THE
BOOK OF ANTELOPES.

BY

PHILIP LUTLEY SCLATER, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S.,

SECRETARY TO THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON,

AND

OLDFIELD THOMAS, F.Z.S., F.R.G.S.,

ASSISTANT IN THE ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

IN FOUR VOLUMES (1894–1900).

VOL. II.

LONDON:
R. H. PORTER, 7 PRINCES STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE, W. 1896–1897.

ALERE FLAMMAM.

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

CONTENTS.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT.

VOL. II.
Fig.			Page
23.	Ourebia scoparia, ♂		[17]
24.	Skull of Ourebia haggardi, ♂		[30]
25.	Skull of Nesotragus livingstonianus, ♂		[57]
26.	Skull of Nesotragus pygmæus, ♂		[64]
27.	Skull of Madoqua phillipsi		[77]
28.	Fore part of skull of Madoqua damarensis, side view		[80]
28a.	Upper view of snout of M. damarensis
28b.	Lower view of snout of M. damarensis
28c.	Lower view of snout of M. saltiana
28d.	Posterior mandibulary molar of M. saltiana
28e.	Posterior mandibulary molar of M. damarensis
29.	Head of Madoqua kirki		[84]
29a.	Skull of Madoqua kirki (side view)		[85]
29b.	Skull of Madoqua kirki (upper view)		[85]
30.	Skull of Madoqua guentheri (side view)		[90]
30a.	Skull of Madoqua guentheri (from above)		[90]
31.	Skull and horns of Cobus crawshayi		[110]
32.	Head and foot of “Nsumma Antelope”		[117]
33.	Head of Cobus maria, ♂		[123]
34.	Head of Cobus thomasi, ♂		[135]
35.	Horns of Cobus vardoni.—a. Side view; b. Front view		[143]
36.	Head of Cobus lechee		[151]
37.	Horns of Cervicapra arundinum from Nyasaland		[163]
38.	Skull of Cervicapra fulvorufula		[168]
39.	Skull of Cervicapra bohor		[169]
40.	Head of Cervicapra redunca		[174]
41.	Horns of Cervicapra fulvorufula, not adult		[181]
42.	Horns of Cervicapra fulvorufula, aged		[181]
43.	Head of Cervicapra chanleri		[184]
44.	Head of Vaal Rhébok, ♂		[193]

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES.

VOL. II.

Subfamily III. NEOTRAGINÆ.

General Characters.—Size small. Muzzle either naked or elongated and hairy. Large anteorbital glands present, opening on the face by a small circular hole. Tail medium or short. False hoofs present or absent.

Skull with large anteorbital fossæ and, except in Neotragus, anteorbital vacuities. Frontal bones not projected backwards between the parietals, the horns placed above the hinder part of the orbits.

Horns present only in the male; short, nearly or quite straight, vertical or reclining backwards; ridged basally, smooth terminally.

Range of Subfamily. Africa.

The numerous small Antelopes belonging to this subfamily were all included by Sir Victor Brooke in two genera, one consisting of the Dik-diks (Madoqua) and the other of all the rest (called by him “Nanotragus”). Bearing in mind, however, the naturalness of the smaller groups into which “Nanotragus” may be divided, and the readiness with which these groups may be recognized and defined, we think it better to allow six genera in all, the distinguishing points of which are shown in the following synopsis:—

• A. Nose not specially elongated, its tip with a distinct naked muffle. Crown not tufted.
• a. Hoofs cylindrical, not pointed, the animal standing more or less on their tips. Hairs thick and pithy like those of a Musk-Deer. Horns vertical  1. Oreotragus.
• b. Hoofs triangular, pointed, as in other Antelopes. Hairs normal.
• a¹. A naked glandular spot below ear. Accessory hoofs present. Anteorbital fossa of skull very large  2. Ourebia.
• b¹. No glandular spot below ear. Accessory hoofs absent (except in Raphicerus melanotis).
• a². Horns nearly vertical. Anteorbital fossa small.  3. Raphicerus.
• b². Horns lying back nearly or quite to profile-line of face. Anteorbital fossa large.
• a³. Horns reaching to or past back of head. Anteorbital and nasal vacuities present  4. Nesotragus.
• b³. Horns not nearly reaching back of head. No anteorbital or nasal vacuities  5. Neotragus.
• B. Nose elongated, its tip hairy round the nostrils. Crown tufted.  6. Madoqua.

The recently discovered Beira Antelope of Somaliland (Dorcotragus megalotis) might also be supposed to be a member of this subfamily; but, after a careful consideration of its characters, we think it may best be regarded as an aberrant Gazelle, and as such we therefore propose to treat it. The undeniable resemblance that the nasal region of its skull shows to the same part in Madoqua appears, on the whole, more likely to be due to purely adaptive modification than are the various characters which it possesses in common with the members of the Gazelline group.

Genus I. OREOTRAGUS.

Hoofs large, cylindrical, blunt, in shape and position quite different to those of other Antelopes. The animal in life walks upon what is normally the pointed tip of the hoofs, so that the hoof stands up vertically, only its blunted end resting on the ground. Accessory hoofs present. Hairs of coat thick, pithy, somewhat similar in texture to those of the Musk-Deer. Tail a mere stump, scarcely projecting beyond the fur.

Skull peculiarly short and broad, stoutly built. Anteorbital fossæ large.

Horns directed nearly vertically; slightly curved forwards; their basal third ringed.

Distribution. Eastern and Southern Africa, from Abyssinia to the Cape.

Only one species is known.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XXV.

Smit del & lith.

Hanhart imp.

The Klipspringer.

OREOTRAGUS SALTATOR.

Published by R·H·Porter.

40. THE KLIPSPRINGER.
OREOTRAGUS SALTATOR (Bodd.).
[PLATE XXV.]

Antilope oreotragus, Zimm. Geogr. Gesch. iii. p. 269 (1783); Schreb. Säug. pl. cclix. (1785); Gmel. Linn. S. N. i. p. 189 (1788); Kerr, Linn. An. K. p. 316 (1792); Donnd. Zool. Beitr. i. p. 637 (1792); Link, Beytr. Nat. ii. p. 99 (1795); Bechst. Allgem. Uebers. vierf. Thiere, i. p. 74 (1799), ii. p. 642 (1800); Shaw, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, p. 321 (1801); Turt. Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 114 (1802); Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (1) xvi. p. 328 (1803); G. Cuv. Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 233 (1804); Tiedem. Zool. i. p. 408 (1808); Thunb. Mém. Ac. Pétersb. iii. p. 311 (1811) (Table Mt.); Afzel. N. Act. Ups. vii. p. 219 (1815); Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 191 (1816); Goldf. Schr. Säug. v. p. 1228 (1818); Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 392 (1821); Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 460 (1822); id. Dict. Class, i. p. 445 (1822); Burch. List Mamm. pres. to B. M. p. 6 (1825) (Orange Free State); Licht. Darst. Säug. pl. xv. (♂ ♀) (1828); J. B. Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 466 (1829); Rüpp. N. Wirb. Abyss., Mamm. p. 25 (1835); Less. Compl. Buff. x. p. 291 (1836); Waterh. Cat. Mamm. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 42 (1838); Oken, Allg. Nat. vii. p. 1363 (1838); Gerv. Dict. Sci. Nat. Suppl. i. p. 262 (1840); Forst. Descr. Anim. p. 382 (1844); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 436 (1844), v. p. 412 (1855); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 410 (1845); Gieb. Säug. p. 318 (1854).

Antilope (Gazella) oreotragus, Licht. Mag. nat. Freund. vi. p. 175 (1814).

Cemas oreotragus, Oken, Lehrb. Nat. iii. part 2, p. 743 (1816).

Cerophorus (Cervicapra) oreotragus, Blainv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.

Antilope (Tragulus) oreotragus, H. Sm. Griff. An. K. iv. p. 245, v. p. 340 (1827); Smuts, Enum. Mamm. Cap. p. 79 (1832).

Antilope (Ourebia) oreotragus, Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 622 (1839).

Tragelaphus oreotragus, Rüpp. Verz. Senck. Mus. p. 37 (1842).

Calotragus oreotragus, Rüpp. in Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. v. p. 414 (1855).

Nanotragus oreotragus, Brooke, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 642; Buckley, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 283 (distribution); Selous, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 762; id. Hunter’s Wanderings S. Afr. p. 222 (1881); W. Scl. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 167 (1891); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 329 (1891); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 219 (1893).

Oreotragus oreotragus, Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 131 (1887); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 160 (1892); Matschie, Thierw. Ost-Afr. Säugeth. p. 122 (1895).

Antilope saltatrix, Bodd. Elench. p. 141 (1785); Link, Beytr. Nat. ii. p. 99 (1795); Less. Man. Mamm. p. 377 (1827); id. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 177 (1842); Des Murs & Prévost, Lefebvre’s Voy. Abyss, vi., Zool. p. 32, pl. iv. (animal); Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. 1887, p. 33.

