in Holland from the Cape as long ago as about 1783, when they were
described by Vosmaer and others as being in the menagerie of the
Prince of Orange. In England the first examples of this species of
which we can find any record were those which constituted the herd
in the celebrated menagerie of Edward, 13th Earl of Derby, President
of the Zoological Society of London. There is, unfortunately, little
information available as to the origin and history of this celebrated
herd, but from some notes published by Lord Derby in the first volume
of the ‘Gleanings,’ we learn that the first specimens received were
obtained for him by Mr. Burke from the Cape in November 1842, and
consisted of two males and a female. The female first bred in August
1843, and produced young in 1844, 1845, and 1846, at which date Lord
Derby remarked that he had in his possession four males and two females
of this Antelope. At the dispersal of the Derby Menagerie by auction
in October 1851 the Knowsley herd consisted of two males and three
females. These passed into the Gardens of the Zoological Society of
London, having been selected out of the whole stock by the Council of
the Society in virtue of a bequest by Lord Derby to that Society of any
group of animals in his collection that they might prefer.
The original stock of the Zoological Society’s herd of Elands
consisted, therefore, of these five animals received by the Society
in December 1851. Of these an old female had been born at Knowsley in
1846, and the other individuals, two males and two females, had been
imported by Lord Derby in 1850. These animals throve well in their new
quarters and began to increase rapidly. As will be seen by the list
given in Wolf and Sclater’s ‘Zoological Sketches’ (vol. i.), two calves
were born in 1853, three in 1854, four in 1855, and four in 1856. The
first additions made to the original stock were a female presented by
the late Sir George Grey in April 1859, and a male received in exchange
from Viscount Hill in November of the same year. Since the date of its
first institution, the Zoological Society’s herd of Elands has never
failed, although occasionally reduced to somewhat small dimensions.
Nearly every year one or more Eland-calves have been born in the
Gardens, and care has been taken to lose no opportunity of introducing
fresh blood whenever the occasion has offered. At the present moment,
however, we regret to say, in consequence of the great difficulties
now prevailing in obtaining living examples of the larger Antelopes of
Africa, the Eland is represented in the Society’s Antelope-House by
only two specimens, namely, a male, about six years old, bred in the
Jardin d’Acclimatation of Paris, and received on October 12, 1898, and
a young female, purchased of Herr Reiche, of Alfeld, in April 1899. The
latter is more rufous in colouring and shows slight traces of stripes,
which, however, she may probably lose when quite adult.
From these two specimens our illustration of _Taurotragus oryx
typicus_ (Plate XCVIII.) has been prepared by Mr. Smit.
Besides the Zoological Society’s animals, the only herd of Elands that
we are aware of now existing in this country is that belonging to the
Duke of Bedford, the President of the Zoological Society of London,
which is kept in the beautiful Park at Woburn, along with a splendid
series of Deer and other Ungulates. Through the kindness of His Grace
we have been furnished with the following particulars concerning this
herd, which now consists of fourteen individuals. Three of these are
adult females, two of which were purchased from dealers, and the third
from the Zoological Society of London, in whose Gardens it was bred.
The adult male was purchased of Herr Reiche, of Alfeld. Five young
males and two females have been bred at Woburn up to the end of 1899.
Three calves, one male and two females, have been born at Woburn since
the commencement of the present year.
Allusion has already been made to the Elands possessed by the late
Roland, Viscount Hill, who, about the year 1861, possessed a fine
herd of these animals. When visited by Sclater about that date, Lord
Hill’s stock consisted of three males and seven females, which were
kept at his Lordship’s residence Hawkstone, in Shropshire. They were
the produce of individuals principally purchased by him from the
Zoological Society, and were kept in grazing paddocks in Hawkstone
Park. Unfortunately, a few years later Lord Hill lost his interest in
these animals and got rid of them.
About the same period John, 2nd Marquis of Breadalbane, likewise
purchased a herd of Elands, which, however, we believe, was not
maintained long after the Marquis’s death in 1862.
