me some breakfast, and whilst he was frying me some Reedbuck
steaks, I had a talk with the head-man, Gugawi, and told him the
reason of my visit. He replied that the ‘unbala-intendi’ were
numerous in the jungle just behind his kraal, and promised to do
his best to help me to secure the specimens I wanted, though, like
everyone else, he said the animals were very cunning and difficult
to get a sight of. As soon as I had had my breakfast I asked
Gugawi to give me a man who was well acquainted with the habits of
the _Inyala_, as I wished to go into the bush after them without
any loss of time. He gave me one of his sons, and, accompanied by
Longman and one of the Kaffirs who had come from Mr. Wissels’
store, we forthwith entered the jungle, which extended to within a
few yards of the kraal. From this we were not distant more than
200 yards before we saw fresh _Inyala_-spoor plainly imprinted in
the wet ground. The rain at least had done us this service, that
it had washed out all old spoor and rendered any fresh tracks
quite conspicuous. We now commenced to creep very cautiously
through the thick thorny bush, making our way for the most part
through tunnels made by hippopotami during their night excursions
in search of food. We had usually to walk bent nearly double,
often having to creep on our hands and knees; and, as the air was
now very hot and steamy, we were soon bathed in perspiration. Now
and again we came to little open spaces in the bush, and in one of
these which we passed through soon after leaving the kraal I saw a
very handsome Crested Guinea-fowl, which looked very much like the
birds I have seen on the Central Zambesi, to the east of the
Victoria Falls.
“We had been creeping about the bush in the uncomfortable manner I
have described for about an hour, when we came suddenly upon a
little circular opening some fifty or sixty yards in diameter. As
we approached the edge of this open space, advancing very
cautiously in a stooping attitude down a hippopotamus-path, my
guide suddenly dropped to the ground. As he did so, I got a clear
view past him, and saw standing amongst the grass and bush, just
on the further side of the opening, what I knew was an _Inyala_
ewe, as I could distinctly see it was reddish in colour. I could
see no other animal near her, and, as I required two specimens of
_Inyala_ ewes, the one for the British and the other for the
South-African Museum, I lost no time about firing at the animal in
question, which I saw drop instantly to the shot. But even as she
did so, there appeared in her place, or very close to where she
had stood, a great black shaggy form, which, indistinctly as I
could see it in the deep shadow of the bush, I knew was an
_Inyala_ ram, the first that my eyes had ever looked upon in the
flesh. My rifle was a single-barrelled one; and before I could
fire the shot that might make that rare and beautiful beast mine,
I had to open the breech of my rifle, take another cartridge from
my belt, slip it into the chamber, close the breech again, and
then raise the rifle to my shoulder and take aim. All this meant
time and noise. Would the _Inyala_, which stood like a statue by
the dead body of its mate, give me the few seconds I required to
take his own life too? I little thought he would; but he did; and
as I raised my rifle once more, and took a quick but careful sight
at his dark shoulder, I felt, as I pulled the trigger, that he was
mine.
“As the report of the rifle sounded, he plunged madly forward and
was instantly lost to sight in the thick scrub. But I felt sure he
carried death with him, and so it proved, for we found him lying
dead not twenty yards from where he had stood when the bullet
struck him. The fatal missile had passed right through his
shoulders, and, having expanded on impact, had torn his heart to
pieces. I had the dead ewe brought to where the ram had fallen,
and laid them side by side; and then stood admiring them for a
long time before I could bring myself to skin them. To thus secure
a very fine pair of _Inyala_ Antelopes—whose excellently-mounted
skins are now safe in the Mammalian Gallery of the new Natural
History Museum in Cromwell Road—on the very first day I had hunted
for them, and after a little more than an hour’s search, was
indeed a most glorious and exceptional piece of good fortune;
which, however, has been balanced by many and many a day that I
can remember of unrequited labour in search of game.
“As soon as I had stripped the skins, with the leg-bones still
attached, from my two beautiful specimens, I had them carried,
together with the skulls, to Gugawi’s kraal on the edge of the
bush, and there spent the remainder of the day in preparing them
for mounting. Of the meat, which was all brought in, I sent a
couple of haunches over to Mr. Wissels, and then, after keeping a
small piece for myself, gave the remainder to Gugawi to divide
amongst his people as he thought fit.
“Next morning I was up and out in the bush just as day was
breaking, accompanied only by my guide of yesterday and Longman,
who, however, kept some distance behind, in order to allow my
guide and myself to approach our game as noiselessly as possible.