Oreotragus saltatrix, Jard. Nat. Libr. (1) Mamm. vii. p. 221, pl. xxx. (1842); Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 232 (1846); id. Knowsl. Men. p. 8 (1850); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 119; id. Ann. Mag. N. H. (2) viii. p. 137 (1851); id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 74 (1852); Gerr. Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 235 (1862); Blyth, Cat. Mamm. As. Soc. p. 167 (1863); Heugl. Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act. Leop. xxx. pt. 2) p. 9 (1863); Fitz. SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 170 (1869); Blanf. Zool. Abyss, p. 265 (1870) (Senafé); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 20 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 90 (1873); Drumm. Large Game S. Afr. pp. 396, 425 (1875) (Drakenberg Range); Heugl. Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 104 (1877); Brehm, Thierl. iii. p. 262 (1880); Gigl. Ann. Mus. Genov. (2) vi. p. 18 (1888) (Shoa); Bryden, Kloof and Karroo, p. 300 (1889); Hoyos, Zu den Aulihan, p. 186 (1895).

Oreotragus saltator, Kirk, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 657 (Shiré R.); Crawshay, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 653 (Nyasa); Thos. P. Z. S. 1891, p. 211 (Somali), 1892, p. 553 (Nyasa); Nicolls & Egl. Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 26, pl. v. fig. 18 (head) (1892); Swayne, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 308 (Somaliland); Thos. P. Z. S. 1894, p. 145 (Mt. Milanji); Jackson, Badm. Big Game Shooting, i. pp. 285, 309 (1894); Rendall, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 361.

Calotragus saltatrix, Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 191 (1853).

Antilope klippspringer, Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (1) xii. p. 390 (1804), xxiv. Tabl. p. 32 (1804).

Oreotragus typicus, A. Sm. S. Afr. Quart. J. ii. p. 212 (1834).

Calotragus saltatrixoides, Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 191 (1853) (no description); Rüpp. in Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. v. p. 414 (1855) (Abyssinia).

Antilope saltatrixoides, Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. v. p. 412 (1855).

Oreotragus saltatrixoides, Fitz. SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 170 (1869).

Vernacular Names:—Klipspringer or Klipbok of Dutch and English Colonists; Ee-go-go of Matabili; Mgululu of Makalakas; Gereree of Batongas; Kululu of Masaras (Selous); Ikoko of Kaffirs (Drummond) and of Swazis (Rendall); Kainsi of Hottentots (Thunberg); Chinkoma in Nyasa (Crawshay); Sasa in Amharic; Embiraqua in Tigré; Quobtu at Massowa (Heuglin); Alikut of Somalia (Hoyos).

Height about 20–22 inches. Fur long and of very peculiar texture, each hair being thick, flattened, wavy, and, in fact, quite unlike the hair of any other Antelope, but more similar to that of the Musk-Deer. The general colour is a curious mixture of brown and greenish yellow, each hair being whitish for three-quarters of its length, then brown, and tipped with greenish yellow. Specimens vary very much in the vividness and tone of the yellow, which, especially in old males, is often exceedingly bright, and even verging on orange, particularly along the flanks. Of geographical variation we have as yet failed to find any evidence. Chin white; throat grizzled brownish yellow; belly whitish. Back of ears grey, their edges black. Front and outer sides of limbs like back, inner sides white. Toes just above hoofs black. False hoofs large. Tail short and stumpy, coloured like the body.

Skull short and broad; basal length in an adult male 4.4 inches, greatest breadth 3.15, muzzle to orbit 2.4.

Horns attaining a length of 3½ or 4 inches.

Hab. South and East Africa, north to Abyssinia, in mountainous and rocky districts.

The Klipspringer, as this little Antelope is universally called, although first made known to us by the Dutch settlers at the Cape, is also found in suitable localities throughout Eastern Africa as far north as Abyssinia. It derives its appropriate name of “Cliff-springer” or “Rock-jumper” from its habits of jumping about amongst the rocky eminences of the hills in which it is usually met with. Amongst the early authorities on natural history usually quoted Buffon appears to be the first to have given a description and figure of this Antelope. In the Supplement to his ‘Histoire Naturelle des Animaux Quadrupèdes,’ published in 1782, he calls it the “Klipspringer ou Sauteur des Rochers,” and figures it from a drawing communicated to him by the Forsters, in whose days (1772–74) the Klipspringer was to be met with on the rocks of Vals Bay in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town. On Buffon’s Klipspringer Zimmermann founded his Antilope oreotragus in 1783, and Boddaert his Antilope saltatrix in 1785. As we use Oreotragus for the generic name we will adopt saltator, the masculine form of saltatrix, as the specific appellation of this Antelope.

Harris, in his well-known ‘Portraits of the Game Animals of South Africa,’ gives us a picture of the Klipspringer on the same plate as that of the Mountain Zebra (Equus zebra), which in his time was still found in the high mountains of the Cape Colony, and supplies the following particulars:—

“During the pursuit of the Zebra, which was confined to the most steep and elevated parts of this rugged range, I repeatedly fell in with and killed the Klipspringer. Once extremely abundant in the Cape Colony, it is now daily becoming more rare—the venison being deservedly reputed among the first that the country affords, whilst the elastic hair is sought above all other materials for the stuffing of saddles. Long, padded, and standing out vertically from the side, it resembles moss in texture, and constitutes, as in the chamois of the Alps, a natural cushion to protect the animal from the contusions to which its habits must render it constantly liable. No antelope possesses more completely the lively gambolling manners of the young kid—none bound with greater force or precision from rock to rock, or clear the yawning abyss with more fearless activity. Found usually in pairs among the most precipitous rocks, and inaccessible summits, the Klipspringer would appear in Southern Africa to supply the place of the ibex and chamois; and such is the rigidity of its stiff pasterns, and the singular formation of the high cylindrical hoof, that even when at speed there is no track left but by the tips of the toes, whereas every other class of ruminant would leave, under similar circumstances, some traces also of the spurious hoofs. The most trifling obliquity or ruggedness of surface thus affording a secure foothold, the little animal, ‘whose house is on the hill-top,’ entertains a sense of self-security which oftentimes proves its ruin. Looking down from some craggy pinnacle, as if in derision of the vain efforts of its pursuer, it presents to the rifle the fairest of targets; and tumbled headlong from its elevated perch, pays the penalty of its rashness. Missed, it bounds from ledge to ledge, on which the human eye can mark no footing—balancing at one moment upon the giddy verge of a precipice where barely sufficient space exists for the hoof to rest—at the next casting itself recklessly into the bottomless chasm, and pitching, as if by miracle, upon some projecting peak, where all four feet appear to be gathered into the space of one. Another spring, and, clear of the intervening gulf, it is nimbly scaling yon perpendicular barrier, that resembles the wall of a lofty citadel—and now it is sweeping securely away over the naked and polished tablets of granite which pave the summits of those elevated regions.”

Modern authorities on the Mammals of South Africa inform us that the Klipspringer, although not met with in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town, is still fairly common in certain districts of the broken and mountainous interior. In the hills about Kanya and Molopolole and in Bechuanaland, Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington tell us it is plentiful. The same is the case in the Zoutspansberg, Waterberg, and Murchison Ranges, in the Transvaal, and throughout the broken portions of Matabeleland. Mr. Selous speaks of it as being “particularly plentiful in the curious detached stony hills of Matabeleland and Mashonaland.” In Natal Mr. W. H. Drummond tells us that he only found the Klipspringer on the Drachensberg Range, and, beyond the limits of the colony, on the precipitous faces of the Bombo Mountains.

Mr. Selous did not meet with this Antelope north of the Zambesi, but we have excellent authorities for its existence far beyond that limit. Peters, in his ‘Reise nach Mossambique,’ has recorded its occurrence on the Caruera Mountains near Tette. Sir John Kirk found it “singly or in pairs near the Kebrabassa Rapids of the Zambesi and on the Murchison Rapids of the Shiré;” and Mr. Whyte has sent us specimens from Mount Milanji, in Nyasaland, where it is found in pairs among rocks and on the higher ridges. It is also met with on Mount Zomba.

On Lake Nyasa Mr. Crawshay tells us that the Klipspringer is known as the “Chinkoma,” and is common in rough mountainous country. He praises its venison as “excellent,” and says that the skins are much prized by the hill-tribes of Nyasaland, who convert them into bags for carrying bread. Passing further northwards into German East Africa, we find this Antelope recorded as found in various mountainous localities. Böhm met with it on the Venusberg in Ugunda and Böhmer near Mpapwe, while Stühlmann and Emin Pasha obtained specimens at Bussissi on the Victoria Nyanza. Herr Oscar Neumann found the Klipspringer near the top of Mount Gurui in Irangi (see ‘Geographical Journal,’ vi. p. 275). Even the extreme summit of this extinct volcano is clothed with a vegetation of alpine flowers and short grass which supplies it with subsistence. In British East Africa, Mr. Jackson informs us, the Klipspringer is met with only in the rocky broken ground on the slopes of the hills and large “earth-boils” between Teita and Turkqueh, where there is no other game to be found.

