Nicolls and his companions in their waggon 800 miles to Kimberley, and
thence brought by rail and steamer to London. On arrival at the Gardens
it was placed in a sheltered compartment of the Gazelles’ sheds, in
which the yard in front was covered with dried peat-fibre in order
to suit its elongated hoofs. Accompanying the Secretary’s Report on
the additions to the Society’s Menagerie in October 1890, in which
its arrival was noticed, will be found a coloured plate by Mr. Smit,
giving an accurate representation of the animal as it then appeared.
The Sitatunga thus acquired quickly attained its full stature, and
showing symptoms of readiness to breed, was placed, in 1894, in company
with a male of the Congo species (_L. gratus_) which had been
obtained by purchase from the Zoological Gardens, Hamburg, no male of
its own species being available. From this union hybrids were born on
February 12th, 1896, and on February 28th, 1897, being in each case
of the female sex. The period of gestation was, in both cases, about
seven months. The young animals in general appearance took after the
colour of the female of _L. gratus_, being of a generally bright
red colour with white lateral stripes and white spots on the haunches.
Such a young one is well represented, along with its mother, in the
background of our Plate XCIV. In June 1899 the Society were fortunate
enough to obtain a fine adult male example of this Antelope from the
Right Honourable Cecil J. Rhodes’s Park at Groot Schuur, near Capetown,
from which the principal figure in our Plate XCIV. has been taken. Mr.
Rhodes kindly accepted in exchange for it one of the female hybrids
above mentioned. The Society have therefore at present a unique pair
of this scarce and beautiful Antelope in the Collection, besides the
female hybrid born in 1896.
The specimens in the National Collection referable to this form
of the Sitatunga comprise two pairs of horns from the Chobé River
(_Selous_), one pair of young horns from Lake Ngami (_J. A.
Green_), the skin of an adult from the Zambesi (_Chapman_), and
a pair of horns from Lake Mweru (_Crawshay_).
When Mr. Rothschild separated this southern form of the Sitatunga as
_Tragelaphus selousi_ in 1898 (Nov. Zool. vol. v. p. 206), he did
not distinctly state the specimen from which he took the description of
the adult male, but we presume it to be the above-mentioned specimen
from the Barotze District (_Coryndon_), which he has kindly lent
us. For the type of his female, however, Mr. Rothschild expressly
designates the female now living in the Zoological Society’s Gardens.
We are therefore, no doubt, correct in applying the appropriate
specific name “_selousi_” to the present form.
_April_, 1900.
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XCV.
_Smit del, et lith._
_Hanhart imp._
The Congan Sitatunga.
LIMNOTRAGUS GRATUS.
_Published by R. H. Porter._
]
129. THE CONGAN SITATUNGA.
LIMNOTRAGUS GRATUS (Sclater).
[PLATE XCV.]
_Antelope from the Cameroons_, =Mitchell=, P. Z. S. 1848, p. 88.
_Tragelaphus gratus_, =Sclater=, P. Z. S. 1880, p. 452, pl. xliv. (♀),
1883, pp. 34, 36, pl. viii. (♂ ♀), 1889, p. 220; =Huet=, Bull. Soc.
Acclim. (4) iv. p. 275, fig. 23 (1887); =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1891, p.
387; =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 347 (1891); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 156
(1892); =id.= Records Big Game, p. 199 (1896); =Lyd.= Horns and
Hoofs, p. 254 (1893); =id.= Royal Nat. Hist. ii. p. 276 (1894);
=Scl.= List An. Z. S. 1896, p. 62, fig. 24; =Trouessart=, Cat. Mamm.
p. 952 (1898).
_Tragelaphus spekii_, =Peters=, MB. Ak. Berlin, 1876, p. 484;
=Pousarg.= Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. p. 78 (1897).
Vernacular Names:—_Kawe_ and _Mburi_ or _Mbuli_ of natives in the
Cameroons; _Nkaya_ and _Nkoko_ on the Congo.
_Adult male_ about 40 inches at the shoulder. Colour a dark
rich, nearly chocolate, brown, becoming blacker upon the forehead,
nose, throat, belly, and legs. Head with a white patch extending on
to the nose from the inner corner of the eye on each side; two white
cheek-spots and sometimes a pale patch above the eye; chin and rim
of the upper lip white; two white patches on the throat, one at its
upper, the other at its lower end. Body with dorsal line white; a row
of white spots extending laterally above the belly, about six more or
less defined white stripes on the flanks and haunches, and some white
spots on the hind-quarters. Fore legs white on the inner side at the
base; the fetlocks and pasterns whitish in front: hind limbs white in
front of the knee and on the inner side of the cannon-bone down to the
fetlocks; fetlocks and pasterns, like those of the fore limbs, whitish.
