Genus I. BUBALIS.
| Type. | |
| Bubalis, Licht. Mag. nat. Freund. Berl. vi. p. 154 (1814) | B. buselaphus. |
| Alcelaphus, Blainv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75 | B. buselaphus. |
| Damalis (gen.) and Acronotus (subgen.), H. Sm. Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. pp. 343 & 345 (1827) | B. buselaphus. |
| Bubalus, Og. P. Z. S. 1836, p. 139 | B. buselaphus. |
Size large and general form clumsy, with the withers considerably higher than the rump; head long and narrow; muzzle moist, naked, and rather broad; nostrils close together, lined with stiff hairs; neck not maned; suborbital glands small, tufted in some species, but not in others; hoofs small; tail reaching below the hocks, moderately haired, generally with a compressed crest along the dorsal surface of its terminal half; mammæ two.
Colour uniform brown or rufous, with or without black patches on the head, shoulders, hips, and feet.
Skull elongated; the frontal bones produced upwards and backwards into a long bony support for the horns, the occiput being entirely hidden in the upper view of the skull; parietals small, compressed behind the frontal horn-pedicle, facing nearly horizontally backwards. Small interorbital perforations present; lachrymal pits present but shallow. Molars very tall and narrow, and without supplementary lobes in the upper jaw.
Horns present in both sexes, those of the female as long, but not so thick, as those of the male, placed close together at their bases; doubly curved, first rising outwards or backwards, then curved forwards and upwards, and then bent abruptly backwards and upwards at their tips.
Range of the Genus. Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
This genus, containing the Hartebeests, is a very natural and well-defined one, and is curiously shown to be so by the fact that, so far as is as yet known, the ranges of the different species nowhere overlap each other, whilst almost every part of the range of the genus possesses its single representative species.
The members of the genus fall into four rather definite groups, as follows:—
| A. Frontal horn-pedicle short; horns forming a when viewed in front | 1, 2. B. buselaphus, B. major. |
| B. Horn-pedicle moderate; horns forming an inverted bracket. | 3, 4, 5. B. tora, B. swaynei, B. cokei. |
| C. Horn-pedicle extremely elongated; horns forming a V when viewed in front | 6, 7. B. caama, B. jacksoni. |
| D. Horn-pedicle very short and broad; horns much curved inwards towards each other before the final backward turn. | 8. B. lichtensteini. |
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. Pl. I.
Smit lith.
Hanhart imp.
The Bubal.
BUBALIS BUSELAPHUS.
Published by R. H. Porter.
1. THE BUBAL.
BUBALIS BUSELAPHUS (Pall.).
[PLATE I.]
Buselaphus, Gesner, Hist. Anim., Quadr. p. 121 (1520).
Le Bubale, Buff. Hist. Nat. xii. p. 294, pls. xxxvii. (skeleton) and xxxviii. fig. 1 (skull and horns) (1764).
Antilope buselaphus, Pall. Misc. Zool. p. 7 (1766).
Antilope bubalis, Pall. Spic. Zool. fasc. i. p. 12 (1767), xii. p. 16 (1777); Müll. Naturs. Suppl. p. 54 (1776); Erxl. Syst. R. A. i. p. 291 (1777); Zimm. Spec. Zool. Geogr. p. 544 (1777); id. Geogr. Gesch. ii. p. 122 (1780); Gatt. Brev. Zool. i. p. 83 (1780); Bodd. Elench. Anim. p. 143 (1785); Schreb. Säug. pl. cclxxvii. B (animal) (1787); Gm. S. N. i. p. 188 (1788); Kerr, Linn. An. K. p. 314 (1792); Donnd. Zool. Beytr. p. 633 (1792); Bechst. Uebers. vierf. Thiere, i. p. 95 (1799), ii. p. 645 (1800); Shaw, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, p. 331 (1801); Virey, N. Dict. d’H. N. iii. p. 525 (1803); Turt. Linn. S. N. i. p. 114 (1806); Ill. Prodr. Syst. Mamm. p. 106 (1811); Licht. Mag. nat. Freund. Berl. vi. p. 163 (1814); G. Fisch. Zoogn. iii. p. 417 (1814); Afzel. N. Act. Ups. vii. p. 220 (1815); G. Cuv. Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 241 (1816); Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 195 (1816); Goldf. in Schreb. Säug. v. p. 1171 (1820); Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 390 (1821); Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 466 (1822); F. Cuv. H. N. Mamm. (fol.) iii. livr. li. (animal) (1825); Less. Man. Mamm. p. 381 (1827); Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 473 (1829); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 180 (1842); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Supp. iv. p. 469 (1844), v. p. 444 (1855); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 443 (1845); Gieb. Säug. p. 296 (1859); Nachtigal, Sahara and Soudan, i. p. 572, ii. p. 678 (1879).
Capra dorcas, Müll. Natursyst. i. p. 416 (1773) (nec Linn.).
Cerophorus (Alcelaphus) bubalis, Blainv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.
Damalis bubalis, H. Sm. Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 347, v. p. 362 (1827).
Acronotus bubalis, A. Sm. S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii. p. 221 (1833); Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 157 (1843); id. List Ost. B. M. p. 58 (1847).
Bubalus mauritanicus, Og. P. Z. S. 1836, p. 139.
Bubalis mauretanica, Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844, p. 208 (1846); id. Hornschuh’s Transl. p. 83 (1848); Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 195 (1853); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 195 (1893).
Boselaphus bubalis, Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 233 (1846); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 139; id. Knowsl. Men. p. 20, pl. xx. fig. 1 (young) (1850); Blyth, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 51, fig. 3 (horns).
Alcelaphus bubalis, Gray, Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 123 (1852); Tristram, Great Sahara, p. 387 (1860); id. P. Z. S. 1866, p. 86 (Palestine); Brooke, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 643; Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 43 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. p. 114 (1873); Rütimeyer, Rind. Tert.-Epoch. p. 47 (1877); Schmidt, P. Z. S. 1880, p. 307 (length of life); Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 139 (1887); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 171 (1892); Lyd. Field, lxxvii. p. 858 (1891).
Alcelaphus bubale, Gerrard, Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 243 (1862).
Alcelaphus bubalinus, Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 335 (1891).
Boselaphus caama (partim), Heugl. Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act. Leopold. xxx. pt. ii.) p. 22, pl. 1. fig. 3 (horns) (1863).
Acronotus lelwel, Heugl. Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 124 (1877).
Vernacular Names:—Begra el Ouach, Arabs of Algeria (Lataste); Bekker-el-wash, Arabs of Palestine (Tristram); Kargum of Saharan Tuaregs; Karia in Bagirmi (Nachtigal). “Lelwel,” “Alalüehl,” and some others of Schweinfurth’s names also probably belong here.
Size small; height at withers only about 43 inches, and therefore markedly less than in the other species. Facial hairs reversed upwards for about two inches on the nose, then slanting downwards from a point on the forehead just below the horns, where there is a twisted whorl from which the hairs radiate in all directions. Colour uniform pale rufous or fawn, entirely without darker patches on forehead, chin, or limbs; there is, however, an ill-defined patch of greyish on each side of the muzzle above the nostrils; lower part of rump not whitish. Tail black on the terminal tuft only, the rest like the back.
Skull long, but the elongation less than in B. caama. Approximate dimensions:—basal length 13 inches, greatest breadth 4·8, muzzle to orbit 10[3]. Facial length from between the horns to the tip of the nasals 13·5 inches; breadth of the forehead, across the frontal horn-support, 4·0. Horns diverging from each other at an even rounded curve, so as together to form a
when viewed from the front, a method of curvature only found in this and the next species. In length, when measured round the curves, they attain to a little more than 14 inches.
