodged in his brains, where we found it on
preparing the head for stuffing. I was not a little gratified at
my good fortune in securing this novel and valuable trophy; he was
one of the most perfect antelopes I had ever beheld, both in
symmetry and colour. I had him immediately conveyed to camp, where
I took his measurement, and wrote out a correct description of him
for the benefit of naturalists. I christened him the ‘_Antelopus
roualeynei_,’ or ‘Bushbuck of the Limpopo.’”
It is not, however, without considerable hesitation that we have
decided to retain Cumming’s name for the form of Bushbuck that, as
will be presently seen, extends from the Limpopo River northwards to
British East Africa and Somaliland. Although, according to Selous, the
Bushbucks that are found on the Zambesi to the east of the Victoria
Falls differ from those inhabiting the Limpopo (that is to say, from
the typical _roualeyni_) in being of a dark red colour, thickly
spotted on the haunches, shoulders, and sides, and marked with three
or four faint white stripes, whereas the adult of the Limpopo form is
a dark brownish grey, not striped, and often without a sign of spots,
we venture to think there is sufficient evidence to show that these
distinctions will not hold good when more material from the two rivers
has been examined. For example, a fine series of skins of bucks of
various ages sent by Sir Harry Johnston from Nyasaland, and presumably
identical with the form observed by Selous on the Lower Zambesi,
shows considerable variation in colour. The young male is yellowish
red throughout, with about half-a-dozen spots on the hind-quarters
and scarcely a trace of stripes. The adult is of a richer yellowish
red, brighter on the hind-quarters, and passing into black on the
shoulders, belly, and base of the neck, with a few white spots on the
hind-quarters, and occasionally also on the shoulder, and sometimes
a row of spots along the sides above the belly. Sometimes there are
about three indistinct white stripes on each side, sometimes only one;
but more often there are no traces of them to be seen, the presence
or absence of the stripes being apparently independent of age. As we
pass northwards into East Africa from Nyasaland the stripes, judging
from accounts given by sportsmen and naturalists, seem to become more
persistent, and in a mounted example in the British Museum, obtained
on Manda Island, opposite Witu, by Sir John Kirk, as will be seen by
Mr. Smit’s figure of this specimen (Plate XC. fig. 1), they are plainly
visible. This specimen stands about 32 inches at the withers, and its
horns surpass 14 inches in length, so there is no doubt as to its
maturity. On the whole, the most reasonable course to pursue seems to
be, at least for the present, to refer all the specimens met with in
Eastern Africa, from the Limpopo to the Shebeyli, to one species.
We will now say a few words as to what the principal writers who have
met with this Bushbuck in the more northern portion of its range have
recorded of its habits and distribution. Mr. Crawshay, one of our best
authorities on the Antelopes of Nyasaland, tells us that it is the
commonest of all the Antelopes of that country. From the great variety
that exists in the colour and markings of the Nyasan Bushbucks, Mr.
Crawshay thought at first there must be more than one species; but
after carefully examining a great many of both sexes, young and old, he
came to the conclusion that there is only one, of the various stages of
which he gives minute descriptions.
[Illustration:
Fig. 100.
Skull and horns of Cumming’s Bushbuck.
(Brit. Mus.)
]
Sir Harry Johnston, in his ‘British Central Africa,’ gives us an
excellent figure of the male Bushbuck, which he says is extremely
common throughout the Protectorate. He describes its flesh as without
exception the most delicious eating of any mammal in the world,
“surpassing in tenderness and flavour that of the best Welsh mutton, or
of any kind of venison.”
In German East Africa, Herr Matschie informs us that Cumming’s Bushbuck
is also found all over the country, generally in the immediate
neighbourhood of water, where it resorts to the thickest bush on
the banks. Herr Matschie also gives a good figure of _Tragelaphus
roualeyni_, in which, however, no traces of transverse bands are
perceptible.
In British East Africa this Antelope, according to Mr. F. J. Jackson,
is also common everywhere on the coast, and is to be met with as far
west as the edge of the Mau Plateau, where, as he informs us (P. Z. S.
1897, p. 456), it is plentiful.
[Illustration:
Fig. 101.
Frontlet of Cumming’s Bushbuck.
(Brit. Mus.)
]
Further north in Somaliland the Bushbuck, although not met with
anywhere on the high plateau, was found in the dense forests of the
Webbe by Capt. Swayne during his second expedition in 1893. It is
described by him as the most wary and difficult to shoot of all the
game-animals he has ever encountered. It is often caught by the natives
on the Webbe in staked pits, excavated in the jungles on the banks of
the river.
Capt. Swayne has referred the Bushbuck of the Webbe to _T.
decula_, but this is certainly not correct, as, according to his
own description, it has “four or five white stripes, and sometimes as
many as thirty white spots.” In some skins from Sen Morettu, on the
Webbe, received from Capt. Swayne, now in the British Museum, there
are four or five distinct white stripes on the flanks, both in adult
and immature males, a few white spots on the hind-quarters, and a row
of white spots extending along each side of the body above the belly.
Although in some respects this form comes nearer to _T. scriptus_,
we think it better for the present to regard it as a subspecific form
of _T. roualeyni_, which, using Mr. Pocock’s subspecific term, we
call _T. roualeyni fasciatus_, and describe as follows:—