Horns with not more than two turns.
_Female._ Smaller than the male; of a rich chestnut-red, darker
above than below; white markings on the head and body resembling those
of the male in position and distinctness, but the spinal stripe black.
Legs whitish on the inner sides below the knees and hocks; the outer
sides dark in front down to the fetlock.
The skull of an adult male gives the following measurements:—Basal
length 11·5 inches, orbit to muzzle 6·5, greatest width 4·75.
_Hab._ West Africa, from the Cameroons to the Congo.
The first allusion that we can find to the occurrence of a species of
the Sitatunga-group on the West Coast of Africa is in the Zoological
Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1848, where it is recorded that the
Secretary exhibited, at the meeting on June 13th, the skull and horns
of an Antelope closely allied to _Antilope euryceros_, Ogilby, and
read a letter in reference to it received from Capt. William Allen,
R.N. Capt. Allen described the appearance of the animal from memory
only, but stated that he had himself obtained the specimen at a place
called Kokki on the Cameroons River. The pair of horns in question
are now in the British Museum, and belong, in all probability, to the
present species.
In 1871 Sir Victor Brooke read an excellent paper on Speke’s Antelope
and its allies before the Zoological Society of London. The list of
specimens of his _Tragelaphus spekii_ given in the ‘Proceedings’
contains examples of all three species of _Limnotragus_, as
we here consider them. The figure (fig. 112, p. 167) of specimen
“_g_” (which we are allowed to reproduce by the kindness of that
Society) was taken, we believe, from a West-Coast example, and is
therefore referable to _L. gratus_.
[Illustration:
Fig. 112.
Horns of Congan Sitatunga.
(P. Z. S. 1871, p. 486.)
]
In 1880 Mr. Sclater received from Mr. R. W. Rolleston, of Liverpool, a
flat skin of the very remarkable red female of this species, said to
have been received from Gaboon. This was exhibited and described at
the meeting of the Zoological Society on June 15th of that year, and a
new species—_Tragelaphus gratus_—was founded upon it. Sclater’s
original description was accompanied by a beautiful figure of the
animal prepared by Joseph Wolf, and put upon the stone by Smit. Soon
after this date Sclater was able to acquire some further information
concerning this interesting Antelope. On visiting the Menagerie of
the Jardin des Plantes at Paris in the autumn of the same year, his
attention was called to a pair of Antelopes lately received from the
Jardin d’Acclimatation, which he at once recognized as being the male
and female of his _Tragelaphus gratus_. On returning to England,
Sclater sent the typical skin of _Tragelaphus gratus_ to Paris for
comparison, and convinced M. Milne-Edwards of its identity with the
living pair. Visiting the Jardin des Plantes again in 1881, Sclater
had the pleasure of inspecting for the second time this fine pair of
Antelopes, which were then accompanied by a young female, born in the
previous December. Mr. Keulemans, being at that time in Paris, was
employed to execute a water-colour drawing of these Antelopes, which
was subsequently published in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’
along with further notes on the same subject. M. Milne-Edwards informed
Mr. Sclater that the female of the pair had been received from the
Jardin d’Acclimatation in March 1876, and the male in November 1879,
and that both were believed to have come from Gaboon. The female had
brought forth her young one on December 4th, 1880, after a period of
gestation of 7 months and 24 days. A young male had likewise been born
of the same mother in December 1881, but had not lived long.
Besides those of Paris, several other Gardens in continental Europe
have of late years obtained specimens of _Limnotragus gratus_,
which, singularly enough, when we consider its habits in a state of
nature, appears to thrive in captivity and to breed with facility.
There are at present small herds of this species in the Zoological
Gardens of Hamburg and Amsterdam. Dr. Kerbert, the Director of the
last-named Garden, has kindly sent us for this work a list of the nine
individuals bred in that establishment from 1891 to 1896, which is here
subjoined:—
Female covered. Young born. Sex. Period of gestation.
----------------------------------------------------------
days.