Hab. Northern Africa (interior of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis) and Arabia.
The Bubal (Bubalis or Bubalus) is one of the few Antelopes known to the ancient writers, being included by Herodotus among the beasts of Libya, and being likewise mentioned by Aristotle, Æschylus, and Pliny. The Bubal is also referred to in the Old Testament and called “Yachmur”—a term which has been incorrectly translated in the authorized version as “Fallow Deer.” Under this name it is included in the list of the daily provisions of King Solomon (i. Kings, iv. 23) as one of the animals brought to the royal table.
Coming to more modern days we find that in the time of Dr. Thomas Shaw, F.R.S., of Queen’s College, Oxford (who was resident twelve years at Algiers as British Chaplain), the Bubal was abundant on the north of the Atlas. Dr. Shaw (‘Travels in Barbary and the Levant,’ Oxford, 1738), in his “Physical and Miscellaneous Observations on the Natural History of Algiers and Tunis,” tells us:—
“Of cattle that are not naturally tame and domesticated, these Kingdoms afford large Herds of the Neat kind called Bekker el Wash by the Arabs. This Species is remarkable for having a rounder Turn of Body, a flatter Face, with Horns bending more towards each other than in the tame kind. It is therefore, in all Probability, the Bos africanus of Bellonius, which he seems justly to take for the Bubalus of the Ancients; though, what he describeth is little bigger than the Caprea or Roe-Buck, whereas ours is nearly of the same size with the Red-Deer, with which also it agreeth in Colour. The young Calves of this Species quickly grow tame, and herd with other Cattle.”
Since the days of Shaw, however, the Bubal has retired far beyond the Atlas into the recesses of the desert, and has become a difficult animal to meet with. Loche (Expl. Sc. de l’Algérie) tells us that it is now confined to the mountainous districts of the Sahara, where it roams about in small troops. Canon Tristram states that “the hunters of Souf frequently obtain this, the largest of game in North Africa.” But he does not think that it “ever ventures north of the Wed R’hir and M’zab districts, while its home is certainly further south. It is considered to be the most savoury meat of the desert-epicure.” During his extensive explorations in the Great Sahara Canon Tristram saw this Antelope only on one occasion: this was at a distance, in the south of the Djereed of Tunis.
From the Algerian Sahara the Bubal extends no doubt into Morocco on one side and Tripoli on the other; but our knowledge of the animals of both these countries is still very meagre, and we are unable to quote precise authorities. In Egypt, so far as we know, the Bubal appears to be now quite extinct, but on the other side of the Red Sea it reappears in Arabia and extends even up to the confines of Palestine. Canon Tristram never saw it alive in Palestine; “but it certainly exists on the borders of Gilead and Moab,” and is well known to the Arabs, who assured him that “it sometimes comes down to drink at the head-waters of the streams flowing into the Dead Sea, where they not unfrequently capture it.” Canon Tristram has kindly allowed one of us to examine a pair of horns obtained from the Arabs in this locality, which are apparently referable to a female of this species.
The Bubal has been long introduced to the zoological gardens of Europe, and its name occurs in the MS. Catalogues of the Zoological Society as early as 1832. It bred in the Derby Menagerie, and the young one was figured in the drawings illustrative of that splendid collection (pl. xx.). It is not, however, very common in captivity, and of late years but few specimens have been received. At the present time there is only a single example of this Antelope in the Zoological Society’s collection. It is a female, presented by Mr. Robert Pitcairn, of Oran, in October 1883, and obtained, no doubt, in the interior of Western Algeria. Mr. Smit’s illustration (Plate I.) was prepared from this specimen.
The series of specimens of this Antelope in the British Museum is not by any means a full one. There are an adult male (stuffed) and an adult female (in skin) from the Zoological Society’s old collection, and a young one obtained by Fraser in the Djereed of Tunis in 1846, besides some pairs of horns and frontlets. Fresh examples of this species from definite localities would therefore be highly valued by the Trustees.
May, 1894.
2. THE WEST-AFRICAN BUBAL.
BUBALIS MAJOR (Blyth).
Boselaphus bubalis, var. 1, Gray, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 139 (?).
Alcelaphus bubalis, var. tunisianus, Gray, Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 123 (1852); id. Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 44 (1872) (?).
Boselaphus major, Blyth, P. Z. S. 1869, p. 52, fig. A 1 (horns).
Alcelaphus major, Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 44 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. p. 114 (1873).
“Bubalis lelwel, Heugl.,” Matsch. Arch. f. Nat. 1891, pt. i. p. 355 (Cameroons).
Bubalis major, Ward, Horn Meas. p. 62 (1892); Matsch. Mitth. deutsch. Schutzgebiet, vi. pt. iii. p. 17 (1893) (Togo); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 196 (1893).
Essential characters as in B. buselaphus, but larger in all its dimensions.
“Body of a uniform greyish brown; face deep brown; fore legs streaked with dark brown or blackish from the knees downwards. Terminal tuft of tail black.
“Frontal bone between the base of the horns and orbit convex, the same part being remarkably flat in other species.” (Brooke, MS.)
Facial length 17½ inches, muzzle to orbit 13, breadth of forehead 4·4.
Horns curved as in the Bubal, but longer and heavier, their length round the curves amounting to over 20 inches.
Hab. Gambia, Lower Niger district, and interior of Cameroons.
There can be no doubt of the existence of a Bubal allied to B. buselaphus in several districts on the West Coast of Africa. But there are no perfect specimens of this Antelope at present available for comparison, and its distinctness from its northern representative may still be a matter of some uncertainty, although we have good reason to believe that the two species will ultimately prove to be specifically different.
The well-known naturalist Edward Blyth, for many years Curator of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and a good authority on the larger Mammals, was the first writer to call attention to the existence of this Antelope. In a communication made to the Zoological Society in 1869, Blyth states that he had examined a “perfect skin” of what he at once recognized as a “distinct though closely allied species,” differing from B. buselaphus “in being fully as large as a Hartebeest, and in having black markings in front of all four feet above the hoofs.” Blyth’s opinion was that some mounted specimens which he saw in the Museums of Leyden and Amsterdam referred to B. buselaphus belonged strictly to this new form. He also exhibited on the same occasion a pair of frontlets belonging to Ward, of Vere Street, as referable to what he proposed to designate Boselaphus major. These frontlets, which were subsequently figured in the Society’s ‘Proceedings,’ are now in the British Museum.
Fig. 1 a.
Fig. 1 b.
Horns of Bubalis major.
(Gambia, Carter, 1891.)
Whether the “variety 1” of the Bubal, established by Gray in 1850 upon a skin without horns or hoofs, said to have been brought by Fraser from Tunis, really belonged to this species, must ever remain doubtful. This skin is no longer to be found, and if it were really referable to B. major it was probably brought by Fraser from West Africa and not from Tunis, where the typical B. buselaphus is found. Gray’s inaccuracy as regards localities is notorious, and Fraser visited both parts of Africa. Under these circumstances we may altogether neglect the name “tunisianus” bestowed on this "variety" in 1852, as being highly doubtful as well as inapplicable.
Fig. 1 c.
Fig. 1 d.
Horns and skull of Bubalis major.
c. Front view; d. Side view. (Brooke.)
It is probable that the horns from the Cameroons, referred by Herr Matschie to “B. lelwel, Heuglin,” and those from Togoland, referred by the same author to B. major, also belong to this species, which would appear to inhabit suitable districts in Western Africa from Senegal to the Cameroons.
A pair of horns of this Antelope was amongst the specimens obtained by Dr. Percy Kendall from the Gambia in 1890. Another very fine pair was brought by Sir Gilbert Carter from the Gambia in 1891, from which the accompanying drawings (figs. 1 a and 1 b, p. 12) have been taken. These horns are in Sclater’s possession.