We had been creeping about in the dense jungle for some three
hours without having seen anything, although there was a good deal
of fresh spoor about, and twice we had heard _Inyalas_ dash away
through the bush without getting a sight of them, when suddenly my
guide crouched to the ground, at the same time pointing towards a
large ant-heap growing out of the dense scrub, and itself covered
with undergrowth. Following the direction of his arm, I made out a
reddish patch not fifteen yards away in the gloom of the bush; and
taking it for an _Inyala_ ewe, I fired into it point blank, as I
required another specimen for mounting. At the shot the animal
fell, and, on creeping up to it, I found that it was a young ram.
It was something less in size than a full-grown female, from which
it did not differ in any way in coloration, and the number and
distribution of white stripes and spots. It was thus interesting,
as showing that the _Inyala_ changes in general colour from red to
grey, only losing the rufous and orange tints on the ears and
forehead, which were still conspicuous in the type-specimen
described by Mr. Angas, when fully adult.
“On returning to the kraal, Gugawi proposed to take me to a spot
some few miles higher up the Usutu, where he said there were
plenty of _Inyalas_, whilst at the same time the bush was not so
dense as near his kraal. Being by this time thoroughly sick of
crawling about bent nearly double, I hailed with delight the idea
of finding the game I was seeking in a country where I could walk
upright, and visions of _Inyala_ feeding through open glades
passed through my mind; visions, alas! which were never realized,
for in my small experience I never found these Antelope anywhere
except in dense bush. However, I was glad of the change, and soon
had everything ready for a move.
“In the afternoon we travelled some five or six miles up the
river, and pitched camp in a bit of jungle near the water’s edge.
The Usutu River is here very broad, and reminded me strongly of
parts of the Chobi; but whereas the banks of the latter river, as
I knew it in the early seventies, abounded in game of many
descriptions, from the elephant downwards, there was not a track
to be seen along the Usutu of any kind of animal with the
exception of the _Inyala_. All the wealth of wild life which
Baldwin saw in this same district forty years ago has melted away
before the guns of the native Amatonga hunters; for, be it noted,
this is a country in which but very little game has been killed by
white men. Rhinoceroses, buffaloes, koodoos, waterbucks, impalas,
lions, all are gone—the only game left being the _Inyalas_, which
owe their preservation to the dense jungles in which they live;
and even they are being rapidly killed off, as the natives are
always after them, lying in wait for them in the paths made by the
hippopotami, or creeping stealthily through the bush in their
pursuit.
“It would be but tedious reading were I to continue to describe in
detail my further bush-crawling experiences in search of
_Inyalas_. Suffice it to say that on Oct. 1 and 2 I secured two
more good rams, and preserved their heads for my own Collection.
Although I should have liked to get a fourth ram for the South-
African Museum, I did not think it prudent to remain any longer in
my camp on the edge of a swamp, where I knew the air must be
reeking with malarial poison, as, besides the exhalations from the
marsh, the ground (from which I was only separated at nights by a
little dry grass and a blanket) had been soaked to the depth of 2
feet by the recent rain, thus rendering the conditions more than
usually unhealthy. The weather, too, was now again looking very
threatening, and I did not relish the idea of any further lying
out in the rain; as I knew, from former experience, that I should
probably have to pay for the wettings I had already suffered by
some attacks of fever—a disease from which I had been entirely
exempt for seven years, but the poison of which I knew was still
in my blood, and would be likely to be again stirred into activity
by my recent exposure to unhealthy conditions.
“Hence, on Saturday, Oct. 3, I packed up my things and returned to
Gugawi’s kraal, walking on in the afternoon to Mr. Wissels’s
store, and thence to Lourenço Marques, Delagoa Bay, which I
reached on October 7th, after a hot and weary tramp.”
Until lately the Inyala was believed to be restricted to the
coast-lands of Eastern Africa south of the Zambesi. Recently, however,
it has been discovered that this Antelope is likewise found further
northward on the Upper Shiré, where it is known to the natives as the
“Bō,” the _o_ being pronounced very long. Mr. Alfred Sharpe,
C.B., on his return to England at the end of 1891, first brought home
a single flat skin of the so-called “Bō,” which was identified by
Sclater as belonging to the male of this species, and other specimens
have since been obtained in the same district. Mr. Sharpe’s information
was that it is found only in a piece of thick scrubby country
bordering the Moanza River, which enters the Shiré on its right bank,
near the Murchison Cataracts.