1. 18.4.91 26.12.91 ♂ 252
2. 31.7.91 28.3.92 ♂ 240
3. 26.5.92 5.2.93 ♀ 255
4. 3.7.92 17.3.93 ♂ 257
5. 21.6.93 4.3.94 ♂ 256
6. 22.6.93 7.3.94 ♂ 258
7. 9.7.94 15.3.95 ♂ 249
8. 30.8.94 6.5.95 ♀ 249
9. 25.5.95 24.1.96 ♀ 245
Dr. Kerbert observes that the colour of the young males and females
when born is exactly like that of the mother, but that the sexes are
easily distinguishable by the white hairs in the middle of the black
stripe over the back in the males.
The Zoological Society of London have not as yet been so successful in
the treatment of this Antelope. They received their first female in
1885, but lost it. A male purchased in 1894 bred with the female _L.
selousi_, as already mentioned, and produced two hybrids. A young
female bred at Amsterdam, and received in September 1898, was lost
shortly after its arrival.
[Illustration:
Fig. 113.
Head of the male Congan Sitatunga, from the specimen in the British
Museum.
(P. Z. S. 1883, p. 36.)
]
In our illustration of this species (Plate XCV.) the male has been
drawn by Mr. Smit from the adult specimen above mentioned, now in the
Zoological Society’s Gardens. The female, in the background, was drawn
from the typical skin (now in the British Museum) upon which Sclater
founded the species in 1880.
The National Collection likewise contains a skin of an adult male (with
horns) of this Antelope, obtained by Mr. du Chaillu in Gaboon, and a
stuffed adult male from the same country obtained by purchase. From
this last specimen the drawing of the head (fig. 113, p. 169) was taken
by Mr. Smit in 1883. It has been kindly lent us for this work by the
Zoological Society of London.
_April_, 1900.
Genus IV. STREPSICEROS.
Type.
_Strepsiceros_, Hamilton Smith, Griff. An. K. v.
p. 365 (1827) S. capensis.
_Calliope_, Ogilby, P. Z. S. 1836, p. 138 S. capensis.
Large-sized Antelopes resembling _Tragelaphus_ and _Limnotragus_ in
that the horns are spirally twisted and present only in the male;
but differing from these two genera in that the horns are rounded
behind at the base, with a scarcely appreciable external ridge,
and form from two and a half to three complete turns with a
more open spiral curvature. Further differing from _Limnotragus_,
but resembling _Tragelaphus_, in the structure of the feet,
which are adapted for progression on hard ground. Tail thickly hairy
at the sides as in _Limnotragus_ and in most of the species of
_Tragelaphus_.
_Range of the Genus._ Eastern and Southern Africa from Abyssinia
and Somaliland to Cape Colony, extending in Western Africa as far
north as the Congo region.
The two known species of this genus may be recognized as follows:—
_a._ Height of adult male about four feet or over; horns
with a bold and open spiral curvature and strongly diverging
from the base; a mane of hairs running along throat in male;
no white patches on the throat in either sex, and transverse
body-stripes varying from four to ten. 130. _S. capensis._
_b._ Height of adult male only a little over three feet;
horns with much less open curve and but little diverging from
base; no throat-mane in the male; two white throat-patches in
both sexes, and transverse body-stripes almost always more than
twelve 131. _S. imberbis._
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XCVI.
_Wolf del. Smit lith._
_Hanhart imp._
The Greater Kudu.
STREPSICEROS CAPENSIS.
_Published by R. H. Porter._
]
130. THE GREATER KUDU.
STREPSICEROS CAPENSIS (A. Smith).
[PLATE XCVI.]
_Le Condoma_, =Buffon=, Hist. Nat. xii. p. 301, pl. xxxix.
fig. 1 (1764).
_Le Condoma ou Coësdoës_, =Allamand=, in Schneider’s ed. Buffon,
Suppl. vol. iv. p. 143 (1781); =Buff.= Hist. Nat., Suppl. vi. p.
124, pl. xiii. (1782).
_Antilope strepsiceros_, =Pallas=, Misc. Zool. p. 9 (1766); id. Spic.
Zool. i. p. 17 (1767), xii. pp. 19, 69 (1777); =Erxl.= Syst. R. A.
p. 282 (1777); =Zimm.= Spec. Zool. Geogr. p. 542 (1777); id. Geogr.
Ges. ii. p. 115 (1780); =Gatt.= Brev. Zool. pt. i. p. 81 (1780);
=Schreb.= Säug. pl. cclxvii. (1784); =Bodd.= Elench. Anim. p. 142
(1785); =Gmel.= Linn. S. N. i. p. 192 (1788); =Penn.= Quadr. i. p.