The two other figures (figs. 1 c and 1 d, p. 13) were prepared by Sir Victor Brooke, probably from horns in his collection.
Besides Blyth’s frontlets already mentioned, there are a pair of horns of the Bubal in the British Museum obtained by Mr. E. Bower on the Lower Niger in 1892, and several other specimens of horns without exact localities. Sclater has also examined, casually, a mounted specimen in the Senckenbergian Museum at Frankfort-a/M., labelled Bubalis mauritanica, which is probably of this species. According to his notes it is “nearly uniform brown; forehead ferruginous; black round the feet.”
May, 1894.
3. THE TORA.
BUBALIS TORA (Gray).
Buselaphus bubalis, Heugl. Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act. Leopold. Carol. xxx. pt. ii.) p. 21 (1863) (nec Pall.).
Tétel (Antilope bubalis), Baker, Nile Tributaries, p. 179 (1867).
Alcelaphus tora, Gray, Nature, viii. p. 364; id. Ann. Mag. N. H. (4) xii. p. 341 (1873); id. Hand-l. Rum. p. 172, pl. xli. (skull and horns) (1873); Scl. P. Z. S. 1873, pp. 729 and 762 (Settite R.), 1875, p. 529; Rütimeyer, Rind. Tert.-Epoch. p. 47, pl. v. figs. 7 & 8 (1877); Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 139 (1887); Lyd. Field, lxxvii. p. 858 (1891); Jent. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 171 (1892).
Acronotus bubalis, Heugl. Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 122 (1877).
Bubalis bubalis, Brehm, Thierl. iii. p. 217, pl. (animal) (1880).
Bubalis tora, Ward, Horn Meas. p. 59, fig. (head) (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 198 (1893).
Vernacular Names:—Tora in Amhar, Abyssinia; Tori in Tigre; Guragua or Quaraqua in Belen; Tétel of Arabs in Sennaar (Heuglin).
Size large, height at withers about 48 inches; hairs of face directed as in B. buselaphus. Colour uniform pale fulvous, decidedly paler than in other species, and, with the exception of the usual black chin and tail-tuft, entirely without black markings. Lower part of rump behind decidedly lighter than the dorsal surface.
Skull slenderer and more lightly built than usual; frontal narrow; its elongation medium.
Basal length 15·7 inches, greatest breadth 5·3, muzzle to orbit 12·5, facial length 16·5, breadth of forehead 3·4.
Horns shaped somewhat like an inverted bracket, a comparison that is, however, better borne out by the two following species, as in the Tora the diverging parts of the two horns start up at a slight angle with each other, instead of being in the same straight line. The horns themselves are unusually slender, and attain a length of about 19 inches.
Hab. Upper Nubia, Northern Abyssinia, and Kordofan.
The Tora or Tétel was confounded by von Heuglin and Sir Samuel Baker, its first discoverers, with the Bubal. But these two Antelopes, though alike of uniform colour, are easily distinguishable on comparison by the larger size and higher gait of the Tora and by the different shape of its horns. The Tora would also seem to inhabit more wooded and broken country than the open deserts that are the home of the allied species.
Heuglin tells us that this Antelope is found in families and herds in the valleys at the foot of Mount Takah, in the district of the Beni-Ammer Arabs, in Upper Barca, on the Anseba and Atbara and their confluents, and in the lower districts of Northern Abyssinia. He found it likewise plentiful on the sources of the Dender and Rahad, and in Galabat. It inhabits the sheltered country where there is high grass and underwood, is not particularly timid, and sometimes even stupidly bold, resorting regularly in the morning and evening to the usual pastures and drinking-places.
In his volume on ‘The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia’ Sir Samuel Baker frequently mentions the “Tétel,” as he calls this Antelope.
In August 1861, being on the banks of the Atbara, he writes:—
“The country being now bright green, the Antelopes are distinctly visible on the opposite side. Three Tétel graze regularly together in the same place daily. This Antelope is a variety of the Hartebeest of South Africa; it is of a reddish-chestnut colour, and is of about the size of an Alderney cow.”
A month later Sir Samuel tells us:—
“When about halfway to the river, as we were passing through grass about 4 feet high, three Tétel bounded from a ravine, and passing directly before us, gave me a splendid shot at about sixty yards. The Ceylon No. 10 struck the foremost through the shoulder, and it fell dead after running a few yards. This was also my first Tétel; it was in splendid condition, the red coat was like satin, and the animal would weigh about five hundred pounds live weight.”
Shortly afterwards the skin of the Tétel was taken off entire, the apertures at the neck and knees tied up, and the hide inflated and ingeniously converted into a waterproof bag, to be used for the conveyance of the flesh of the animal across the river Atbara.
In a subsequent part of his journey in the valley of the Settite, a confluent of the Atbara, Baker again records his adventures with this Antelope as follows:—
“We had hardly ridden half a mile when I perceived a fine bull Tétel standing near a bush a few hundred yards distant. Motioning to the party to halt I dismounted, and with the little Fletcher rifle I endeavoured to obtain a shot. When within about a hundred and seventy yards he observed our party, and I was obliged to take the shot, although I could have approached unseen to a closer distance had his attention not been attracted by the noise of the horses. He threw his head up preparatory to starting off, and he was just upon the move as I touched the trigger. He fell like a stone to the shot, but almost immediately he regained his feet and bounded off, receiving a bullet from the second barrel without a flinch; in full speed he rushed away across the party of aggageers about three hundred yards distant. Out dashed Abou Do from the ranks on his active grey horse, and away he flew after the wounded Tétel, his long hair floating in the wind, his naked sword in hand, and his heels digging into the flanks of his horse, as though armed with spurs in the last finish of a race. It was a beautiful course; Abou Do hunted like a cunning greyhound; the Tétel turned, and taking advantage of the double, he cut off the angle; succeeding by the manœuvre, he again followed at tremendous speed over the numerous inequalities of the ground, gaining in the race until he was within twenty yards of the Tétel, when we lost sight of both game and hunter in the thick bushes. By this time I had regained my horse, that was brought to meet me, and I followed to the spot, towards which my wife and the aggageers encumbered with the unwilling apes were already hastening. Upon arrival I found, in high yellow grass beneath a large tree, the Tétel dead, and Abou Do wiping his bloody sword, surrounded by the foremost of the party. He had hamstrung the animal so delicately that the keen edge of the blade was not injured against the bone. My two bullets had passed through the Tétel: the first was too high, having entered above the shoulder—this had dropped the animal for a moment; the second was through the flank.”
As we have already stated, both Heuglin and Baker confounded the Tora with the Bubal. In 1873 the British Museum first received specimens of this Antelope from the Bogos district west of Massowa. The keen eye of the then keeper of the Zoological Department quickly recognized the essential differences of the new species from the previously known members of the genus, and it was briefly described, first in ‘Nature’ and afterwards in the ‘Annals of Natural History.’
Fig. 2.
Head of Bubalis tora.
(P. Z. S. 1873, p. 762.)
In December of the same year Sclater exhibited a mounted head of this Antelope at one of the meetings of the Zoological Society, from whose ‘Proceedings’ the accompanying figure of the specimen in question (fig. 2) has been borrowed by leave of the Publication Committee.
Two years later, in July 1875, a female example of this Antelope was obtained alive for the Zoological Society’s Menagerie; and in the following year, in October, a fine pair of the Tora was purchased by the Society for the sum of £100, of Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, the well-known dealer of Hamburg. These animals had been obtained along with others from the Arabs of Upper Nubia and brought out viâ Kassala and Suakim by Mr. Hagenbeck’s agents. Other specimens of the Tora from the same source reached several zoological gardens on the Continent about the same date; but we believe that they have one and all disappeared, and, so far as we know, the Tora is no longer to be seen anywhere in captivity.