In almost all the Zoological Gardens of the Continent also the Eland
is a well-known object of interest, and in many of them, until the
last few years, has thriven well and produced its kind; but, as
already mentioned, the supply of Elands from abroad has recently much
decreased, and at the present time there is a great difficulty in
keeping our herds of Elands in Europe up to the mark by the necessary
introduction of fresh blood.
One of the chief ornaments of the Mammal-Gallery in the British Museum
is the mounted pair of Livingstone’s Elands obtained by Mr. F. C.
Selous in Mashonaland in 1883. The male (as Mr. Selous informs us) was
shot near Sadza’s Kraal, west of Marandalla’s, a station on the main
road from Salisbury to Umtali, in July of that year, and the female
near Salisbury in the following October. The male stands 67¾ inches
high at the withers, and carries a pair of horns 22½ inches in length
in a straight line; the female is 57½ inches in height, and has horns
27 inches in length. In both these animals the lateral stripes are well
defined, and there are no black patches above the knee on the fore leg
of the male, though in the female the patches are slightly visible.
These specimens are fair representatives of _Taurotragus oryx
livingstonii_, and have been figured as such in our illustration
(Plate XCIX.), prepared by Smit. But it is right to add that it appears
that the skins have apparently shrunk slightly in drying, as in his
measurements of the male specimen in question, lately given in the
‘Great and Small Game of Africa’ (p. 426), Mr. Selous states that the
height of this animal, “taken on the naked carcase after the skin had
been removed,” was 69 inches. Moreover, in former days there were
probably still larger specimens, as such reliable authorities as Barrow
and Harris agree in stating that the old male Elands were known to
attain a height of 6½ feet at the withers.
There are also in the National Collection other skins and skulls of the
Eland obtained by Mr. Selous, and a number of other specimens, amongst
which we may specify a skull and horns of a female from Nyasaland,
presented by Sir Harry Johnston, and a skull and horns from the
district of Kilimanjaro, presented by Mr. F. J. Jackson in 1892. We may
remark that examples of the Eland of the White Nile (the problematical
_T. o. gigas_) are much wanted to complete the series in the
National Collection, besides which specimens from other definite
localities in Eastern Africa and Angola would be very acceptable.
_April_, 1900.
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, Pl. C.
_Waterhouse Hawkins, del. Smit lith._
_Hanhart imp._
The Derbyan Eland.
TAUROTRAGUS DERBIANUS.
_Published by R. H. Porter._
]
133. THE DERBIAN ELAND.
TAUROTRAGUS DERBIANUS (Gray).
[PLATE C.]
_Boselaphus oreas_, Gray, Cat. Ost. B. M. p. 145 (1847).
_Boselaphus derbianus_, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. xx. p. 286
(1847); =id.= Silliman’s Amer. Journ. v. p. 279 (1848); =id.= P. Z.
S. 1850, p. 144; =id.= Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2) viii. p. 226 (1851);
=id.= Knowsl. Menag. pl. xxv. (1850); =Gerv.= H. N. Mamm. ii. p.
201, pl. xxxviii. (1855); =Fitz.= SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 179
(1869).
_Oreas derbianus_, =Gray=, Knowsl. Menag. p. 27 (1850); =id.= Cat.
Ung. B. M. p. 136 (1852); =Gerr.= Cat. Bones B. M. p. 245 (1862);
=Winwood Reade=, P. Z. S. 1863, p. 169, pl. xxii.; =id.= ‘Savage
Africa,’ p. 398 (cum tab.) (1864); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 47
(1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. p. 118 (1873); =Rochbr.= Faune Sénégamb.
p. 120, pl. vii. fig. 2 (1883); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus.
Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 141 (1887); =Ward=, Horn Meas. pp. 165–168 (1892),
p. 211 (1896); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 260 (1893); =id.= Royal Nat.
Hist. ii. p. 273 (1894); =Pousargues=, Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. p. 81
(1897); =Scl. P. Z. S.= 1898, p. 349 (horns).