In Somaliland, Captain Swayne tells us, the Klipspringer is known to the natives as the “Alakud.” Here they live in the most rugged mountains, “poising themselves on the large boulders, and leaping from rock to rock.” Finally, in Abyssinia we come to the most northern limit of this Antelope. The great explorer Rüppell was the first to meet with it in the rocky mountains of this country, and states that his specimens were undoubtedly identical with the Cape form, although attempts were subsequently made to separate the Abyssinian form under the barbarous name Antilope saltatrixoides. Heuglin also records the existence of the Klipspringer in the mountains of Abyssinia at elevations above 3000 feet. Mr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., who accompanied the Abyssinian Expedition of 1867–68, gives us the following particulars of this species:—“The Klipspringer is common on the more rocky of the Abyssinian hills, from a height of about 3000 feet above the sea, or rather less, to 8000 or 9000. In the pass below Senafé, and in that leading from Ain to the Anseba, by the valley of the Lebka, these little Antelopes were frequently seen, and they were common on some of the rocky precipices on the flanks of the great valleys around Senafé, Guna-Guna, Fokada, &c., usually solitary or in pairs. When alarmed they frequently perch on the very highest rocks, their agility in leaping from crag to crag being remarkable.”

In the Cape Colony it is said that the Klipspringer, when taken young, is easily tamed and makes a most sagacious pet; but it does not appear to live long in captivity, and Mr. Bryden tells us that they are most difficult and troublesome to rear. We are not aware that specimens of this Antelope have ever been brought alive to Europe.

Our illustration of this species (Plate XXV.) has been taken by Mr. Smit from specimens in the British Museum. It represents an adult male in the foreground and a male and female together in the distance.

Besides two mounted specimens from the Cape, the British Museum contains three skins and skulls of this Antelope from Mounts Milanji and Zomba in Nyasaland (Whyte), an immature skull from Somaliland (Swayne), and some skins and skulls from Abyssinia.

December, 1895.

Genus II. OUREBIA.

Size largest of the subfamily. Hoofs normal, triangular, pointed, the animal standing, as is usual, on the flattened lower side of the hoof, with the point directed forwards. Accessory hoofs present. A naked glandular patch below each ear, and tufts on the knees, present in all the species. Tail short, generally tufted with black.

Anteorbital fossæ of skull very large, their edges sharply ridged above and below. Anteorbital vacuities small. Nasal bones long.

Horns about three-quarters the length of the skull, slanting backwards, slightly or heavily ridged basally, smooth at the tip, but the different species vary considerably in the amount of ridging on the horns.

Distribution. Africa south of the Atlas.

The members of this genus are remarkably uniform in character, and there are scarcely any characters of importance to distinguish from each other species so widely distant geographically as the Oribis of the Gambia, Abyssinia, Zambesia, and the Cape.

The following are the groups into which they seem best to fall:—

41. THE CAPE ORIBI.
OUREBIA SCOPARIA (Schreb.).

Antilope ourebi, Zimm. Geogr. Gesch. iii. p. 268 (1783); Shaw, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, p. 320 (1801); Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. 1887, p. 89.

Scopophorus ourebi, Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 232 (1846); id. Knowsl. Men. p. 7 (1850); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 118; id. Ann. Mag. N. H. (2) viii. p. 136 (1851); id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 73 (1852); Gm. Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 235 (1862); Fitz. SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 165 (1869); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 19 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 90 (1873).

Calotragus oureby, Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 191 (1853).

Antilope scoparia, Schreb. Säug. pl. cclxi. (animal) (1785); Afz. N. Act. Ups. vii. p. 220 (1815); Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 194 (1816); id. Mamm. ii. p. 464 (1822); Desmoul. Dict. Class, i. p. 446 (1822); Goldf. Schr. Säug. v. p. 1244 (1824); Burch. List Quadr. pres. to B. M. p. 7 (1825); H. Sm. Griff. An. K. iv. p. 244, v. p. 339 (1827); Less. Man. Mamm. p. 379 (1827); Licht. Darst. Säug. pl. xiii. (♂ & ♀) (1828); J. B. Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 469 (1829); Smuts, En. Mamm. Cap. p. 78 (1832); Less. Compl. Buff. x. p. 290 (1836); Oken, Allg. Nat. vii. p. 1362 (1838); Gerv. Dict. Sci. Nat. Suppl. i. p. 262 (1840); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 177 (1842); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 429 (1844), v. p. 411 (1855); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 414 (1845); Gieb. Säug. p. 316 (1854).

Antilope (Ourebia) scoparia, Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 623 (1839).

Redunca scoparia, A. Sm. S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii. p. 211 (1834).

Oreotragus scoparius, Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 164 (1843); id. List Ost. B. M. p. 146 (1847); Drumm. Large Game S. Afr. p. 426 (1875).

Calotragus scoparius, Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1844, p. 192 (1846); id. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 144, Reprint, p. 68 (1848); Brehm, Thierl. iii. p. 260 (1880).

Nanotragus scoparius, Brooke, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 642; Selous, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 761; id. Hunt. Wand. S. Afr. p. 221 (1881); Bryden, Kloof and Karroo, p. 301 (1889); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 339 (1891); Nicolls & Egl. Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 25, pl. v. fig. 15 (head) (1892); Ward, Horn Meas. p. 81 (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 218 (1893).

Scopophorus scoparius, Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 131 (1887); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit xi.) p. 160 (1892).

Neotragus scoparius, Rendall, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 361.

Antilope melanura, Bechst. Allgem. Uebers. vierf. Thiere, i. p. 73 (1799), ii. p. 642 (1800).

Cemas melanura, Oken, Lehrb. Nat. iii. pt. 2, p. 743 (1816).

Scopophorus ourebi grayi, Fitz. SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 165 (1869).

Vernacular Names:—Oribi of Dutch and English Cape Colonists; Iula of Kaffirs (Drummond) and Zulus (Rendall).

Size comparatively large. General colour bright sandy rufous, of underside pure sharply-defined white. Chin white. Throat and outer side of limbs like back. Above the anterior corner of each eye a white stripe, ending over the middle of the eye. Crown with or without a brown patch or horseshoe-shaped mark, which is very variable in its development. Auricular gland small, indistinct, scarcely more than half an inch in diameter. Knees with well-marked tufts of longer hairs. Small but distinct false hoofs present both on fore and hind feet. Tail with its tuft about four or five inches in length, its basal third sandy rufous like the back, the remainder thickly tufted, black.

Skull with a long slender muzzle. Supraorbital vacuities present. Premaxillæ not reaching the nasals. Anteorbital fossæ very large and open, filling up all the space in front of the orbits, their edges sharply ridged above and below.

Horns about four inches in length, slender, evenly tapering, slanting back at an angle of about 45° to the general line of the skull; very slightly curved upwards and forwards; their rings close together, low, rounded, and indistinct, present on the basal halves of the horns only.

Dimensions:—♂. Height at withers 24 inches, hind foot 11, ear 3·7.

Skull: basal length 5·8, greatest breadth 2·9, muzzle to orbit 3·65.

Hab. S. Africa south of the Zambesi.

As in the case of the Klipspringer, this little Antelope first became known to naturalists in Europe through the Dutch settlers at the Cape. They called it Ourebi, under which name it appears to have been first described and figured in Holland by Allamand in 1776. In 1783 Zimmermann based his Antilope ourebi upon Allamand’s description, and two years later Schreber’s plate of Antilope scoparia was copied from Allamand’s figure. As it is necessary to use Ourebia as the generic designation of this Antelope we propose to adopt “scoparia,” taken from the peculiar brushes (scopæ) that defend its knees, as its specific name.

Fig. 23.

Ourebia scoparia, ♂.

A better figure of this Antelope than that of Allamand was published by Lichtenstein about the year 1828 in the third part of his ‘Darstellung neuer oder wenig bekannter Säugethiere,’ a work which was devoted to the representation of new and little-known mammals of the Berlin Museum. Lichtenstein, who had himself travelled in South Africa, states that he had met with this species in Cafferland, and that it was known to the colonists as the “Bleekbok” or “Pale-buck,” from its light colour, and was much valued as a game animal.

In 1861, when Mr. E. L. Layard prepared his Catalogue of the specimens in the collection of the South African Museum at Capetown, the Oribi was already nearly exterminated in the colony. But it still existed, he tells us, near Alexandria and Bedford in Somerset, and in some of the eastern divisions where large grassy plains are found. An “intelligent Kaffir,” attached to the Museum, informed Mr. Layard that “the Oribi when slain by the natives belongs to the chief, who presents the fortunate hunter with a young cow in return. The skins of the Oribi are considered in the light of regal ermine and very highly valued.”