There is a good pair of this Antelope in the Gallery of the British Museum mounted from skins stated to have been procured at Dembelas, in Northern Abyssinia. There are also a skeleton and other specimens from the same locality in the National Collection.
May, 1894.
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. II.
Smit lith.
Hanhart imp.
Swayne’s Hartebeest
BUBALIS SWAYNEI.
Published by R. H. Porter.
4. SWAYNE’S HARTEBEEST.
BUBALIS SWAYNEI, Scl.
[PLATE II.]
Boselaphus caama, Scl. P. Z. S. 1884, p. 539; id. in James, Unknown Horn of Afr. p. 262 (1888).
Alcelaphus, sp. inc., Lort Phillips, P. Z. S. 1885, p. 932.
Alcelaphus caama, Gigl. Ann. Mus. Genov. (2) vi. p. 19 (1888) (Shoa).
Bubalis swaynei, Scl. P. Z. S. 1892, p. 98, pl. v. (head), pp. 118, 257; Swayne, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 303 (habits and distribution); Ward, Horn Meas. p. 60, fig. (head) (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 198, fig. 39 (head) (1893).
Vernacular Name:—“Sig” of Somalis (Lort Phillips).
Size medium, height at withers about 47 inches. General colour a peculiar pale chocolate-brown, finely speckled over with white, each hair being brown with the extreme tip white. Face black, except a line across between the eyes to lips and tip of nose, which are fawn-coloured. Chin black. Shoulders and all round forearms black; there is also a black patch inside and a less distinct one outside the thighs. Lower legs and feet fawn, except that the backs of the pasterns are black. Hams paler than back, but not white and not sharply defined. Tail with its hairs reaching just to the hock, black-edged above for its terminal half.
Hairs of face reversed upwards for only about 1½ inch on the tip of the muzzle, then directed downwards from a whorl just below the bases of the horns. Glandular suborbital brushes prominent.
Skull of medium proportions; its measurements as follows:—basal length 14·5 inches, greatest breadth 5·5, muzzle to orbit 8·3, facial length 14, breadth of forehead 3·5.
Horns bracket-shaped, the median portion of each in nearly the same straight line as that of its fellow; terminal portion very short. In length good male horns attain to about 18 inches.
Hab. Interior of Northern Somaliland and Shoa.
Although this fine Hartebeest was pursued and slain by several energetic hunters before Captain Swayne met with it in Somaliland, it is to the last-named distinguished explorer that we are indebted for our first perfect specimens and for an account of its range and habits, and it is therefore appropriately named after him.
The first evidence received of the occurrence of a Hartebeest in Somaliland was a flat native skin contained in a collection brought home by Herr Menges along with a lot of living animals imported for Mr. Hagenbeck, of Hamburg. In some notes on these skins (P. Z. S. 1884, p. 539) Sclater referred the specimen in question to B. caama. Again, Mr. E. Lort Phillips, F.Z.S., who was one of Mr. James’s party in Somaliland in the winter of 1885, shot a single young male Hartebeest near the northern boundary of the high plateau south of Berbera in April of that year (see P. Z. S. 1885, p. 932), but unfortunately lost the skull which he had preserved, and did not meet with the species again.
The next record of this Hartebeest is from a different locality. The Italian naturalist Dr. Traversi in 1886 transmitted to Florence a Hartebeest’s head which, in his list of Traversi’s collection, Dr. Giglioli referred to B. caama. After examining the specimen in the Museum of Florence, and receiving a drawing of it from Dr. Giglioli, Sclater (see P. Z. S. 1892, p. 258) was able to assure himself that it was in all probability the same as B. swaynei of Somaliland.
In his “Field-notes” on the Antelopes of Somaliland (P. Z. S. 1892, p. 303) Captain Swayne furnishes us with an excellent account of this animal, which we now reproduce:—
“South of the highest ranges of Somaliland, and at a distance of about 100 miles from the coast, are open plains some four or five thousand feet above the sea-level, alternating with broken ground covered with thorn-jungle, with an undergrowth of aloes growing sometimes to a height of six feet.
“This elevated country, called the ‘Haud,’ is waterless for three months, from January to March; it was crossed by Mr. James’s party in 1884, when their camels were thirteen days without water.
“Much of the Haud is bush-covered wilderness or open semi-desert, but some of the higher plains are, at the proper season, in early summer, covered, far as the eye can reach, with a beautiful carpet of green grass, like English pasture-land. At this time of the year pools of water may be found, as the rainfall is abundant.
“This kind of open grass country is called the ‘Ban.’ Not a bush is to be seen, and some of these plains are thirty or forty miles each way.
“There is not always much game to be got at in the Haud; but a year ago, coming on to ground which had not yet been visited by Europeans, I found one of these plains covered with herds of Hartebeests, there being perhaps a dozen herds in sight at one time, each containing three or four hundred individuals. Hundreds of bulls were scattered singly on the outskirts and in spaces between the herds, grazing, fighting, or lying down.
“The scene I describe was at a distance of over a hundred miles from Berbera; and the game has probably been driven far beyond that point by now.
“The Hartebeest bulls are very pugnacious, and two or three couples may be fighting round the same herd at one time. Often one of the bulls will be sent rolling head over heels.
“The easiest way to get a specimen is to send a couple of Midgans round above the wind to drive the Hartebeest towards you, at the same time lying down in the grass. A shot may be got within fifty yards, but no one would care to shoot many Hartebeests, as the trophy is poor.
“Often Oryxes and Sœmmerring’s Gazelles are seen in company with these great troops of Hartebeests, but the Oryxes are much wilder. The Hartebeests are rather tame, and they and the Sœmmerring’s Gazelles are always the last to move away.
“Hartebeests have great curiosity, and rush round a caravan, halting now and then within two hundred yards to gaze. This sight is an extraordinary one, these Antelopes having heavy and powerful forequarters, head, and chest, of a different shade of chestnut to the hindquarters, which are poor and fall away. In the midday haze on the plains they look like troops of Lions.
“The pace of the Hartebeest is an ungraceful lumbering canter; but this species is really the fleetest and most enduring of the Somali Antelopes. The largest herd I have ever seen must have contained a thousand individuals, packed closely together, and looking like a regiment of cavalry, the whole plain round being dotted with single bulls. Their coats are glossy, like that of a well-groomed horse.
“From their living so much in open grass plains the Hartebeests must subsist entirely on grass, for there is nothing else to eat; and they must be able to exist for several days without water.
“Hartebeests are the favourite food of Lions, and once, when out with my brother, I found a troop of three Lions sitting out on the open plains, ten miles from the nearest bush. They had evidently been out all night among the herds, and on their becoming gorged, the rising sun had found them disinclined to move.
Fig. 3.
Skull of Bubalis swaynei.
(P. Z. S. 1892, p. 99.)
“Hartebeest horns vary greatly in shape and size. There are short massive horns and long pointed ones, and all the gradations between. Some curve forward, with the points thrown back; others curve outwards in the same plane as the forehead, the points turning upwards”[4].
Our coloured figure of this Antelope (Plate II.) has been drawn by Mr. Smit from the mounted specimen in the British Museum, obtained by Captain Swayne on the Haud plateau of Somaliland.
The woodcut (fig. 3, p. 24) gives a front view of the first skull and horns received from Captain Swayne, upon which Sclater based the species. This specimen is now likewise in the National Collection.
May, 1894.
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. III.
Smit lith.
Hanhart imp.