_Antilope (Taurotragus) derbianus_, =Wagn.= Sehr. Säug., Suppl. v. p.
439 (1855).
_Taurotragus derbianus_, =Lyd. & Bryden=, in Ward’s Great and Small
Game of Afr. p. 439, pl. xii. fig. 2 (1899).
_Oreas colini_, =Rochbr.= Bull. Soc. Phil. Paris, (7) vii. p. 8
(1883); =id.= Faune Sénégamb. p. 121, pl. vii. fig. 1 (1883).
Vernacular Names:—_Gingi-ganga_ or _Djik-i-junka_ of the Mandingoes of
Senegambia (_Whitfield_ and _Winwood Reade_).
Exact height at withers unknown, but probably equal to, if not
exceeding, that of the preceding species (70 inches). Forehead covered
with hair of a rich ruddy-brown hue, extending from the base of the
horns to a point below the level of the eyes; nose black; sides of the
head dusky brown or dark fawn; a whitish stripe running inwards and
forwards from the inner edge of the eye on each side; upper lip and
chin white. Ears large and expanded, much larger than in the other
species; the margins broadly white in front and ornamented on the lower
side with a large black patch; the posterior surface mostly black,
brownish at the base. Neck covered with long hair of a dark brown or
black colour, blacker towards the shoulder than in front; base of
the neck bordered by a white collar, directed obliquely upwards and
backwards at least halfway up to the withers. Body of a rich ruddy
fawn-colour, becoming paler or nearly white below, the middle of the
belly black; a broad black stripe of longer hairs extending all down
the spine from the neck to the root of the tail; sides of the body and
haunches ornamented with thirteen or fourteen narrow white stripes,
commencing at the dorsal stripe above and gradually fading away on the
lower part of the belly and hind-quarters. Legs down to the knees and
hocks of the same colour externally as the body, whitish on the inner
side; there is a large black patch on the fore leg above the knee on
the posterior and inner sides. Horns very large and massive, diverging
from the base, the divergence in some cases amounting almost to a right
angle; length of horns up to about 34·25 inches.
_Female._ Smaller than the male, and without the mat of hairs on
the forehead; horns smaller and less divergent than in the male, but
much more strongly twisted and crested than in the females of the other
species.
_Hab._ Senegal and the Gambia Colony.
Just as the Kudu, which is spread over the greater part of southern and
eastern Africa, has a smaller relative (the Lesser Kudu) confined to
Somaliland, so the Eland, which has a still wider range, has a near,
but quite distinct, ally in a limited part of western Africa. But in
the latter case the ally is what is called a “representative form,”
since the typical Eland does not occur in the same country, whereas in
Somaliland both the Greater and Lesser Kudus are found together in one
district.
The discovery of the West-African Eland is due to the researches of
the collector, J. Whitfield, who was employed by the thirteenth Earl
of Derby to procure living specimens of the larger Antelopes and
other animals for his celebrated Knowsley Menagerie. With this object
Whitfield made several expeditions to the River Gambia, and on his
return, in 1846, brought with him some horns of a large Antelope
nearly resembling those of the South-African Eland, but “larger,
longer, and much heavier.” In his expedition of 1847 Whitfield
succeeded in procuring from the same district the upper part of the
skull and horns of a male and the flat skins (unfortunately without
heads or feet) of an adult male and female of this animal, of which
the native name was said to be “_Gingi-ganga_.” It was upon these
specimens that the late Dr. Gray, in October 1847, established his
species _Boselaphus derbianus_, by publishing a short description
of it in the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History’ for that month.
It has been imagined, and even stated in print, that living specimens
of this Eland were received by Lord Derby; but such, we believe, was
not the case. The drawings made by Waterhouse Hawkins, and subsequently
issued in the ‘Gleanings from the Knowsley Menagerie,’ were taken, we
believe, not from living examples, but from the specimens brought home
by Whitfield, as already mentioned.