77 (1781), p. 88, pl. xiv. (1793); =Kerr=, Linn. An. K. p. 319
(1792); =Donnd.= Zool. Beitr. i. p. 643 (1792); =Link=, Beytr. Nat.
ii. p. 99 (1795); =G. Cuv.= Tabl. Elém. p. 164 (1798); =Shaw=, Gen.
Zool. pt. 2, p. 334, fig. 185 (upper) (1801); =Turt.= Linn. Syst.
Nat. i. p. 116 (1802); =Desm.= N. Dict. d’Hist. Nat. vi. p. 129
(1803); =G. Cuv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 246 (1804); =Tiedemann=,
Zool. i. p. 410 (1808); =Thunb. Mém.= Ac. St. Pétersb. iii. p. 317
(1811); =G. Fisch.= Zoogn. iii. p. 439 (1814); =Afz.= N. Acta Upsal.
vii. p. 220 (1815); =G. Cuv.= R. A. i. p. 263 (1817); =Burchell=,
List Quadr. p. 7 (1817); =Goldf.= Schreb. Säug. v. p. 1207 (1818);
=Schinz=, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 396 (1821); =Burchell=, Travels, i. pp.
337, 374 (1822); =Desmoul.= Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. p. 447 (1822);
=G. B. Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 471 (1829); =Rüpp.= Neue Wirbelth.
Abyss. p. 26 (1835–40); =Masson=, Cuv. R. A. i. p. 317 (1836);
=Waterh.= Cat. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 42 (1838); =Forst.= (J. R.) Descr.
Anim. pp. 36, 377 (1844); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 430 (1845);
id. Mon. Antil. p. 28, pl. xxxi. (1848); =Drummond=, Large Game, p.
425 (1875).
_Antilope (Gazella) strepsiceros_, =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freund, vi. p.
172 (1814).
_Capra strepsiceros_, =Thunb.= Resa, ii. p. 100 (1789); Engl. Tr. ii.
p. 89 (1793).
_Ovis strepsiceros_, =Müller=, Linn. Natursyst. i. p. 429, pl. xxvi.
figs. 1 & 2 (1773).
_Cerophorus (Tragelaphus) strepsiceros_, =Blainv.= Bull. Soc. Philom.
1816, p. 75.
_Antilope (Tragelaphus) strepsiceros_, =Desm.= Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii.
p. 197 (1816); id. Mamm. ii. p. 468 (1822); =Less.= Man. Mamm. p.
383 (1827); =Gerv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. Suppl. i. p. 266 (1840); =Less.=
N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 181 (1842); =Wagn.= Schreb. Säug., Suppl.
iv. p. 445 (1844), v. p. 440 (1855); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 311 (1853).
_Tragelaphus strepsiceros_, =Heugl.= Reise Weiss. Nil, p. 319 (1869);
id. Säug. Reise Nordost-Afr. p. 113, fig. (1877).
_Antilope_ (_Addax_) _strepsiceros_, =Laurill.= Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i.
p. 620 (1861).
_Damalis strepsiceros_, =H. Sm.= Griff. An. K. iv. p. 359 (1827).
_Damalis_ (_Strepsiceros_) _strepsiceros_, =H. Sm.= op. cit. v. p. 365
(1827).
_Calliope strepsiceros_, =Ogilby=, P. Z. S. 1836, p. 138; =Rüpp.=
Senck. Mus. iii. pt. 2, p. 181 (1839).
_Strepsiceros strepsiceros_, =Smuts=, En. Mamm. Cap. p. 92 (1832);
=Peters=, Reise Mossam. p. 190 (1852); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus.
(Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 140 (1887); id. Notes Leyd. Mus. ix. p. 173
(1887) (Mossamedes); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.)
p. 172 (1892); =Rendall & Rothschild=, Novitat. Zool. v. p. 212
(1898); =Matschie=, in Werther’s Die mittl. Hochl. Deutsch-Ost-Afr.
p. 254, fig. 27 (1898); =De Winton=, P. Z. S. 1898, p. 768.
_Antilope strepsiceros_, =Less.= Compl. Buff. x. p. 303 (1836);
=Reichenb.= Säug. iii. p. 145 (1845).
_Strepsiceros strepsiceros zambesiensis_, =Lorenz=, Ann. Mus. Wien,
ix., Notizen, p. 62 (1894).
_Strepsiceros capensis_, =A. Sm. S. Afr.= Quart. J. ii. p. 223 (1834);
=Harris=, Wild Anim. S. Afr. pp. 103–107, pl. xx. (1840).