Cokes Hartebeest.
BUBALIS COKEI.
Published by R. H. Porter.
5. COKE’S HARTEBEEST.
BUBALIS COKEI (Günth.).
[PLATE III.]
Antilope (Alcelaphus) caama, Peters, Von der Decken’s Reise, iii. pt. i. p. 9 (1869) (Lake Jipe).
Alcelaphus cokei, Günth. Ann. Mag. N. H. (5) xiv. p. 426, woodcut of horns (1884) (Usagara); Thomson, Masailand, p. 220, fig. (horns) (1885); Johnston, Kilimanjaro, p. 65 (1886); Hunter, Willoughby’s E. Africa, p. 288, pl. i. fig. 1 (head) (1889); Von Höhnel, Zum Rudolph-See, p. 819 (1892) (Lake Jipe); Lugard, E. Afr. i. p. 532, pl. (animal), and pl. p. 448 (horns) (1893).
Alcelaphus lichtensteini, Pagenst. JB. Mus. Hamb. ii. 1884, p. 40 (1885) (Masailand).
Alcelaphus cookei, Lyd. Field, lxxvii. p. 858, fig. (horns) (1891).
Bubalis cokei, Ward, Horn Meas. p. 61, fig. (head) (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 197, fig. 38 (horns) (1893); Jackson, Big Game Shooting, i. pp. 285, 291.
Vernacular Name:—Kongoni in Swahili (Lugard).
Size small, height at withers about 45 inches. General colour bright fawn all over, without dark markings, except that the lower lip is rather browner than the rest. Lower part of rump paler than the back, but not sharply defined. Tail long, its hairs reaching to the middle of the lower leg; black-crested for about its terminal three fourths. Face-hairs as in B. swaynei and B. tora. Glandular suborbital brushes short and not conspicuous.
Skull of medium proportions. Measurements:—basal length 14 inches, greatest breadth 5·2, muzzle to orbit 10·7, facial length 14·7, breadth of forehead 3·5.
Horns short and thick, bracket-shaped, the middle portions of the two sides in exactly the same straight line; their tips as long as their middle portions.
Hab. Eastern Africa, from Usagara northwards to Kilimanjaro and Masailand.
The first recorded specimen of Coke’s Hartebeest was a frontlet obtained by the German traveller Von der Decken in 1862 at Lake Jipe in Masailand. These horns were referred by Peters, in his account of the mammals of Von der Decken’s expedition, to B. caama of the Cape. But Sir Victor Brooke, who subsequently examined them at Berlin, as we know from his MSS., was convinced of their distinctness from the species of the Cape Colony, and had determined to call the new species after Von der Decken, although he never published the name. The subjoined figures (4 a and 4 b) were prepared under Sir Victor Brooke’s direction, and show a front view and a three-quarter view of these horns.
Fig. 4 a.
Horns of Bubalis cokei, front view.
In June 1880 Col. the Hon. W. C. W. Coke, F.Z.S., a renowned English sportsman, started from Zanzibar on a shooting-expedition towards Mpapwa, along the caravan-route from the port of Saadani. On reaching the open plains on the plateau of Usagara he met with several herds of this Antelope, and obtained the frontlet (fig. 4 c), now in the British Museum, upon which the species was established by Dr. Günther.
Colonel Coke has kindly permitted us to refer to his journal, in which we find it recorded that he first met with this Hartebeest on June 28th, between the Missionary Stations of Mamboia and Mpapwa. On July 10th, when encamped near M’lalli, at the edge of the plains, though sick with fever, he went out and shot the animal, upon the head of which the species was afterwards based. After this Colonel Coke was taken so ill that he had to be carried back to the coast in a hammock, and was unable to shoot any more of these Antelopes.
In Sir John Kirk’s collection are two fine heads of this Hartebeest, likewise obtained by him in Usagara.
Proceeding northwards to the country round Kilimanjaro we find that Mr. H. C. V. Hunter, in his appendix to Sir John Willoughby’s ‘East Africa and its Big Game,’ records Coke’s Hartebeest as, at the date of his visit (1887), “quite the most common Antelope in the plains” of that district, “being found everywhere in immense herds.” From the same part of the British East-African Company’s territory we have seen and examined numerous other heads of this Hartebeest, including fine examples of both sexes belonging to Consul-General Holmwood, obtained during a shooting-excursion from Zanzibar to this attractive district.
Fig. 4 b.
Horns of Bubalis cokei, side view.
Mr. Ernest Gedge, who traversed British East Africa in company with Mr. F. J. Jackson, has kindly compiled from his note-books the following account of his experiences with Coke’s Hartebeest:—
“These Antelopes range over a very wide extent of country in both British and German East Africa. In the latter sphere I have procured specimens on the south shore of the Victoria Nyanza which in all respects were identical with those found nearer the coast; hence it is reasonable to suppose that they occupy the entire region lying between the lake and the coast. In British East Africa the northern limit of their extension seems to be somewhere about Lake Naivasha in the Masai country. On one occasion, however, I obtained an odd specimen in the valley of the Ngare Rongri, to the south of Lake Baringo, but, as a rule, they are not to be found so far north, as in this district they give place to B. jacksoni.
Fig. 4 c.
Horns of Bubalis cokei, front view.
(Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 5, xiv. p. 426.)
“Between Lake Naivasha and the coast B. cokei is very commonly met with. It frequents every kind of locality, and is equally at home in the bush-covered wilderness lying behind the coast-line and on the vast treeless plains around the base of Kilimanjaro which extend northwards towards Lake Naivasha, and during the hottest seasons of the year it is often encountered in the most arid and pastureless localities many miles distant from the nearest water.
“Being of a sociable disposition, Coke’s Hartebeest is usually seen in company with other game, and the sight of these vast mixed herds, which include Zebras and Grant’s and Thomson’s Gazelles, is one not easily forgotten. Like all Hartebeest it is very wary and difficult to approach, its senses of sight and scent being extremely keen. During the time that the herd is grazing there are usually one or two sentinels posted on the nearest elevations to give warning of the approach of danger. The white-ant-hills with which the entire country abounds are usually selected for this purpose, and are patronized to such an extent, that I have seen as many as eight or ten occupying the summit of one of these hills, which looked as if it could only support a third of that number. The reddish colour and general contour of these mounds bears in many cases so close a resemblance to the Antelopes themselves (particularly when grazing) that I have frequently been deceived by their appearance.
“When alarmed they utter a few short whistling snorts and take to flight. If surprised suddenly in the bush they usually run a considerable distance before halting, but when the danger has been perceived from a distance in the open they run but a short distance at a time, pausing frequently to turn round and scrutinize the object of their alarm. In this case there are generally one or two bulls keeping at some distance in the rear of the herd, whose fatal curiosity will often delay them until they fall victims to the rifle.
“The speed of this Antelope is very great, and when thoroughly alarmed they will cover the roughest ground in the most airy and graceful fashion, striking the earth with all four feet together, and springing up with immense bounds like an india-rubber ball. Their tenacity of life is also remarkable, and I have known them travel a long distance with several bullets in different parts of their bodies. The hunter who would be successful must in consequence possess a good rifle and hold it very straight.
“They vary in colour from a light tawny red to chestnut. Age has probably something to do with this, though the males are usually darker than the females, and they are inferior both in size and strength to B. jacksoni further north.
“The cows calve during the latter part of November and December, and on several occasions I have come across their young lying concealed in the long grass, whilst the anxious mother was watching the proceedings from a short distance.”
Our coloured illustration of this species (Plate III.) has been prepared by Mr. Smit from a mounted specimen in the British Museum, which was brought from the Kilimanjaro district by Mr. F. J. Jackson. There is in the same collection a head from the mountains of Taita, obtained by Mr. J. Wray.