In 1895 a fine specimen of this Antelope was forwarded to the British
Museum by Mr. Gerald Oliver, R.N., of H.M.S. ‘Herald,’ with the
following information in an accompanying letter:—
“On the 5th of October, last year, I was shooting near a village
called Mantana’s (lat. 16° 30´ S., long. 35° E.), about 7´ W. by
S. of Chilomo, near the right bank of the Shiré River. Impala
(_Æpyceros melampus_) are very plentiful about this particular
spot, but I had not been able to get a shot at a good head. Later
in the day, wanting meat, I decided to kill what I could, and
coming across a solitary doe I fired. Great was the astonishment
of myself and boys to find I had killed a female Inyala. I took
the skin to Chilomo, and was told it was the first Inyala ever
known to have been killed about these parts, and that it was
practically an unknown animal there.
“On the 26th of October, near the same spot, a male Inyala was
killed by the then Surgeon of this ship. On the 29th of October I
saw together 2 Inyalas and 8 Impalas. On the following day, at
dusk, I met with and killed a solitary male Inyala, whose skin I
forward. The natives were tremendously excited, dancing about and
exclaiming ‘Bōōh,’ ‘Bōōh,’ the local name for the Inyala. They
examined the body with great care. I was told in the village that
the natives, on account of some superstition, would not touch the
meat. Our bluejackets, however, ate it, and it was very good. The
skin was _remarkably_ glossy and soft, and the hair was long under
the neck.”
In 1893 (see P. Z. S. 1893, p. 729) Sclater found a skull of this
Antelope in one of Mr. Crawshay’s collections from the district of Lake
Mweru, but we are not quite certain that it was actually obtained in
that locality. Sir Harry Johnston, in his volume on ‘British Central
Africa,’ sums up his information on this species as follows:—
“I am inclined to think that the Inyala Antelope of British
Central Africa is limited in its range, so far as we yet know, to
the Western and Upper Shiré districts and the Lake Mweru district,
and that it may be of a different form from the Inyala of South-
east Africa, inasmuch as the males retain the white spots and
stripes on the skin to a greater extent, and do not assume such a
grey fur at maturity. The Inyala, locally called Bōō, is a very
rare animal, frequenting dense thickets. Its horns somewhat
resemble those of the Bushbuck, but are much larger
proportionately, much wider apart, and slenderer. They may measure
as much as 22½ inches in length along the curve (I have a pair of
horns giving this measurement). I have only twice seen skins of
the adult animal. They were extraordinarily beautiful in colour,
the females a deep chestnut, with narrow stripes and spots in pure
white, and a black line along the middle of the back from the neck
to the base of the tail; the male purplish-grey, with white
markings.”
[Illustration:
Fig. 106.
Angas’ Antelope, ♂ & ♀.
]
There is also some reason for suspecting that the Inyala, or a nearly
allied form, extends even as far north as British East Africa. This
suspicion rests upon the evidence supplied by a pair of horns, not
specifically distinguishable from those of the typical _Tragelaphus
angasi_, which were procured from the Mau Forest by Mr. F. J.
Jackson, C.B. These horns, which are now in the British Museum, were
exhibited by Sclater before the Zoological Society of London in May
1897, and are figured on p. 455 of the Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for that
year (see fig. 107, p. 147). Unfortunately no skin accompanied the
horns; and the specific determination of the Antelope that bore them is
rendered uncertain on account of the description of the animal given
by the native hunter who killed it. This description, if accurate,
certainly applies to a species of Bushbuck distinct both from the
Inyala and from all the other known species of _Tragelaphus_.
Hence it is earnestly to be hoped that Mr. Jackson will soon be
successful in his attempt to clear up the mystery in which the identity
of this interesting Antelope is involved.
[Illustration:
Fig. 107.
Horns of _Tragelaphus_ sp. inc.
(P. Z. S. 1897, p. 455.)
]
We are not aware that any specimen of Angas’ Antelope has ever been
brought to Europe alive, and it is by no means commonly met with in our
museums. The British Museum contains an adult pair mounted, obtained
in St. Lucia Bay by Mr. R. S. Fellowes in 1871, also specimens from
the Pongolo River, Zululand, obtained by Mr. Eastwood, and from the
Maputa River, obtained by Proudfoot. There are also in the National
Collection the specimens from Nyasaland procured by Mr. Sharpe, Sir
Harry Johnston, Mr. Crawshay, and Lieut. Oliver, of which we have made
mention above. Finally, there is a good mounted pair of specimens
obtained by Mr. Selous during his special expedition in quest of this
Antelope.