_Strepsiceros kudu_, =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 155 (1843); id. Cat.
Ost. B. M. p. 59 (1847); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 143; id. Knowsley
Menag. p. 26, pl. xxiv. fig. 2 (1850); =Jard.= Nat. Libr. xxii.,
Mamm. p. 180, pl. xx. (1850) (Koodoo); =Gray=, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.
(2) viii. p. 225 (1851); id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 133, pl. xvii. figs.
1, 2 (1852); =Gerv.= Hist. Nat. Mamm. ii. p. 200 (1855) (Coudou);
=Gerr.= Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 245 (1862); =Wood=, Ill. Nat.
Hist. i. p. 663, fig. (1862); =Sclater=, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 105;
=Kirk=, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 659; =Fitz.= SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p.
176 (1869); =Blanf.= Zool. Abyss, p. 270 (1870); =Gray=, Cat. Rum.
B. M. p. 46 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. p. 117 (1873); =Buckley=, P. Z.
S. 1872, p. 454, 1876, pp. 284, 291; =Garrod=, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 4
(anatomy); =Bocage=, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 745 (Angola); =Brehm=,
Thierl. iii. p. 227, fig. (1880); =Selous=, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 751;
id. Hunter’s Wand. p. 207 (1881); =Scl.= List An. Z. S. p. 136
(1883), p. 160, fig. 23 (1896); id. P. Z. S. 1884, p. 47, fig. 2
(horns) (nec fig. 1); =Johnston=, River Congo, pp. 386, 391 (1884);
id. P. Z. S. 1884, p. 542; =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Ost. Coll. Surg. p.
258 (1884); =Lort Phillips=, P. Z. S. 1885, p. 931; =Hunter=, in
Willoughby’s E. Africa, p. 287 (1889); =Bryden=, Kloof and Karroo,
pp. 291, 292 (1889); =Crawshay=, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 659; =Jent.= Mus.
Pays-Bas, xii. p. 211 (1890); =Scl.= fil. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. p.
153 (1891); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 348 (1891); =Inverarity=, Journ.
Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. vi. no. 4, p. 463, pl. (1891); =Nicolls &
Eglin.= Sportsm. in S. Afr. p. 52 (1892); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 159
(1892), p. 203 (1896); =Lugard=, Rise of E. Afr. Emp. i. p. 531
(1893); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1892, pp. 102, 118; =Swayne=, P. Z. S. 1892,
p. 301; =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 256 (1893); =id.= Royal Nat.
Hist. ii. p. 273, pl. (1894); =Jackson=, Big Game Shooting (Badm.
Libr.), pp. 288, 304 (1894); =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1894, p. 145;
=Matschie=, Säug. Deutsch-Ost-Afr. p. 136 (1895); =Swayne=,
Somaliland, p. 302, fig. facing p. 144 (1895); =Thos.= P. Z. S.
1896, p. 798; =Elliot=, Publ. Mus. Chicago, Zool. i. p. 132;
=Bryden=, Nat. & Sportsm. in S. Afr. pp. 241–250 (1897); =Pousarg.=
Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. p. 81 (1897); =Jackson=, P. Z. S. 1897, p. 454;
=Ghika=, Pays des Somalis, p. 181 (1898); =Trouess.= Cat. Mamm. ii.
pt. 4, p. 960 (1898); =Lydekker, Selous, Buckley, & Inverarity=, in
Ward’s Great and Small Game of Africa, pp. 440–451, pl. xiii. fig. 1
(1899).
_Damalis_ (_Strepsiceros_) _capensis_, =A. Sm.= Illust. Zool. S. Afr.
pls. xlii., xliii. (1859).
_Antilope tendal_, =Cretzschm.= Atl. Rüpp. Reise, Säug. p. 22 (1826);
=J. B. Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 475 (1829).
_Antilope chora_, =J. B. Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 475 (1829).
_Strepsiceros kudu abyssinicus_, =Fitz.= SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p.
176 (1869).
_Strepsiceros excelsus_, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. lxv. p.
196 (1846); =id.= Hornsch. Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 147;
Reprint, p. 71 (1848).
?? _Antilope torticornis_, =Herm.= Obs. Zool. i. p. 87[12].
_Cerf du Cap de Bonne-Espérance_, =Colini=, Acta Acad. Theod. Palat.
pp. 487–491, pl. (1766).