May, 1894.
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. IV.
Wolf del. Smit lith.
Hanhart imp.
The Cape Hartebeest.
BUBALIS CAAMA.
Published by R. H. Porter.
6. THE CAPE HARTEBEEST.
BUBALIS CAAMA (G. Cuv.).
[PLATE IV.]
Hartebeest, Sparrm. K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1779, p. 151, pl. v.; id. Voy. to Cape (Engl. transl.) ii. pp. 96, 199, pl. i. (1786).
Le Caama ou Bubale, Buff. Hist. Nat. Suppl. vi. p. 135, pl. xv. (1782).
Antilope bubalis, Schr. Säug. pl. cclxxvii. (animal) (1787) (and in part of other early authors, not of Pallas).
Antilope caama, G. Cuv. Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 242 (1816); Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 196 (1816); Goldf. in Schr. Säug. v. p. 1174 (1820); Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 390 (1821); Burchell, Trav. i. p. 420 (1822); Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 467 (1822); Desmoul. Dict. Class. i. p. 444 (1822); Less. Man. Mamm. p. 382 (1827); Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 474 (1829); Waterh. Cat. Mamm. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 41 (1838); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 180 (1842); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 469 (1844), v. p. 444 (1855); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 443 (1845); Gieb. Säug. p. 297 (1859); Drummond, Large Game S. Afr. p. 425 (1875).
Antilope dorcas, Thunb. Mém. Ac. Pétersb. iii. p. 316 (1811).
Cerophorus (Alcelaphus) caama, Blainv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.
Damalis caama, Ham. Sm. Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 348; id. v. p. 362 (1827); Smuts, En. Mamm. Cap. p. 88 (1832).
Acronotus caama, A. Sm. S. Afr. Q. J. ii. p. 221 (1834); Harris, Wild Sport S. Afr. p. 377 (1839); id. op. cit. 5th ed. pl. x. (animal) (1852); id. Wild An. S. Afr. (fol.) pl. vii. (animal) (1840); Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 157 (1843); id. List Ost. B. M. p. 58 (1847).
Bubalus caama, A. Sm. Ill. Zool. S. Afr. pl. xxx. (animal) (1840).
Bubalis caama, Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844, p. 208 (1846); id. Hornschuh’s Transl. p. 83 (1848); Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 195 (1853); Brehm, Thierl. iii. p. 218, woodcut (animal) (1880); Nicholls & Egl. Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 45, pl. iv. fig. 13 (head) (1892); Ward, Horn Meas. p. 56 (1892); Selous, P. Z. S. 1893, p. 1
(hybrid with Damaliscus lunatus); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 196, fig. 37 (animal) (1893).
Boselaphus caama, Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 233 (1846); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 139; id. Knowsl. Men. p. 20, pl. xx. fig. 2 (animal) (1850); Blyth, Cat. Mus. As. Soc. p. 170 (1863); id. P. Z. S. 1869, p. 52, figs. 4 & 5 (horns).
Alcelaphus caama, Gray, Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 124, pl. xvi. figs. 1–3 (skull and horns) (1852); Gerr. Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 243 (1862); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 44 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. p. 115 (1873); Buckley, P. Z. S. 1876, pp. 285 & 292; 1877, p. 454 (distribution); Rütimeyer, Rind. Tert.-Epoch. p. 47 (1877); Selous, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 763 (distribution); id. Hunter’s Wanderings, p. 224, pl. vii. figs. 5 & 6 (head) (1881); Scl. List Anim. Zool. Soc. (8) p. 148 (1883); id. P. Z. S. 1890, p. 411; Flow. & Gars. Cat. Ost. Coll. Surg. ii. p. 272 (1884); Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 139 (1887); Bryden, Kloof and Karroo, p. 291 (1889); Lyd. Field, lxxvii. p. 858, fig. 1 (animal) (1891); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 335, fig. 137 (animal) (1891); Scl. f. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 170 (1891); Jent. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 171 (1892); Distant, Transvaal, p. 12 (1892); Bryden, Gun and Camera, p. 505 (1893) (Kalahari Desert).
Vernacular Names:—Hartebeest of Cape Dutch and English; Khama of Bechuanas, and the same, with a click, of Masaras; Ingama of Makalakas (Selous); Inhluzele of Zulus (Drummond).
Size large; height at withers about 48 inches. Suborbital gland present, and provided with a distinct tuft. General colour brownish fulvous, darker than in any of the previous species; face with a black blaze running up to the horns, but interrupted between the eyes; back of neck with a dark line from the horns to the withers; chin blackish, outer sides of shoulders and hips black. These darker markings are not visible in the young. Lower part of rump behind whitish or yellowish, contrasting markedly with its dark upperside.
Skull with the frontal part excessively elongated and narrow. The measurements of a fine skull in the Leyden Museum are as follows:—basal length 17·6 inches, greatest breadth 6·1, orbit to tip of muzzle 12·7; facial length 19·3, breadth of forehead below horns 5·1.
Horns diverging evenly outwards at their bases, so as to form a
when viewed from the front, then curved forwards and upwards, and finally bent sharply backwards so as to form almost an abrupt right angle behind the last bend. Good horns attain a length of about 22 or 24 inches.
Hab. South Africa, south of the Limpopo River, but extending further north along the edge of the Kalahari Desert. Now nearly extinct in the Cape Colony; still found in the Transvaal.
The Hartebeest was well known to Sparrmann and other travellers in the Cape Colony at the close of the last century. It was figured by Buffon in one of the supplementary volumes to his ‘Histoire Naturelle’ as the “Caama ou Bubale,” but was generally confounded by systematists with the Bubal of North Africa, until Georges Cuvier, in 1816, gave it the name of Antilope caama—“Caama” or “Khama” being the term applied to it by the Bechuanas. In the days of Sparrmann the Hartebeest was very abundant all over the Cape Colony, and was found in large troops even in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town.
In 1811, when Burchell visited South Africa, the Hartebeest appears to have become already much less abundant; but Burchell speaks of having met with it on the Gariep or Orange River and in other localities.
Twenty-five years later, when Harris made his celebrated sporting excursions into South Africa, the Hartebeest had retreated still further into the interior. But Harris speaks of it as being at that date still met with on the plains beyond the Orange River “in immense herds.” Sir Andrew Smith, who visited the Cape Colonies at about the same epoch, and who has figured the male of this Antelope in his well-known ‘Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa,’ speaks of the occurrence of the Hartebeest far in the interior. He killed specimens himself close to the Tropic of Capricorn, and had heard of its occurrence much further northwards. But, according to his observations, Bubalis caama begins to get rare as soon as the Sassaby (Damaliscus lunatus) commences to occur. His experience justified him in pronouncing that the former took the place of the latter in all the territory northward of 25° south latitude. Sir Andrew Smith gives the following account of the habits of the Hartebeest:—
“The Hartebeest, by preference, inhabits an open country, and hence is generally observed upon the plains in small herds consisting of from six to ten individuals, and often, where the plains are extensive, many of such groups are to be seen within the range of the eye. It is a very wary animal, and views with strong suspicion the advance of man, so that, unless favoured by special circumstances, he finds it an animal difficult to procure. When disturbed, the herd generally scampers off in the train of some acknowledged leader, and they are rarely seen when flying, except in a string, one animal upon the heels of another. Their pace is a sort of heavy gallop, and though they do not appear to move with rapidity, yet the ground over which they go in a given time shows that their progressive motion is far from slow. When first they start, they appear extremely awkward, and generate in the observer an impression that to overtake them must be no very difficult task. After they have advanced a little, however, the apparent stiffness in the joints of the hinder extremities disappears, and even the indications of weakness of the hinder limbs become so indistinct, that the pursuer is soon satisfied of the inaccuracy of his first conclusion. This and the Sassaby are the only antelopes of South Africa which exhibit the peculiarity alluded to, and have led many to remark their resemblance in this respect to the Hyænas and Aard Wolf (Proteles lalandii). In all these animals there is a disproportion between the development of the anterior and posterior parts of the body, and each of them appears when in motion as if its hinder extremities were too weak for the duties they are destined to perform.”