Our principal illustration of Angas’ Antelope (Plate XCII.) was put
upon the stone by Mr. Smit, under the directions of the late Sir Victor
Brooke, from sketches made by Wolf, and was probably taken from the
mounted specimens then in the British Museum. At the same time the
woodcut (fig. 106, p. 146), also containing figures of both sexes, was
prepared by Mr. Smit.
_November_, 1899.
Genus III. LIMNOTRAGUS (nom. nov.).
Type.
_Hydrotragus_, =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 49 (1872)
(_nec_ Fitz.)[11] L. spekii.
Medium or large-sized Antelopes allied to _Tragelaphus_, but with
rougher and shaggier coats, longer legs, and with horns which more
nearly approach those of _Strepsiceros_, as they show a strong
tendency to assume a third twist. Further, _Limnotragus_ differs
strikingly from _Tragelaphus_ and _Strepsiceros_ in the
structure of its feet, the hoofs being often nearly three times as long
(measured along the front edge) as thick (measured along the margin of
the pastern). Moreover, the skin which covers the back of the pastern
is denuded of hair, and thick and horny, being practically of the same
consistency as the upper rim of the posterior side of the hoof.
It is not without some hesitation that we refer to a separate
genus those species of Tragelaphine Antelopes (hitherto placed in
_Tragelaphus_) which have undergone certain special modifications
of structure in adaptation to a semi-aquatic mode of life. In the
species of _Tragelaphus_ discussed in the preceding part of this
work, as well as in all the other genera of Tragelaphinæ, the feet
adhere to the digitigrade type characteristic of most of the ruminant
artiodactyle Ungulates, retaining the short narrow hoofs and strong
elastic ankles fitted for easy and swift progress over the firm soil
of the veldt or woodland. In the species of _Limnotragus_,
on the contrary, the feet are furnished with hoofs of relatively
enormous length, which spread far apart at every step, and are
obviously designed to enable their owner to pass over the soft soil
of marshes and river-banks without sinking deeply into the ground.
This modification is accompanied by an increase in the flexibility of
the ankle-joints, which are capable of yielding to the weight of the
body, so as to allow the false-hoofs and the smooth tough horny skin
at the back of the pasterns to rest upon the soil, and thus to further
augment the supporting area of the foot. It is these peculiarities
in the structure of the feet, in conjunction with a length of limb
exceeding that of other Tragelaphines, which impart to the species of
_Limnotragus_ that characteristic semiplantigrade aspect and that
unusual awkwardness of gait so noticeable in these Antelopes when
walking upon firm resisting ground.
Up to the present time three species referable to this genus have been
described, namely, _L. spekii_ from E. Africa, _L. gratus_
from Tropical West Africa, and _L. selousi_ from the valley of the
Zambesi. Unfortunately there are not at present available materials
from the different parts of the area over which the genus ranges,
sufficient to enable us to determine satisfactorily the exact value to
be assigned to these three forms. Consequently, although the evidence,
so far as it goes, tends to show that the characters upon which they
have been based may ultimately prove to have merely a subspecific
importance, we prefer, for the time being, to allow them to take
the rank that was originally assigned to them by their respective
describers, and to arrange them as three species.
_Range of the Genus._ Congo Valley and Lake-districts of Southern
and Eastern Africa.
The three species may be shortly distinguished as follows:—
_a_. Size smaller; height at withers about 36 inches: sexes
dissimilar; male blackish, female rufous 127. _L. spekii._
_b._ Size larger; height at withers about 40 inches.
_a1._ Sexes similar, blackish 128. _L. selousi._
_b1._ Sexes dissimilar; male blackish brown, female red. 129. _L. gratus._
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XCIII.
_Wolf del. Smit lith._
_Hanhant imp._
Speke’s Sitatunga.
LIMNOTRAGUS SPEKII.
_Published by R. H. Porter._
]
127. SPEKE’S SITATUNGA.
LIMNOTRAGUS SPEKII (Sclater).
[PLATE XCIII.]
_Tragelaphus spekii_, =Sclater=, in Speke’s Journ. of Discov. p. 223
(1863); =id.= P. Z. S. 1864, p. 103, pl. xii., 1880, p. 452, 1883, pp.
34–37; =Heugl.= Reise Weiss. Nil, p. 319 (1869); =Brooke=, P. Z. S.
1871, p. 485 (part.); =id.= P. Z. S. 1878, p. 884; =Huet=, Bull. Soc.