When, however, we come to the open plains of Natal and Zululand we are assured by Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington, in the ‘Sportsman in South Africa,’ that the Oribi is even now very common. It also frequents the Transvaal in fair numbers, the Orange Free State, and parts of Matabeleland and Mashonaland. A few specimens are said to have been obtained in Bechuanaland, but it is unknown in the Kalahari Desert, and thence towards the west. The same observers tell us that “in speed the Oribi is very fast, and that it dodges from side to side when it runs in a peculiar manner with a series of leaps and rushes. It frequents the open flats, singly or in pairs, but keeps within reasonable distance of water.”

As regards the exact range of the Oribi in Mashonaland, Mr. F. C. Selous, in his ‘Hunter’s Wanderings,’ gives us the following particulars:—“North of the Limpopo, this Antelope is only to be met with in the following districts, viz. in north-eastern Mashunaland from the river Umzweswe to beyond the river Hanyana, in the open valleys which occur between the forest belts near the watershed, but to the north of the Machabe hills; on the exposed open downs nearer the watershed, and lying between the Machabe hills and Intaba Insimbi, I never saw any. On a large flat about fifty miles to the south of the junction of the Umfule and Umniati rivers, I saw a good many Oribi in 1880. Except in this district of the Mashuna country, the only other place south of the Zambesi where this Antelope exists is in the valley of Gazuma, an open boggy flat of only a few hundred acres in extent, which is situated at about thirty miles to the south-west of the Victoria Falls. Then again a few are to be seen on the northern bank of the Chobe, on the open ground bordering the marsh, in the neighbourhood of Linyanti. One never sees more than two or three of these Antelopes together. The horns of the male attain to a length of about 5 inches, and are ringed at the base.”

There is a mounted pair of this species in the gallery of the British Museum which formerly belonged to the old “South-African Museum” of Sir Andrew Smith, besides some skins and skulls from the Cape without exact particulars. There is also the skull of an adult male from the Umfili River, Mashonaland, obtained by Mr. F. C. Selous, in the same Collection.

We are not aware that the Oribi has been kept in captivity in the Cape Colony, or ever brought alive to Europe.

December, 1895.

42. PETERS’S ORIBI.
OUREBIA HASTATA (Pet.).

Antilope hastata, Peters, Reise Mossamb., Säug. p. 188, pl. xl. (animal), pl. xli. fig. 2, pl. xlii. fig. 2 (skull) (1852) (Senna); Gieb. Säug. p. 317 (1854); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Supp. v. p. 411 (1855); Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. 1887, p. 46.

Calotragus hastata, Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 191 (1853).

Scopophorus hastatus, Fitz. SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 165 (1869); Matschie, Thierw. Ost-Afr. Säugeth. p. 121 (1895).

Nanotragus hastatus, Brooke, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 642; Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 339 (1891); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 219 (1893).

Nanotragus scoparius, Thos. P. Z. S. 1893, p. 504, 1894, p. 146 (Nyasa).

Scopophorus montanus, Matschie, Thierw. Ost-Afr. Säugeth. p. 121.

Vernacular Name:—Dutsa at Senna (Peters).

Similar in all respects to O. scoparia, except that the auricular gland is considerably larger and more conspicuous, and the tail is slenderer, less tufted, and is more or less white along its edges below.

Skull and horns apparently quite as in O. scoparia.

Hab. Mozambique and Nyasaland.

When the late Dr. William Peters made his great expedition to the Portuguese colony of Mozambique from 1842 to 1848 the Zoology of the Eastern Coast of Africa was almost unknown to us. Many, therefore, were the discoveries made by that distinguished traveller and naturalist, and subsequently described in his ‘Naturwissenschaftliche Reise nach Mossambique.’ Amongst them, in the volume devoted to the Mammals of the Expedition, we find a figure and description of the present Antelope, which was met with by Peters on the bush-clad plains of Sena and Shupanga, situated about 17° S. lat., and from 30 to 60 miles from the coast. Peters allows that the present form comes very near the typical O. scoparia, but considers that it differs in its longer ears, the smaller size of the naked spot beneath the ear, the white underside of the tail, and the less compressed form of the hoofs. Peters’s specimens are in the Berlin Museum.

More recently the British Museum has acquired several skins of an Antelope, which should be the same, to judge from its locality, as Peters’s O. hastata, among the splendid collections amassed by Sir H. H. Johnston in Nyasaland with the aid of his naturalist Mr. Alexander Whyte, F.Z.S. These were obtained on the grassy plains between Zomba, where Mr. Whyte is resident, and Lake Shirwa. These materials, however, are not yet sufficient to enable us to pronounce a decided opinion as to whether this Oribi should be really treated of as a species distinct from its brother of the Cape Colony. The two forms certainly come very near one another, and we are rather doubtful whether they can be properly distinguished.

December, 1895.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. XXVI.

Wolf del. Smit lith.

Hanhart imp.

The Gambian Oribi

OUREBIA NIGRICAUDATA

Published by R. H. Porter.

43. THE GAMBIAN ORIBI.
OUREBIA NIGRICAUDATA (Brooke).
[PLATE XXVI.]

Ourebi du Sénégal, F. Cuv. H. N. Mamm. (fol.) iii. livr. lx. (♀) (1829).

Scopophorus montanus, Gray, Knowsl. Men. p. 7, pl. v. (animal) (1850) (Gambia) (nec Cretzschm.).

Nanotragus nigricaudatus, Brooke, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 874, pl. lxxv. (animal) (Gambia); Ward, Horn Meas. p. 81 (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 219 (1893).

Oreotragus scoparius, Scl. P. Z. S. 1867, p. 1039.

Neotragus nigricaudatus, Scl. List An. Z. S. (8) p. 145 (1883).

Vernacular Name:—Gebari or Mahomet’s Antelope on the Gambia (Whitfield fide Gray).

Closely allied to O. montana, but still smaller, and the general colour greyer; the auricular gland as large as in O. hastata, and the tail with a blackish tuft, as in O. scoparia. Top of muzzle brown.

Dimensions of the typical specimen, ♂:—Height at withers 21 inches; length of hind foot 10, of ear 3·4.

Hab. Open districts of the Gambia and Senegal.

It was not to be expected that any representative of the Oribi would be found in Congoland or within the great forest-clad region of Western Africa. But when we come to the more open country of Senegal and the Gambia, an allied and nearly similar species appears upon the scene. The first evidence of its existence was given by F. Cuvier in 1829 by the publication of a figure and description of a female specimen under the name of the “Ourebi du Sénégal,” which was brought home alive by M. Perrotet, but died shortly after its arrival at Paris.

Again, some years later, Whitfield, one of the collectors employed by Lord Derby, brought home from the Gambia a living example of an Antelope, which was subsequently figured in 1845 for the ‘Knowsley Menagerie’ by Waterhouse Hawkins. This figure was referred by Gray, who drew up the letterpress of that splendid work, to the Abyssinian Oribi next described, but there can be little doubt that it really belonged to the Gambian form. Whitfield gave the native name of this Antelope on the Gambia as “Gebari.”

In May 1867 the Zoological Society received as a present from Mr. Charles B. Mosse a fine young male of this Oribi, which was eventually the means of making the species better known. It was at first referred by Sclater to the Cape Oribi, but afterwards considered to be more probably attributable to the Abyssinian O. montana. In 1872, however, when the animal was still living and quite adult, Sir Victor Brooke, at Sclater’s invitation, took up the question, and in a paper read before the Zoological Society, and subsequently published in their ‘Proceedings’ for that year, showed that neither of these determinations was correct, and that the Gambian animal belonged, in his opinion, to an unnamed species, which he proposed to call Nanotragus nigricaudatus. Although, like the two preceding species, the Gambian Oribi has a black tail, its smaller size seems to be sufficient to distinguish it from its congeners. Sir Victor had a water-colour drawing made of this animal by Wolf, from which both the figure published in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ and the Plate now given (Plate XXVI.) have been prepared. This typical specimen is now in the British Museum, which has likewise two other young specimens from West Africa, without further details.

Mr. Mosse, who brought the type specimen home himself, supplied Sir Victor with the information that he had procured it in March 1867, when it was only two or three months old, and that it had been caught on the banks of the Gambia about 70 or 80 miles from Bathurst, midway between that town and Macarthey’s Island. Mr. Mosse had never met with a second individual.

In 1873 and 1876 the Zoological Society received female specimens of what were believed to be the same Antelope, but they did not live long in the Gardens.

December, 1895.