We now come to the distribution of the Hartebeest in South Africa in more modern days. Mr. T. E. Buckley, who published some interesting notes on the range of the large Mammals in South Africa in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1876 and 1877, tells us that from being one of the commonest animals throughout the Cape Colony it had then become one of the rarest. He observed it only on three or four occasions during his journey into the interior—once just before reaching the Crocodile River, and once or twice in the Colony of Natal. In the south-east he says a few then still remained in the Zulu country, but he could not hear of its occurrence in Swaziland, where its place seemed to be taken by the Sassaby.
In 1881 the renowned hunter, Mr. F. C. Selous, in his “Field Notes on the Antelopes of Central South Africa,” read before the Zoological Society, described the present abode of the Hartebeest as follows:—“The range of this Antelope is very similar to that of the Gemsbuck. It is still found in Griqualand West, in some parts being fairly plentiful. All along the eastern border of the Kalahari desert it is also to be found, and extends as far east as the river Serule on the road from Bamangwato to Tati. In the neighbourhood of the salt-pans lying between the Botletlie river and the road from Bamangwato to the Zambesi it is very plentiful and may be met with in large herds. It does not, however, extend its range to the north of these salt-pans, and is unknown in all the country between the Chobe and Mababe rivers, as it is also in the Matabele and Mashuna countries. It is very fleet and enduring, and only second in these particulars to the Tsessebe.”
Our figure of this species was lithographed on the stone by Mr. J. Smit from a sketch made by Joseph Wolf, but we have been unable to ascertain from what exact specimen the sketch was taken.
There is a stuffed example of the Cape Hartebeest in the British Museum, obtained by the late Sir Andrew Smith during his journey to the Cape, probably the individual from which his figure in the ‘Illustrations’ was taken. There are also other specimens in the same collection, including the head of the curious hybrid between this species and the Sassaby (Damaliscus lunatus) described by Mr. Selous in 1893.
The Cape Hartebeest, though occasionally seen in zoological gardens, has never been a common animal in captivity. The Zoological Society of London received a single example in 1851, and a fine male in 1861, presented by Sir George Grey, then Governor of the Cape Colony. In 1869 a pair were obtained by purchase.
In May 1890 the Society acquired a good pair of Hartebeests imported from the Transvaal by the well-known dealer, Mr. C. Reiche, of Alfeld, in Hanover. These are still living in the Regent’s Park Gardens.
May, 1894.
7. JACKSON’S HARTEBEEST.
BUBALIS JACKSONI, Thos.
(?) Alcelaphus bubalis, Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (3) iv. p. 296 (1859) (Bahr-el-Ghazal).
Antilope caama, Schweinfurth, Herz. von Afrika, i. p. 212 (woodcut) (head, ♂), ii. p. 533 (1873) (Niam-Niam); id. op. cit. Engl. transl. ii. p. 509 (1873).
“Hartebeest,” Speke, P. Z. S. 1863, p. 3 (no doubt B. cokei is also referred to).
Boselaphus, sp., Scl. P. Z. S. 1864, p. 103.
Acronotus caama, Heugl. Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 123, pl. lower figure (horns) (1877) (White Nile).
Alcelaphus caama, Thomson, Masai-land, p. 469 (1885) (Elgeyo).
Bubalis jacksoni, Thos. Ann. Mag. N. H. (6) ix. p. 386 (1892) (Kavirondo); Ward, Horn Meas. p. 58, fig. (skull and head) (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 196 (1893); Jackson, Big Game Shooting, i. p. 291.
Bubalis caama, Junker, Travels in Afr. iii. p. 172 (1892) (?).
Alcelaphus jacksoni, Lugard, E. Africa, i. p. 532, and pl. p. 448 (head) (1893).
Vernacular Names:—Ssongoro in Niam Niam; Nakibbih in Monbuttu (Schweinfurth); Alwalwong of Djeng, White Nile (Heuglin); Ngazi in Uganda (Lugard).
Similar in most essential characters to B. caama, but the face is entirely without the black blaze always found in that species, being rufous like the rest of the head, and the horns are not so abruptly bent backwards above, the back of the last bend forming an even open curve. The body-colours of B. jacksoni are, however, not yet accurately known, so that it is possible that other differences will hereafter be found to exist.
Skull: basal length 16 inches, greatest breadth 5·7, orbit to muzzle 12·7; facial length 17·5, breadth of forehead 4·2.
Hab. Interior of British Central Africa, north of Lake Baringo; Uganda; and probably extending northwards to the White Nile, and westwards into North-east Congoland.
This Hartebeest, which is the northern representative of B. caama, has been most appropriately named after Mr. Frederick John Jackson, F.Z.S., the successful conductor of the expedition of the Imperial British East African Company to Uganda in 1889 and 1890[5], and the discoverer of the species, which, when previously met with, had always been confounded with other members of the genus. It should be recollected that, besides his merits as a geographical explorer, Mr. Jackson is an ardent zoological collector and observer. The splendid series of birds which he obtained during the expedition just spoken of, and which embraced examples of nearly 300 species, has been described by Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe in five papers published in ‘The Ibis’ for 1891 and 1892. Dr. Sharpe’s account of this remarkable collection is rendered still more complete by Mr. Jackson’s excellent field-notes which accompany it. Mr. Jackson has also published some very interesting remarks on the Antelopes of British East Africa in one of the recently issued volumes of the Badminton Library upon ‘Big Game Shooting.’
If we assume, as is probable, that the Hartebeest of the Bahr-el-Ghazal belongs to this species, the first examples of it sent to Europe would be those obtained by Petherick in 1859, which were referred by the late Dr. Gray to the Bubal of North Africa. Of these specimens the only one retained by the British Museum is the skull of a female. Another similar specimen from the Bahr-el-Ghazal was sent to the British Museum in 1884 by the German collector Bohndorff. Heuglin also (Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 123) has spoken of the occurrence, on the Kir and Sobat rivers, of a Hartebeest allied to B. caama of South Africa. It is quite clear, therefore, that either Jackson’s Hartebeest or a species closely allied to it is found in the White-Nile district, although we must await the arrival of fresh specimens from this country and further information before we can decide exactly what this Hartebeest is.
It is also probable that the “Central African Hartebeest” of Dr. Schweinfurth’s ’Im Herzen von Africa,’ and Junker’s “Bubalis caama,” met with in the Niam-Niam country, on the northern tributaries of the Congo, should both be referred to Bubalis jacksoni.
Thomas’s original characters of Bubalis jacksoni were based on a specimen transmitted by Mr. Jackson to Messrs. Rowland Ward & Co., shot in November 1889 in Northern Kavirondo, which is now in the British Museum. In a note accompanying the specimen, in which he expresses a sagacious doubt as to “its being the same as the South-African animal,” Mr. Jackson adds:—“Up north all along the top of the Elgeyo Escarpment (continuation of Mau) into Turquel to the north and north-east of Mount Elgon it is very common, and takes the place of B. cokei. Round Baringo it is fairly plentiful, but some marches south of Njemps B. cokei takes its place.”