Acclim. (4) iv. p. 83 (1887); =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1891, p. 388 (part.);
=Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 347 (1891) (part.); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 155
(1892); =id.= Records, p. 197 (1896), (2) p. 292 (1899) (part.);
=Lugard=, Rise E. Afr. Emp. i. p. 533 (1893); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs,
p. 254 (1893); =id.= Royal Nat. Hist. ii. p. 276 (1894) (part.);
=Jackson=, Big Game Shooting, p. 311 (1894); =Matsch.= Säug. Deutsch-
Ost-Afr. p. 139 (1895); =Trouessart=, Cat. Mamm. p. 958 (1898)
(part.); =Gedge=, in Ward’s Great and Small Game of Africa, p. 476
(1899).
_Eurycerus (Hydrotragus) spekii_, =J. E. Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 49
(1872) (part.).
_Eurycerus spekii_, =Gray=, Hand-l. Rum. p. 119 (1873) (part.).
_Tragelaphus spekii spekii_, =Rothschild=, Novit. Zool. v. p. 206
(1898).
Vernacular Names:—_Nzoé_ of Karagweh (_Speke_); _Chobé_ or _Njobé_ of
Uganda (_Gedge_).
_Adult male._ Height at the withers about 36 inches. General
colour a tolerably uniform greyish brown, greyer on the sides of
the neck; a dark median dorsal line running down the nape, over the
withers, and then passing into white in the middle line of the back.
Head with white ocular and cheek-spots and white chin, as in the other
species of the genus. A few pale spots low down on the hind-quarters,
an indistinct line of similar spots extending along the sides above the
belly, and in the adult at last only very ill-defined white stripes on
the body. Legs of a richer and darker brown than the body; fore legs
pale behind the knee and down the inner side of the cannon-bone, the
pastern-spots scarcely distinct; hind legs coloured like fore legs, but
pale in front of the hock.
Horns without a third twist.
_Subadult male_ of a darker brown than the adult and with the
white markings even less distinct.
_Adult female._ Smaller than the male and of a rich dark red
colour, blacker dorsally, with a dark spinal stripe and very faint
indications of white stripes on the body. Fore legs blackish from
above the knee; hind legs blackish from below the hock; pastern-spots
distinct.
_Young female_ more or less distinctly marked with white stripes
and spots, and more yellowish in colour than the adult.
[We have taken our descriptions of this species from a series of skins,
unfortunately for the most part imperfect and without determination of
sex, that were brought from Lake Victoria by Herr Oscar Neumann, who
has kindly lent them to us. Three of these skins appear to be those
of males, while the remainder, four in number, are, judging by their
colour, females, or young of doubtful sex. One of the latter has the
hoofs very much worn, and must be regarded from this circumstance
as adult, although it is very much smaller than the skin of what we
suppose to be the adult male.]
_Hab._ Lakes and swamps of Eastern Africa near Lake Victoria.
The name of John Hanning Speke will ever go down to posterity as
that of one of the most enterprising and most successful of African
Explorers. Speke, however, was by no means only an Explorer, he
was also an ardent lover of Natural History, and during his many
expeditions in Africa never failed to bring home such specimens as his
rapid mode of travelling would allow him to carry with him. Amongst
the discoveries of his celebrated journey of 1859–63 to the Victoria
Nyanza was the present Antelope, which he met with in December 1861,
when enjoying the hospitality of King Rumanika of Karagweh. The king
presented Speke with a living example of a young male of this species,
which had been captured in the high rushes at the head of one of the
neighbouring Lakes, and also gave him the horns of an adult male
specimen. We learn further, from Speke’s ‘Journal,’ that King Rumanika
was clad in a wrapper made of the skin of this Antelope, which is said
to be much prized by the natives for its excellent quality. For the
illustration of his ‘Journal of Discovery,’ published in 1863, Speke
had a beautiful woodcut prepared by Wolf from these specimens, which,
by the kindness of Messrs. William Blackwood and Sons, we are enabled
to reproduce on the present occasion (fig. 108).
Sclater’s original description of this species, published in his report
on the Mammal-collection made during Speke’s journey, was based on
Speke’s specimens, and contained, besides a coloured illustration of
the younger animal by Wolf, a drawing of the horns and feet of the
adult, which, by the kind favour of the Zoological Society of London,
we are allowed to use again here (see fig. 109, p. 154).
[Illustration:
Fig. 108.
Speke’s Sitatunga in a Papyrus-swamp.
(Speke’s ‘Journal of Discovery,’ p. 223.)
]