44. THE ABYSSINIAN ORIBI.
OUREBIA MONTANA (Cretzschm.).

Antilope brevicaudata, Rüpp. MS. (N. Wirb. p. 25, 1835).

Antilope montana, Cretzschm. Atl. Rüpp. Reise, Säug. p. 11, pl. iii. (Fazogloa Mts., Blue Nile) (1826); J. B. Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 469 (1829); Rüpp. N. Wirb. Abyss., Mamm. p. 25 (1835); id. P. Z. S. 1836, p. 3 (occurrence of canines); Less. Compl. Buff. x. p. 290 (1836); Oken, Allg. Nat. vii. p. 1362 (1838); Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 623 (1839); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 177 (1842); Wagn. Schr. Säug., Suppl. iv. p. 431 (1844), v. p. 412 (1855); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 421 (1845); Gieb. Säug. p. 316 (1854); Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. 1887, p. 34.

Redunca montana, A. Sm. S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii. p. 211 (1834).

Tragelaphus montanus, Rüpp. Verz. Senck. Mus. p. 37 (1842).

Calotragus montanus, Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1844, p. 193 (1846); id. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 144; Reprint, p. 68 (1848); Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 191 (1853); Heugl. Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act. Leop. xxx. pt. 2) p. 8 (1863); id. Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 104 (1877).

Scopophorus montanus, Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 232 (1846); id. op. cit. (2) viii. p. 137 (1851); id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 74 (1852); Scl. P. Z. S. 1864, p. 101 (Karagweh); Fitz. SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 165 (1869); Blanf. Zool. Abyss. p. 266 (1870) (Dolo, Abyssinia); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 19 (1872); Gigl. Ann. Mus. Genov. (2) vi. p. 18 (1888) (Shoa); Jent. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 160 (1892).

Nanotragus montanus, Brooke, P. Z. S. 1872, pp. 642 & 875; W. Scl. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 166 (1891); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 339 (1891); Ward, Horn Meas. p. 82 (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 218 (1893); Jackson, Badm. Big Game Shooting, pp. 285 & 299 (1894).

Antilope madoqua, Schweinfurth, Herz. von Afrika, i. p. 266, fig. head, ii. p. 535 (1874) (nec H. Sm., nec Rüpp.).

Vernacular Names:—H’Amra, Atrob, or Odrob in Arabic; Fiego in Amharic; Waital in Geez (Heuglin); Lohdj in Dinka; Nettjäde in Djur; Heggoleh in Bongo; Kullah in Mittu; Bongbaljah in Niam-niam; Laffa in Golo; Kehdo in Kredj; Ngogoh in Ssehre; Akonj in Shilluk (Schweinfurth).

Similar to O. scoparia in most respects, but the tail shorter, less bushy, and almost wholly of the colour of the back, the terminal black tuft being reduced to a few darker hairs at the extreme tip; there are also a considerable number of white hairs along each side of it below. Auricular gland large, quite naked.

Skull dimensions (♂):—Basal length 5·65 inches, greatest breadth 2·95, muzzle to orbit 3·44.

Hab. Abyssinia and Bongoland.

As already pointed out, the Abyssinian representative of this group differs slightly in structure from the forms of the Oribi of which we have previously spoken. Its specific name would also indicate that it is an inhabitant of a higher district, although Rüppell tells us that when he sent the original specimen from Senaar in 1823 he had given it in his Manuscript “a far more appropriate” one. Be that as it may, Cretzschmar, who undertook the description of the vertebrates transmitted by Rüppell to the Museum Senckenbergianum before the return home of the latter, chose to call it “montana” and this term cannot now, of course, be altered.

The original specimen of Ourebia montana was obtained by Rüppell’s collector Hey (after whom Hey’s Partridge, Ammoperdix heyi, was subsequently named by Temminck) on the hills of Fazogloa on the Blue Nile in 1823. Rüppell afterwards found many individuals of it on the high plains of Woggera in the neighbourhood of Gondar and in the valleys of the Kulla, where they resort to the grassy ravines and thorny jungles. He remarks that only the male carries horns, but that both sexes have a pair of inguinal glands, the openings of which are concealed by long tufts of white hair. The female has four teats. He also remarks that (as he communicated to the Zoological Society of London, of which Rüppell was a Foreign Member, in 1836) the young males of this Antelope occasionally possess the germs of a pair of canine teeth, which are lost in the adult stage. This anomaly, however, has also been noticed in other Ruminants.

Theodor von Heuglin met with this Antelope in several districts of Central and West Abyssinia at elevations of from 6000 to 8000 feet above the sea-level. He remarks that it prefers the rocky and bushy parts of the steppes, and often cries out like a Roebuck when struck by a shot. Dr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., found this Antelope rare in the country traversed by the Abyssinian Expedition of 1867–68. He saw it only two or three times, near Dolo and Harkhallet, north of Antalo, at an elevation of about 7000 feet above the sea-level, where it inhabits bushy ground or high grass. A buck shot by Mr. Blanford was 22½ inches high at the shoulder, the mammæ were four in number, and the suborbital and inguinal glands were well developed. We learn from Mr. W. L. Sclater’s ‘Catalogue,’ that one of Mr. Blanford’s skins is now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta.

Finally Dr. Giglioli includes the Abyssinian Oribi amongst the mammals of which specimens have been transmitted to Italy from Shoa by the Italian naturalists Boutourline and Traversi. Dr. Giglioli observes that the sexes were alike in colour in these specimens, but that the male was rather larger in size than the hornless female.

The head of the “Madoqua” figured by Schweinfurth in ’Im Herzen von Afrika’ (vol. i. p. 266) was probably taken from an example of this Antelope. It was met with along with a species of Duiker in Bongo on the upper waters of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and observed in pairs among the bushes. Its native name there is “Heggolah.”

In the British Museum there are the skull of an adult male of this species and three skins of females from Dembelas, Abyssinia.

December, 1895.

45. HAGGARD’S ORIBI.
OUREBIA HAGGARDI (Thos.).

Nanotragus hastatus, Jackson, Badm. Big Game Shooting, i. p. 285 (1894) (Tana R. & Lamu) (nec Peters).

Neotragus haggardi, Thos. Ann. Mag. N. H. (6) xv. p. 187 (1895) (Lamu).

Vernacular Name:—Taya of Swahilis (Haggard and Jackson).

Size as in O. scoparia and O. hastata. Auricular gland well developed.

Other external characters not yet positively known.

Skull with a rather shorter muzzle than in the common species. Horns very much thicker and heavier than in any of the previous species; the ridges strongly developed and sharply angular. Owing partly to the development of the ridges the front edge of their lower half is convex forwards, while the upper half is as usual concave forwards; viewed from the side the horns therefore appear to have a slight tendency towards the serpentine double curvature characteristic of the Gazelles, although far less developed.

Skull dimensions (♂):—Basal length 5·6 inches, greatest breadth 2·97, orbit to muzzle 3·4.

Hab. Coasts of British East Africa, near Lamu.

A fifth species of Oribi, with which as yet we are only imperfectly acquainted, seems to be found in British East Africa and the adjoining districts of Southern Somaliland. Its size is that of the Cape and Zambesian species, and its auricular gland is well developed. But it is readily distinguishable from all the other members of the group by its thick and strongly ridged horns, which contrast markedly with the slender and comparatively smooth horns of all the preceding species.

Thomas was originally inclined to refer the three skulls of this Oribi which were received in 1887 from Mr. J. G. Haggard, then H.B.M. Vice-Consul at Lamu, to Peters’s Ourebia hastata. When, however, he had afterwards obtained specimens of the Oribi of Nyasaland, which were doubtless to be referred to the form described by Peters, he perceived his error, and proceeded to base a new species upon the specimens in question, assigning to it the name of their collector and donor, according to whom this Antelope is known to the Swahilis at Lamu as “Taya.”

Fig. 24.

Skull of Ourebia haggardi, ♂.

Mr. F. J. Jackson, in his ‘Big Game Shooting,’ gives us the following account of the “Taya”:—

“The East-African Oribi (also known to the Swahilis as ‘Taya’) I have found more plentiful on the mainland near Lamu than anywhere else. Sir Robert Harvey and Mr. Hunter, in October and November 1888, also found it in fair numbers up the Tana river. I have never seen it myself south of the Sabaki, though doubtless it is to be met with there also in suitable places. At Merereni, where the country seems admirably suited to its habits, although I was shooting there for some time in 1885 and 1886, I never saw one, though fifteen miles further south, near Mambrui, I observed its spoor. This confirmed me in my theory that the Oribi is very partial to the vicinity of cultivated tracts, and I do not remember having seen one in an uninhabited district. At Taka, a small village on the mainland opposite Patta Island, I saw great numbers in 1885.