So far as we know, no further information respecting this remarkable
Antelope was brought to Europe until 1863, when the well-known African
traveller, the late Mr. Winwood Reade, returned to England from one of
his expeditions into Western Africa. Along with other spoils of the
chase, Reade brought with him a head and skin of the present Antelope,
which he at first believed to be undescribed; but on inspecting them,
at Reade’s request, Sclater at once recognized them as belonging to
the little-known Derbian Eland, and persuaded Reade to exhibit them
at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London in May of that year.
Reade’s notes upon this occasion were subsequently published in the
Society’s ‘Proceedings’ and illustrated by a plate drawn by Joseph Wolf
from Mr. Reade’s specimens. So little is known of this most interesting
Antelope, that we propose to give Mr. Reade’s account of it at full
length as follows:—
“When I was on the Casamanza, a river of Senegambia, in December
1862, I was informed of the existence of an enormous Antelope,
double the size of the Senegal Bullock, with horns lying
backwards, a black mane, and white stripes on its sides. My French
host informed me that it was unknown in France, which is quite
true, as, in fact, its very existence has been denied by French
naturalists. I asked where this animal was most abundant, and was
told in the bamboo-forest of Bambunda, about fifty miles north-
east of Sedhu, where I was staying. I immediately rode over to a
village called Nussera, situated on the borders of the forest,
taking a rifle with me. The hunters of that village told me that
at that time it would be impossible to kill the _Djik-i-junka_,
the bush being dark, as they expressed it; but that in a few weeks
they would burn the tangled undergrowth of the forest and the high
grass of the plains, according to their annual custom. They would
then have a _battue_; hundreds of people would collect, and the
animated nature, towards the close of the day, would be driven
into a large plain. There Antelopes, Gazelles, Wild Boars,
Porcupines, &c. would be found so exhausted that many of them
could be killed with sticks; and indeed only a limited number of
guns were allowed in case of accidents. Accordingly I made an
arrangement with them that the first specimen they killed should
be sent to Sedhu, where my friend M. Rapet would buy it for me,
and send it on. Thus I obtained one specimen; the others I
purchased at Macarthy’s Island, Gambia.
[Illustration:
Fig. 119.
Herd of Derbian Elands.
(From Winwood Reade’s ‘Savage Africa.’)
]
“I made inquiries of the hunters of Nussera as to the habits of
the Derbian Eland. They told me that the forest was its home; that
it never of its own accord entered the plains; that it never
grazed, but that the bull would tear down branches of trees for
the does and fawns to feed upon.
“A fawn, destined for le Jardin des Plantes, was once sent by M.
Rapet from the Casamanza, but it died at Goree. When I was at
Macarthy’s Island, I saw a fawn of this Antelope which was in the
possession of an officer of the 2nd West Indian Regiment; it was
extremely tame, allowing itself to be caressed, and was so young
that it used to be fed on milk.”
Some further details on the subject will be found in Winwood Reade’s
‘Savage Africa,’ where they are accompanied by a beautiful lithographic
plate representing a herd of Derbyan Elands, drawn by Joseph Wolf and
signed with his initials. This plate (fig. 119, p. 218) by the kindness
of Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co., we are enabled to reproduce in the
present work.
[Illustration:
Fig. 120.
Horns of Derbian Eland.
(P. Z. S. 1898, p. 349.)
]
Since Winwood Reade’s visit to the West Coast, although several heads
of the Derbian Eland have been obtained at the Gambia by Dr. Percy
Rendall and others, little additional information has been received on
the subject. In 1898 Sir R. B. Llewellyn, K.C.M.G., the Governor of the
Colony, brought home, amongst other spoils of the chase, a fine pair
of horns of this Antelope, which were exhibited by Sclater at a Meeting
of the Zoological Society on May 5th of that year. A figure of them was
given in the ‘Proceedings,’ which the kindness of the Society enables
us to reproduce (fig. 120, p. 219) on the present occasion. These horns
are of large dimensions, measuring 31 inches in length from the base
in a straight line, and about 11½ inches round their bases. They are
apparently those of an adult male animal.