_Striped Antelope_, =Penn.= Syn. Quadr. pp. 31, 224 (1771); =id.=
Hist. of Quadr. (1) i, p. 76, (3) i. p. 88, pl. xiv.
_Koedoe_, =Sparrm.= Reise, p. 511 (1784); Engl. Tr. ii. p. 213 (1786);
French Tr. p. 237 (1787).
_Le Condoma_, =Huet=, Coll. Mamm. Mus. d’Hist. Nat. p. 47, pl. xli.
fig. 1 (1808).
_The Koodoo_, =Daniell=, Afr. Scenery, no. 6 (1812); =Baldwin=, Afr.
Hunting, p. 376 (1863); =Johnston=, Kilima-Njaro Exped. pp. 301, 354
(and of most English sportsmen and naturalists).
Vernacular Names:—_Koedoe_ of the Dutch, and _Kudu_ or _Koodoo_ of the
English Colonists at the Cape; _Tolo_ of Bechuana; _Ee-bala-bala_ of
Amandables; _Ee-zilarwa_ of Makalakas; _Noro_ of Mashunas; _Unza_ of
Masubias; _Unzwa_ of Makubas; _Muzeelona_ of Batongas; _Dwar_ of
Masuras (_Selous_). _Unganxa_ of Kaffirs (_Drummond_). _Mivimveh_,
_Njellet_, _Neled_, and _Jelled_ of the Arabs of the Upper Nile;
_Garna_ or _Qarna_ and _Nellet_ at Massaua; _Ungŭtir_ of Hamran
Arabs; _Agasehn_, _A’gasen_, and _Agasen_ in Amharic (_Heuglin_).
_Goder_ and _Gouriali_ in Somaliland (_Swayne_).
_Adult male._ Height at withers about 50–52 inches. General colour
of body varying from reddish to pale slaty bluish grey, the latter
especially prevalent in older animals, and perhaps due, in part, to
the scantiness of the hair revealing the tint of the skin. Neck brown
on each side at its base and darker than the shoulders, becoming paler
towards its anterior extremity. Head darker fawn than the anterior end
of the neck, whitish around the eye, a white bar running inwards from
the corner of each eye and forming an incomplete v-shaped
mark on the nose; two or three white cheek-spots; edge of the upper
lip and chin white, the white of the chin extending back on to the
fore part of the inter-ramal area. From the middle of this area back
to the hinder end of the throat extends a thickish mane of white and
blackish-brown hairs; no white patches on the throat. There is also a
dorsal mane passing from the occiput, backwards along the nape, over
the withers and down the spine to the root of the tail; the mane brown
on the neck and shoulders, white along the back. Sides of the body and
hind-quarters marked with white stripes, which vary in number from
about four in the northern forms to about nine or ten in the southern.
Tail white below, black at the tip. Belly greyish, blacker in the
middle. Fore legs of a rich fawn down the front, whitish at the base on
inner side and behind the knee, also on the inner and posterior side
of the cannon-bone, a pale blackish-brown patch above the knee on the
inner side; fetlocks and pasterns also rich fawn, black behind; the
white pastern-spots only just traceable. Hind leg coloured like the
fore leg; inner side of the thigh at the base and anterior side down to
the hock white, the white fading away between the hock and the pastern.
Horns with bold and open spiral curvature, measuring about 40 inches or
more in a straight line, and an additional 12 inches or so round the
curve; distance between the tips varying, irrespective of the length,
from about 24 to nearly 40 inches. The skull of an adult gives the
following measurements:—Basal length 15 inches, orbit to muzzle 9,
greatest width 6·33.
_Female._ Generally similar to the male, but hornless and smaller
and slighter; similarly marked with white, but the ground-colour of the
body of a tolerably uniform fawn, becoming darker above.
_Young_ redder in colour than the adult and strongly marked with
white.
_Hab._ Africa south of the Zambesi, extending on the west into
Angola, and on the east throughout East Africa up to Abyssinia,
mostly in the higher districts.
We come now to one of the largest and finest of the whole long series
of African Antelopes. In Mr. John Millais’s well-known ‘Breath from the
Veldt,’ drawings of the heads of the Sable Antelope and the Kudu occupy
a conspicuous position on the cover. Mr. Millais, than whom there can
be no better judge, although he rather gives the palm to the Sable,
admits that the Kudu surpasses its rival “in elegance and general
appearance” when dead, but gives the Sable preference when seen alive
on the veldt. It is really a difficult question, he allows, to decide
between the “two rival beauties.” But we will proceed to the history of
the Kudu.