“In the vicinity of this village there was a great deal of land which at one time had been under cultivation, but was then lying fallow and covered with coarse dry grass, about two feet high. This afforded excellent covert, and, as the colour of these little Antelopes closely resembles that of dry grass, it was very difficult to see them. Except in one way, stalking them was quite hopeless. I found that the only plan to get them was to walk them up with one or two beaters on each side of me, and shoot them with a gun loaded with S. S. G. shot. They lie so close that they will let the sportsman get within ten or fifteen yards of them before they will move, but they rarely give him a chance of a shot under from forty to fifty yards. When they first get up it is only possible to follow their movements by the waving of the grass. It is necessary, however, always to be prepared for a snap-shot, as after going some twenty to thirty yards they will bound up into the air, offering a capital chance, which may be the only one, as they will be out of range before they again appear in like manner. This bounding into the air is, I believe, to enable them to see where they are going to, and it is a curious fact that when they alight they invariably do so on their hind legs, not unlike a Kangaroo.

“An Oribi, even when only slightly wounded, will, as a rule, go a very short distance before lying down, and the sportsman should, therefore, be careful to follow up all those that he thinks he may have touched.”

Besides Mr. Haggard’s skulls from Lamu, on which Thomas founded this species, and a head from the same place in Mr. Jackson’s private collection, there is in the National Museum the perfect skin and skull of a fine Oribi recently obtained in East Africa and presented by Mr. A. H. Neumann. No information as to its exact locality has as yet reached us, and as its skull differs somewhat from that of the Lamu O. haggardi, we are at present unable to form a definite opinion as to its specific identity. If, as seems probable, this interesting specimen is really referable to the present form, we may say that O. haggardi is in general colour rather greyer than the other species, and that its tail has a decided black tuft at the end, the proximal part of this organ being white-edged below. To identify this specimen with the present species, however, will involve the recognition of a considerable degree of variation in the skull and horns, and without further material we are unable to do so definitely.

December, 1895.

Genus III. RAPHICERUS.

Accessory hoofs present or absent. No naked glandular spots below ears or tufts on knees. Tail short.

Skull stout and strongly built, with a short broad muzzle. Anteorbital fossæ small but deep, their edges rounded and unridged above and below.

Horns nearly vertical, slender, scarcely ridged.

Distribution. South and East Africa.

The species we refer to this genus may be divided as follows:—

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XXVII.

Wolf del. Smit lith.

Hanhart imp.

Fig. 1. The Steinbok.

RAPHICEROS CAMPESTRIS.

Fig. 2. The Grysbok.

RAPHICEROS MELANOTIS.

Published by R·H·Porter.

46. THE GRYSBOK.
RAPHICERUS MELANOTIS (Thunb.).
[PLATE XXVII. Fig. 2.]

Greisbock, Thunb. Resa, ii. p. 12 (1789); English Transl. ii. p. 11 (1793).

Antilope melanotis, Thunb. Mém. Ac. Pétersb. iii. p. 312 (1811); Afzel. N. Act. Ups. vii. pp. 257 & 262 (1815); Goldf. Schr. Säug. v. p. 1235 (1818); Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 459 (1822); Less. Man. Mamm. p. 376 (1827); Licht. Darst. Säug. pl. xii. (♂ & ♀) (1828); J. B. Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 465 (1829); Smuts, En. Mamm. Cap. p. 82 (1832); Waterh. Cat. Mamm. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 42 (1838); Oken, Allg. Nat. vii. p. 1363 (1838); Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 623 (1838); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 438 (1844), v. p. 411 (1855); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 413 (1845); Pet. Reise Mossamb., Säug. p. 187 (1852) (Zambesi); Gieb. Säug. p. 318 (1854); Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. 1887, p. 488.

Antilope tragulus melanotis, Licht. Mag. nat. Freund. vi. p. 176 (1814); Forst. Descr. Anim. p. 375 (1844).

Tragulus melanotis, A. Sm. S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii. p. 213 (1834); Harris, Wild Anim. S. Afr. (fol.) pl. xxvi. fig. 2 (1840).

Tragelaphus melanotis, Rüpp. Verz. Senck. Mus. p. 37 (1842).

Calotragus melanotis, Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1844, p. 192 (1846); id. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 144; Reprint, p. 68 (1848); Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 232 (1846); id. Knowsl. Men. p. 7 (1850); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 118; id. Ann. Mag. N. H. (2) viii. p. 136 (1851); id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 72 (1852); Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 192 (1855); Gerr. Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 235 (1862); Blyth, Cat. Mamm. Mus. As. Soc. p. 166 (1863); Layard, Cat. S. Afr. Mus. p. 70 (1861); Fitz. SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 165 (1869); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 19 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 90 (1873); Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 131 (1887); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 159 (1892); Matschie, Thierw. Ost-Afr. Säugeth. p. 120 (1895).

Nanotragus melanotis, Brooke, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 642; Selous, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 762 (distribution); id. Hunt. Wanderings S. Afr. p. 222 (1881); Bryden, Kloof and Karroo, p. 300 (1889); W. Scl. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 167 (1891); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 339 (1891); Nicolls & Egl. Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 26, pl. viii. fig. 29 (head) (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 219 (1893); Lorenz, Ann. Mus. Wien, ix. p. 60 (1895).

Neotragus melanotis, Scl. List Anim. Z. S. (8) p. 145 (1883); id. P. Z. S. 1895, p. 590; Rendall, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 361.

Antilope grisea, G. Cuv. Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 244 (1816); Burch. List Mamm. pres. to B. M. p. 6 (1825) (Plettenberg’s Bay); H. Sm. Griff. An. K. iv. p. 250, v. p. 341 (1827); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 177 (1842) (nec Boddaert).

Cerophorus (Cervicapra) grisea, Blainv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.

Oreotragus griseus, Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 164 (1843).

Antilope rubro-albescens, Desmoul. Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. p. 446 (1822).

Vernacular Names:—Grysbok of Dutch and English Cape Colonists; Sash-lungwan of Matabilis; Teemba of Makalakas (Selous); Cassenja at Senna and Tette (Peters).

Height about 22–23 inches. Fur long and coarse, of a deep rich red colour profusely mixed with pure white hairs, whence the name “Grys” or Grey-buck. Under surface paler, but not white. Crown frequently with a black crescentic mark running round it, as in the Steinbok[1]. Ears very large, their backs grey. Limbs red. Accessory hoofs present, but very small, far smaller than in the Oribis. Tail very short, not blackened at its tip.

Skull and horns very like those of a Steinbok, but the nasal bones seem to be shorter, and the premaxillæ do not reach so far backwards. A good adult male skull of this species is, however, a desideratum: we have only been able to examine immature specimens or those deteriorated by confinement.

Hab. South Africa north to the Zambesi and Mozambique.

The Forsters, who visited the Cape in 1775 during their voyage round the world along with the great circumnavigator Cook, furnished Buffon with notices respecting many of the Antelopes which at that time were met with even in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town. Amongst these was the present species, which was accordingly described by Buffon, in the Supplement to his ‘Histoire Naturelle des Animaux Quadrupèdes,’ as the Grysbok or “Chèvre-gris.” About the same period as the Forsters the learned Swedish naturalist Thunberg visited the Cape, and made himself acquainted with this and the other Antelopes of that district. In an article subsequently published by the Academy of St. Petersburg on the Mammals met with during his stay in South Africa, Thunberg named the Grysbok Antilope melanotis, and his specific name has usually been adopted for this species, though a subsequently given term grisea of G. Cuvier has also been applied to it.

In his ‘Darstellung neuer oder wenig bekannter Säugethiere,’ Lichtenstein has given coloured figures of both sexes of this Antelope from specimens in the Berlin Museum, probably procured by himself. In the days of Lichtenstein (1803–06) the Grysbok was to be found in all the middle and western districts of the Cape Colony amongst the hills, and, according to him, was particularly esteemed as game on account of its tender and delicate flesh.

Harris, in his great work on the ‘Game Animals of South Africa,’ has figured the Grysbok on his 26th plate, along with the Bushbok and the Blaauwbok; he mentions it as, in his time (1836–37), common in the Colony “among the wooded tracts which skirt the coasts.” Describing his hunt with a party of Boers, residing not far from the banks of the Knysna, who had given him a day’s shooting over their best preserves, he speaks of “proteas and large plots of scarlet geraniums, interspersed with patches of purple heath,” as being the “favourite harbour of the roan Grysbok,” and gives an account of its pursuit as follows:—“Squatted like a hare upon its snug form, this beautiful little animal is rarely to be dislodged until well nigh trodden upon; but the dogs have pushed one out of that bed of fern, and are hunting it directly towards us. Returning again and again upon its old track, it bounds now over the head of the clustering heather, now doubles round the corner of a bush, and now, darting aside into the narrow footpath by which we are advancing, stands a moment with averted head to listen for its pursuers. Finding them close upon its heels, away it flies again, and making a desperate plunge into the heart of a thick shrub, vainly hopes that it may have found an asylum. But thine enemies have again ferreted thee out, cunning one! and disabled by a stray buckshot from the roer of that ruthless Hollander, thou art circling round with dizzy brain and drooping head in quest of a corner wherein thou mayst lie down to die. Alas! Mynheer’s rude hand has seized thee, innocent! and whilst he is fumbling for a knife wherewith to terminate thy helpless struggles, who that hears thy plaintive cries, like those of a new-born babe, or witnesses the infantine simplicity expressed in thy large melting black eye, brimful of dewy tears, can fail inwardly to curse his barbarity?”