Mr. J. S. Budgett, F.Z.S., who made a zoological expedition to the
Gambia last year, specially with a view of collecting and observing the
river-fishes, has favoured us with the following notes on what he saw
of the Derbian Eland during several visits to the upper districts of
the Protectorate:—
“The Derbian Eland of the Gambia is known to the Mandingoes by the
name of ‘_Jinke-janko_.’ It does not seem to be very abundant, and
is undoubtedly very shy. During my stay on the river, several
pairs of horns were found in the possession of natives. Two were
met with on the south bank, west of M’Carthy’s Island, and one at
Koina, on the north bank, 100 miles east of M’Carthy’s Island. All
these had been procured in the year 1899.
“A head of a young female was taken from a carcase floating down
the river near Yarbutenda by Mr. P. E. Wainewright, the travelling
Commissioner of the M’Carthy’s Island district, and presented to
me.
“I was assured by Mr. Wainewright that the hair on the neck of
this animal was ‘bluish,’ though the animal was a good deal
decomposed.
“I myself, one day in May 1899, saw a large herd of very large
Antelopes in the distance near the town of Berreef on the north
bank of the Gambia, about 15 miles from Yarbutenda. I have little
doubt that these were Derbian Elands, though I was not fortunate
enough to secure one. They were of an extremely light colour all
over the body, but the head and neck were darker, and the horns
appeared rather short and straight at the distance of 400 yards.”
[Illustration:
Fig. 121.
Front view of the horns of the Derbian Eland.
]
Before concluding our account of the Derbian Eland, it is necessary to
say a few words respecting the supposed new species of Eland described
by M. Rochebrune in the ‘Bulletin’ of the Société Philomathique of
Paris in 1883, and subsequently in his ‘Fauna of Senegambia,’ although
we are not generally willing even to allude to this most untrustworthy
publication. So far as we can make out, the specimens of this animal
promised in the text of M. Rochebrune’s work to be sent to the Gallery
of the Museum of Paris have never reached that Institution, and the
only evidence we have, therefore, for its existence is contained in
M. Rochebrune’s descriptions and figures. As well as we can judge from
these and from the extreme improbability of there being a species of
Eland in Senegal different from that of the Gambia, we are inclined to
place the so-called _Oreas colini_ as a synonym of the present
species. The figure of the head given by Rochebrune is stated to have
been taken from a sketch made by “M. le Dr. Colin” of a head of this
animal obtained in the forest of Kita in Senegal. In this figure the
whole head of the animal is represented as of a nearly uniform slaty
grey, with the exception of a patch of reddish hair on the forehead
at the base of the horns and a black patch in the middle of the nose.
These are certainly striking differences, if we could trust them as
being accurate, but we do not know how far M. le Dr. Colin’s sketch
was correctly made, nor what alterations the copier of it may have
introduced into M. Rochebrune’s plate. We cannot admit the existence of
the supposed new species upon such unsatisfactory evidence.
The authorities of the Liverpool Museum have most kindly sent up to us
for examination the specimens of the Derbian Eland now in the Derby
Museum, Liverpool, which are probably those from which the original
figures in the ‘Gleanings’ were drawn by Waterhouse Hawkins. The
frontlet is apparently that of an adult specimen, as will be seen from
our view of it (fig. 121, p. 221) prepared by Mr. Grönvold. The horns
measure 30½ inches in length from base to tip, the tips are nearly 23
inches apart in a straight line. The two flat skins which accompany it
are without heads, and the legs have been cut off at the knees.
In the British Museum there are frontlets of one female and two
male specimens of the Derbian Eland, obtained at the Gambia by the
same collector (Whitfield) and presented by Lord Derby. In the same
collection there is a flat skin brought home by Winwood Reade, and the
head of a female, dried with the skin on, obtained by Dr. Percy Kendall
on the Gambia.