In 1861 Mr. E. L. Layard describes the Grysbok as still found in some abundance at the foot of Table Mountain and on the Lion’s Hill in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town, though we are somewhat doubtful whether that is the case at the present time.

Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington speak of the Grysbok as being mostly found in the eastern districts of the Colony and on the borders of Natal. Its habits, they state, are solitary and almost identical with those of the Steinbok (R. campestris), except that it invariably frequents hilly, broken, and stony country in preference to open flats. Its flesh, they add, is not particularly good. As regards its range farther north, Mr. Selous tells us that beyond the Limpopo the Grysbok is only met with in certain hilly districts of the more easterly portions of the interior. In Matabeleland it is very scarce, but in all the hilly country of the Victoria Falls and throughout Mashonaland down to the Zambesi it is fairly numerous. Mr. Selous also speaks of it as being met with in the South African territory north of the Zambesi as far as he penetrated; and Peters has recorded its presence, not uncommonly, in the plains of Sena, Tette, and Macanga in Mozambique up to 16° N. latitude.

The Grysbok is included by Matschie in his recently published work on the Mammals of German East Africa, but only upon the ground that it will probably be found to occur there. We are not able to confirm this statement, having never seen specimens of the Grysbok from any locality so far north.

The Grysbok has been occasionally brought alive to Europe, but does not appear to do well in captivity. The first example recorded in the Zoological Society’s register is a female presented by Sir George Grey in 1861. A second specimen was obtained by purchase in 1864, and a third in 1869. In May of the present year a female specimen was presented to the Society by Mr. J. E. Matcham, of Port Elizabeth, but did not live long in the Gardens. From this animal the figure of the Grysbok now given (Plate XXVII. fig. 2) has been coloured by Mr. Smit, though the plate was originally taken by the same artist from a water-colour drawing prepared by Wolf, under the direction of the late Sir Victor Brooke, from some other specimen. This drawing, along with many other original sketches of Wolf’s, is now in the possession of Sir Douglas Brooke.

The National Collection is not well provided with examples of this Antelope. Besides a pair collected by Burchell in 1814 there are in the series only some skulls and skeletons of somewhat doubtful authority. Good fresh specimens of both sexes of the Grysbok, accompanied by their skulls, would therefore form a valuable acquisition to the British Museum.

December, 1895.

47. THE STEINBOK.
RAPHICERUS CAMPESTRIS (Thunb.).
[PLATE XXVII. Fig. 1.]

Capra grimmia, Thunb. Resa, ii. p. 8 (1789); id. Engl. Transl. ii. p. 7 (1793) (nec Linn.) (Cape Town).

Antilope campestris, Thunb. Mém. Ac. Pétersb. iii. p. 313 (1811).

Calotragus campestris, Gray, Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 71 (1852); Layard, Cat. S. Afr. Mus. p. 68 (1861); Gerr. Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 235 (1862).

Pediotragus campestris, Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 31 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 100 (1873).

Nanotragus campestris, Nicolls & Egl. Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 24, pl. ii. fig. 6 (head) (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 217 (1893); Jackson, Badm. Big Game Shooting, i. pp. 285 & 301 (1894) (E. Africa); Lorenz, Ann. Mus. Wien, ix. p. 60 (1895).

Neotragus campestris, Rendall, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 361.

Antilope tragulus, Licht. Mag. nat. Freund. vi. p. 176 (1814); Goldf. Schr. Säug. v. p. 1234 (1818); Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 392 (1821); Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 458 (1822); Licht. Darst. Säug. pl. xiv. (♂ ♀) (1828); J. B. Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 464 (1829); Smuts, Enum. Mamm. Cap. p. 81 (1832); Less. Compl. Buff. x. p. 291 (1836); Oken, Allg. Naturg. vii. p. 1362 (1838); Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 622 (1839); Gerv. Dict. Sci. Nat. Suppl. i. p. 262 (1840); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 177 (1842); Forst. Descr. Anim. pp. 36 & 374 (1844); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 436 (1844), v. p. 410 (1855); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 411 (1845); Peters, Reise Mossamb., Säug. p. 187 (1852) (Inhambane); Gieb. Säug. p. 318 (1854); Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. 1887, p. 88.

Tragelaphus tragulus, Rüpp. Verz. Senck. Mus. p. 37 (1842).

Oreotragus tragulus, Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 164 (1843); id. List Ost. B. M. p. 146 (1847).

Calotragus tragulus, Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1844, p. 192 (1846); id. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 144; Reprint, p. 68 (1848); Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 232 (1846); id. Knowsl. Men. p. 7 (1850); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 48; id. Ann. Mag. N. H. (2) viii. p. 136 (1851); Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 192 (1853); Blyth, Cat. Mamm. As. Soc. p. 166 (1863); Drumm. Large Game S. Afr. pp. 395 & 426 (1875) (Zululand).

Pediotragus tragulus, Fitz. SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 163 (1869); Jent. N. L. M. ix. p. 173 (1887) (Mossamedes); id. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 134 (1887); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 165 (1892); id. N. L. M. xv. p. 265 (1893) (Cunene R.).

Nanotragus tragulus, Brooke, P. Z. S. 1872, pp. 642 & 874; Buckley, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 283 (distribution); Bocage, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 742; Selous, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 762; id. Hunt. Wand. S. Afr. p. 222 (1881); Bryden, Kloof and Karroo, p. 300 (1889); Hunter, in Willoughby’s E. Africa, p. 290 (1889); Crawshay, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 654 (Nyasa); W. Scl. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 166 (1891); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 339 (1891); Lugard, E. Africa, i. p. 540 (1893).

Neotragus tragulus, Scl. List Anim. Zool. Soc. (8) p. 145 (1883); id. P. Z. S. 1861, p. 209.

Antilope tragulus rupestris, Licht. Mag. nat. Freund. vi. p. 177 (1814); Forst. Descr. Anim. p. 376 (1844).

Antilope rupestris, Burch. Travels, i. pp. 202, 281 (1822), ii. p. 15 (1824); H. Sm. Griff. An. K. iv. p. 248, v. p. 340 (1827); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 412 (1845).

Tragulus rupestris, A. Sm. S. Afr. Quart. J. ii. p. 212 (1834); Harris, Wild An. S. Afr. pl. xxv. fig. 2 (♂) (1840).

Antilope capensis (misprint for campestris), Afzel. N. Act. Ups. vii. p. 254 (1815).

Antilope ibex, Afzel. N. Act. Ups. vii. p. 263 (1815); Less. Man. Mamm. p. 376 (1827).

Cerophorus (Cervicapra) stenbock, Blainv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.

Cerophorus (Cervicapra) acuticornis, Blainv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, pp. 75 & 79; id. Journ. Phys., Aug. 1818, pl. fig. 8 (skull); id. Oken’s Isis, 1819, ii. p. 1095, pl. xii. fig. 8 (skull).

Antilope acuticornis, Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 193 (1816); Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 395 (1821); Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 460 (1822); Less. Man. Mamm. p. 377 (1827); Flow. & Gars. Cat. Ost. Coll. Surg. ii. p. 275 (1884).

Antilope (Raphicerus) acuticornis, H. Sm. Griff. An. K. iv. p. 252, v. p. 342 (1827); Less. H. N. Mamm. (Compl. Buff.) x. p. 292 (1836); Gerv. Dict. Sci. Nat. Suppl. i. p. 262 (1840); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 177 (1842).

Antilope fulvo-rubescens, Desmoul. Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. p. 446 (1822).

Antilope (Raphicerus) subulata, H. Sm. Griff. An. K. iv. p. 253 (fig. horns), v. p. 342 (1827); Less. Compl. Buff. x. p. 292 (1836); Gerv. Dict. Sci. Nat. Suppl. i. p. 262 (1840); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 177 (1842).

Pediotragus tragulus grayi, Fitz. SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 163 (1869).

Vernacular Names:—Steinbok of Dutch and English Colonists; Iquia of Kaffirs (Drummond); Ingnweena or Umgwena of Matabilis; Puruhuru of Bechuanas; Ee-peu-nee of Makalakas; Kahu of Masubias; Kimba of Batongas; Gai-ee of Masaras (Selous); Shipeni of Transvaal Shangeans; Njena of Swazis (Rendall); Ishah of E. African Swahilis (Hunter).

Size small. General colour bright sandy rufous, richer on the head. Top of muzzle and a horseshoe-shaped marking on the crown generally brown, but these marks are by no means constant. A white supraorbital stripe, much as in the Oribi. No auricular gland. No knee-tufts nor false hoofs present. Tail short, coloured above like the back, below whitish, no black tip.

Skull stoutly built, its upper surface peculiarly roughened and ridged. Premaxillæ reaching to, and articulating with, the nasals.

Horns, in proportion to the size of the animal, longer than in the Oribis, very slender, smooth, and practically unridged throughout. Their direction is nearly vertical, and they are slightly curved forwards.

Dimensions, ♂:—Height at withers 19·5 inches, length of hind foot 9·7, ear 4·2.

Skull: basal length 4·86 inches, greatest breadth 2·68, muzzle to orbit 2·6.

Hab. South Africa, from the Cape to the Zambesi and on the west to the Cunene.

The Steinbok became known to the Forsters and Thunberg through the Dutch settlers at the Cape at about the same date as the Grysbok, and in 1811 received the scientific name Antilope campestris from the latter author in his memoir, published by the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, to which we have already alluded. Three years later Lichtenstein in his article upon the species of Antilope published in the Magazine of the “Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde” of Berlin, proposed the name Antilope tragulus, but under this designation united both the Steinbok and the Grysbok, as well as the pale variety of the latter species which the Dutch settlers called the “Bleekbok.” In uniting the Steinbok and Grysbok under one head Lichtenstein was clearly in error, the structural difference presented by the absence of accessory hoofs, as well as the divergence in the colour of the fur, sufficiently distinguishing the present species from the Grysbok. Lichtenstein no doubt derived his ideas upon this subject from Forster’s manuscripts, as the same view is taken in Forster’s posthumous work ‘Descriptiones Animalium,’ when it was tardily published in 1844. Under these circumstances there can be no doubt, we think, that “campestris” is the proper specific term to be employed for the present species.

In an article upon the Ruminants published by Blainville in the ‘Bulletin of the Société Philomathique’ for 1816 and subsequently enlarged in the ‘Journal de Physique,’ that author described and figured the skull of a specimen which he had observed in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London and called it Antilope acuticornis. On Blainville’s description and figure of this skull Hamilton Smith, in the fifth volume of Griffith’s Cuvier, subsequently established a new genus of Antelopes, “Raphicerus.” Whoever consults this figure and compares it with a skull of the Steinbok will inevitably come to the conclusion that the figure represents the skull of that animal. We have accordingly added Antilope acuticornis of Blainville, and the further references to it subsequently published, to the synonyms of the Steinbok, and under these circumstances have thought it necessary to give the generic term Raphicerus precedence as the generic name of the present group over the better known names Calotragus of Sundevall and Pediotragus of Fitzinger.

It would seem also that Antilope subulata of Hamilton Smith, given in the same work as a second species of Raphicerus, and taken from another pair of horns, also then in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, may be safely referred to the present species.

Captain Harris, in his ‘Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of South Africa,’ published in 1840, figures the Steen-bok, as he calls it, along with the Rhebok in his 25th plate, and speaks of it as “common in the Colony.”

In 1861, when Mr. Layard prepared his ‘Catalogue of the Mammals in the Collection of the South African Museum,’ the Steinbok was spoken of as then common throughout the Colony. It is partial, Mr. Layard tells us, “to flat plains covered with bushes” and “selects a spot, in the immediate neighbourhood of which it may constantly be found. When a Steinbok is killed off, a few days suffice to reproduce a new occupant for the favoured spot.”

Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington, in their ‘Sportsman in South Africa’ (one of our most recent authorities on the subject), speak of the Steinbuck as the “most common and widely distributed Antelope of South Africa from Cape Town to the Zambesi, frequenting the open flats either singly or in pairs.” As the hares of the Cape afford little or no sport for coursing, the Steinbok has been employed as their substitute. These authors give us the following notes upon this subject:—“At Kimberley, in Griqualand West, a regular coursing club was organized shortly after the discovery of the diamond fields, and it has been carried on ever since with the greatest success, the colonists being just as much interested in the result of the annual Club Cup as sportsmen are in England over the Waterloo Cup, large sums of money changing hands at the meetings. It requires, however, a really fast powerful greyhound with a lot of bottom to run up on a Steinbuck. As nearly all proprietors strictly preserve the species in Griqualand West, they are there very numerous, perhaps even more so than in the native territories further north. This Antelope commences feeding about sundown, and continues its wanderings during the night, at sunrise retiring under cover of some low thick clump of bush or patch of long grass, where, unless disturbed, it passes the entire day in concealment. As it usually lies asleep during the great heat of the sun, it can then be easily walked up to and readily disposed of with a charge of buckshot. When severely wounded or hard pressed by dogs, it will often take refuge in the burrow of the Aard-vark (Oryctoropus). At all times the Steinbuck is rather a difficult shot with the rifle; but if the half-hour before dusk or sunrise be chosen, some pretty rifle-shooting may be obtained, and a quiet stalk at such times through a veldt which they frequent will often well repay the sportsman when larger antelopes are not at hand. The wind has no influence with regard to the direction in which it goes, as it will run either up or down wind. It does not frequent very hilly or thick bush country, and is capable of existing for long periods without water. The Steinbuck is very easily tamed, but invariably becomes blind when kept in captivity for any length of time. The flesh is excellent.”

Mr. Selous, in his valuable notes on South Central African Antelopes read before the Zoological Society of London in June 1881, gives us a list of the various native names of this little Antelope, and says that it is spread all over South Africa from the Cape to the Zambesi, except in the mountainous districts and in tracts of very thick bush. North of the Zambesi Mr. Selous did not meet with any Steinboks. But it is certain from the researches of Mr. Crawshay in Nyasaland, of Herr Oscar Neumann in German East Africa, and Mr. Jackson and other authorities in British East Africa, that the Steinbok, or a very closely allied representative, is found, in suitable localities, nearly up to the Tana River. For the present, however, we shall follow Herr Matschie’s views in considering the East-African form Raphicerus neumanni as possibly belonging to a distinct species.

From the western frontiers of the Cape Colony the Steinbok, or a very nearly allied form, appears to extend up to the Cunene River in the interior of Angola, whence specimens, referred by M. Du Bocage, with some hesitation, to the Steinbok, were forwarded in 1874 to the Lisbon Museum by M. d’Anchieta.

The only example of the Steinbok registered in the Zoological Society’s Catalogues is a female specimen presented by Sir George Grey, K.C.B., then Governor of the Cape Colony, in 1861. We are not aware of any other examples of this Antelope having been brought to Europe.

Our figure of this species (Plate XXVII. fig. 1) was put on the stone by Mr. Smit from a drawing by Wolf prepared under the directions of the late Sir Victor Brooke. The drawing is now in Sir Douglas Brooke’s possession. We regret to be unable to state from what specimen it was taken.

The National Collection contains a pair of mounted specimens of this Antelope obtained by Wahlberg in Cafferland, and several skins without exact localities. A skull from Port Elizabeth was obtained by Mr. F. C. Selous. Further specimens of both sexes with exact dates and localities would be highly appreciated.

December, 1895.

48. NEUMANN’S STEINBOK.
RAPHICERUS NEUMANNI (Matsch.).

Nanotragus tragulus, Hunter, in Willoughby’s E. Afr. p. 290 (1889) (?).

Nanotragus campestris, Jackson, Big Game Shooting, p. 285 (1894) (?).

Pediotragus neumanni, Matsch. SB. nat. Freund. 1894, p. 122 (N. Ugogo); id. Thierw. Ost-Afr. Säugeth. p. 120.

Vernacular Name:—Dondoro in Ugogo (Neumann).

Similar to R. campestris, but without any black colour on the head.

Hab. East Africa, from the Tana to Nyasaland.

As already stated in our remarks on the preceding species, we are by no means satisfied as to the specific difference of the Steinbok of East Africa from the corresponding form met with south of the Zambesi. But until further evidence on this point is available we will not dissent from the views of Herr Matschie, who has decided that the East-African form is distinct, and has proposed to call it after Herr Oscar Neumann, to whom the Berlin Museum is indebted for its specimens.

Herr Neumann, who has recently returned from a most successful expedition, in which he traversed unexplored portions of German East Africa up to Lake Victoria and returned through British territory, met with this Antelope, as he kindly informs us, in Northern Ugogo, Iranga, Usandawe, and near Mount Gurui. He describes its habits as almost like those of Madoqua kirki and Cephalophus harveyi, with which it is often found in company in the thinly-bushed districts. But it also occasionally goes out into the open prairies, and then lies concealed in the tall grasses like the Reedbucks. Its Swahili name is given as ‘Dondoro.’