The material available not being, in our opinion, sufficient for the
preparation of a correct figure of the Derbian Eland, we have thought
it best, as our illustration of this Antelope, to copy, on a reduced
scale (Plate C.), the original figures of the Derbian Eland drawn by
Waterhouse Hawkins for plate XXV. of the ‘Gleanings.’
We admit, however, that these are by no means satisfactory, for the
head and legs of the specimens from which the figures were taken are
absent, and the details as to these parts in the figures were probably
filled up from conjecture. Wolf’s figure of the head of Reade’s
specimen in the ‘Proceedings’ is, no doubt, more accurate, but in this
example the legs are likewise deficient.
_April_, 1900.
APPENDIX.
LIST OF THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF ANTELOPES DESCRIBED AS NEW DURING
THE PROGRESS OF THIS WORK.
Genus BUBALIS. (Vol. I. p. 5.)
Bubalis neumanni.
_Bubalis neumanni_, =Rothschild=, Ann. & Mag. N. H. ser. 6, xx. p. 376
(1897).
Mr. Rothschild has based this species upon two skulls with horns, of
male and female, and parts of a skin obtained by Mr. A. H. Neumann on
the east shore and to the north-east of Lake Rudolf. He describes it as
follows:—
“The horns of this species differ widely from those of _Bubalis
major_ (Blyth), of West Africa, and _B. buselaphus_ (Pall.), of
Northern Africa and Arabia, in being slenderer and in their tips being
inverted, instead of pointing outwards or straight behind. The nearest
ally seems to be _B. tora_ (Gray) of Upper Nubia, Abyssinia, and
Kordofan, which, however, has more slender horns, with more distinct
rings, reaching almost round, a broader forehead, and a generally paler
coloration. The horns also diverge much more in _B. tora_, as
shown at a glance by the distances between the tips of the horns, as
recorded in R. Ward’s ‘Horn Measurements.’
“The horns of _B. neumanni_ measure as follows:—
“Circumference at base, ♂ 273 millim., ♀ 183; total length along the
curves, ♂ 420, ♀ 345; tip to tip, ♂ 206, ♀ 249.
“The rings of the horns are not very prominent and do not reach all
round.
“Breadth of skull at forehead, ♂ 100 millim., ♀ 80; length of skull
from base of horn to upper lip, along the side in a straight line: ♂
430, ♀ 403 millim.
“Colour of hair fulvous fawn, much richer on the back, where there are
also some darker spots, which may be stains or natural; below very
much paler. Chin blackish, tip of tail black. The male is brighter
and darker in colour than the female. There are also on the back some
patches with longer, thicker, almost whitish-buff hair, perhaps remains
of the winter fur.”
Genus CONNOCHÆTES. (Vol. I. p. 93.)
Connochætes taurinus johnstoni.
_Connochætes taurinus johnstoni_, =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1896, p. 616, pl.
xxvii.
Under this subspecific name Sclater has shortly described and figured
the local form of the Brindled Gnu that occurs on the plains of the
Shiré Highlands, Nyasaland. The difference consists mainly in the
generally brownish colour of the body, and the broad whitish band
across the face beneath the eyes. The mane is black or blackish as in
_C. taurinus typicus_, not white as in _C. albojubatus_.
Some good field-notes on the same animal by Mr. R. Crawshay are
appended to Sclater’s remarks.
Genus CEPHALOPHUS. (Vol. I. p. 121.)
Cephalophus hecki.
_Cephalophus hecki_, =Matsch.= SB. Ges. nat. Freund. Berlin, 1897, p.
158.
Herr Matschie has proposed this name for the geographical form of _C.
monticola_ (Bk. of Ant. i. p. 191) which occurs in Mozambique.
The type is an adult male in the Berlin Museum from Mozambique, and
there was also at the time of the description a specimen living in the
Zoological Garden of Berlin.
Cephalophus lugens.
_Cephalophus lugens_, =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1898, p. 393.