Mr. Ernest Gedge, who accompanied Mr. Jackson in his adventurous expedition, has kindly furnished us with the following excellent field-notes on this Antelope:—
“The first specimens of Jackson’s Hartebeest were obtained on the Mau plateau in British East Africa. This plateau extends in a northern and southerly direction through the Masai country, and varies from 8000 to 9000 feet in elevation.
“West of Lake Naivasha the plateau is covered for the most part with dense, almost impenetrable forests, but farther north the scenery becomes more park-like, the forest clumps being intersected with grassy ranches, which open out on to the broad expanse of the Angata Nyuki, the latter extending right up to the eastern boundaries of Kavirondo. The whole of this district is frequented by B. jacksoni, which is also found north of Lake Naivasha in the localities bordering on Lakes Nakuro and Baringo north and west of these points; again, it inhabits the Suk country, Chibchangnani, Turquel, Karamojo, and possibly Turkana; whilst farther west it is common in the district round Mount Elgon, and is generally met with throughout Upper Kavirondo, Usoga, and Uganda, wherever the conditions are favourable.
“I have seldom encountered B. jacksoni in large herds, though in habits it differs very little from other species of Hartebeest. More frequently it is met with in small groups, in twos and threes, or singly. It would appear to change its locality to a very great extent according to the seasons. Thus, during the dry months of the year it will be found plentifully scattered over the highlands, from whence it retreats to the low country at the approach of the rains. In illustration of this, I would mention that when on my journey to England in 1892, in the month of December, the lowlands at the foot of the escarpment were almost entirely deserted, whilst on the high plateau above I met with these Antelopes in great numbers.
“On my return journey in the month of July of the following year the Angata Nyuki had become very swampy, owing to the heavy rains, and was entirely deserted, save by one or two odd specimens, whereas the district around Lake Nakuro, in the low country, was fairly overrun by these Antelopes.
“When herding together these animals are commonly found (like B. cokei) in company with Zebras and other Antelopes, and I have frequently come across and shot Topi (Damaliscus jimela) amongst them, the latter being very numerous in the province of Buddu in Uganda.
“Like all Hartebeests, B. jacksoni is, as a rule, very shy and difficult to approach—though, on one occasion, having gone considerably to the south of the ordinary caravan-route across the Angata Nyuki, I not only met with them in great numbers, but they were so little alarmed by my appearance in so unfrequented a locality, that they allowed me to walk right up to them, and even when fired at only ran for a short distance. They do not appear to patronize the bush country like B. cokei, though they frequent its vicinity.
“I remarked this specially when in Uganda, for on the only occasions on which I encountered B. jacksoni there it was confined to certain open portions of the country bordering the Nile and a flat open plain of some 10 miles in diameter to the south of the Katonga River in the Buddu district, where I found it accompanied by Topi, Waterbuck, and Kob.
“It also, from all accounts, frequents the open tablelands bordering Unyoro and the Albert Nyanza, as well as the province of Bulamweze in Uganda, which presents somewhat similar characteristics.
“In appearance B. jacksoni is larger and more strongly built than B. cokei, and varies in colour from a light golden brown to a dark tawny red, its coat being beautifully fine and glossy. It is easily distinguished by the great length of its head and the peculiar set of its horns, which rise almost perpendicularly from the frontal bones, and curve sharply backwards near the tips at almost a right angle.
“These Antelopes possess great tenacity of life, and I have known one to get clean away though struck with two 577 express bullets. On the other hand, if fairly hit in a vital spot they die very easily. The cows calve in November and December, and, so far as one can judge, give birth to only one at a time. The calves themselves are very hardy and vigorous little animals; and I have known of one, which could not have been born more than a week or so at the most, completely out-distance one of my men who tried to run it down in the open—and this in spite of the fact that one leg was partially deformed; but this may have been an exceptional instance.
“The Wa-Soga and Wa-Ganda dress the skins of these Antelopes very cleverly, turning them out as soft as wash-leather, and quite equal to anything that can be done in the London market.”
Fig. 5.
Front view of head of Jackson’s Hartebeest. 1/7 nat. size.
As already pointed out, the horns of B. jacksoni present a very general resemblance to those of its southern ally B. caama, and are at once distinguishable from those of the other members of the genus by the extreme elongation of the pedicle. But the horns of B. jacksoni are not quite so abruptly bent backwards as those of B. caama, and its head is at once distinguishable from that of the Cape species by the entire absence of black on the face.
No complete specimen of the skin of B. jacksoni having as yet been received, we are unable to give a coloured figure of this animal; but the accompanying woodcut (fig. 5, p. 43) represents the typical skull of this species in the British Museum.
There are no other specimens of this Antelope in the National Collection, except the doubtful heads of Petherick and Bohndorff already referred to.
May, 1894.
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. V.
Smit lith.
Hanhart imp.
Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest.
BUBALIS LICHTENSTEINI.
Published by R. H. Porter
8. LICHTENSTEIN’S HARTEBEEST.
BUBALIS LICHTENSTEINI (Peters).
[PLATE V.]
Antilope lichtensteini, Pet. Mitth. Ges. nat. Fr. Dec. 18, 1849; id. Säug. Mossamb. p. 190, pls. xliii. (skull) and xliv. (animal) (1852); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Supp. v. p. 445 (1855); Gieb. Säug. p. 298 (1859).
Bubalis lichtensteini, Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 195 (1853); Ward, Horn Meas. p. 63, fig. (horns) (1892); Nicholls & Egl. Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 46, pl. iv. fig. 14 (head) (1892); Thos. P. Z. S. 1892, p. 533 (Nyasa), 1893, p. 504; Scl. P. Z. S. 1893, p. 506; Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 198 (1893); Barkley, P. Z. S. 1894, p. 132 (Pungwe R.); Jackson, Big Game Shooting, i. p. 290.
Alcelaphus lichtensteini, Gerrard, Cat. Bones Mam. B. M. p. 243 (1862); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 44 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. p. 115 (1873); Buckley, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 454 (distribution); Selous, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 763 (distribution); id. Hunter’s Wanderings, p. 224, pl. vii. figs. 3 & 4 (head) (1881); Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 139 (1887); Crawshay, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 662 (Nyasa); Lyd. Field, lxxvii. p. 858 (1891); Lugard, E. Afr. i. p. 532, pl. p. 440 (head) (1893).
Boselaphus lichtensteini, Kirk, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 660 (Shupanga).
Alcelaphus caama, Noack, Zool. JB. ii. p. 208 (1887); id. op. cit. vii. p. 593 (1893).
Alcelaphus caama and A. lichtensteini, Noack, JB. Mus. Hamb. ix. p. 11 (1891).
Bubalis leucoprymnus, Matsch. SB. nat. Freund. 1892, p. 137 (?).
Vernacular Names:—Konze of Masubias; Inkulanondo of Mashunas (Selous); Gondo in Tette; Gondongo at Sena and Boror; Vacca de mato of Portuguese (Peters); Nkozi of Ahenga; Kangosa of Awanyakyusa (Crawshay).
Size rather large; height at withers about 48 inches. General colour fulvous, deeper and more rufous along the back. Chin, the usual tail-crest, and the front of the lower part of all four limbs black. Lower part of rump white or pale yellowish, contrasting markedly with the dark rufous of its upper surface. No anteorbital tuft present. Hairs of face reversed upwards from muzzle to horns, except on a median patch, about four inches long, between the eyes, where they slant downwards.
Skull with but little frontal elongation, the elevation bearing the horns much broader and shorter than in the majority of the true Hartebeests; on the other hand, the muzzle is unusually lengthened, so that the total facial length is about equal to that of B. caama. Basal length 14·7 inches, greatest breadth 7·2, muzzle to orbit 11·5, length of face 17, breadth of forehead 6·1.
Horns comparatively short and thick, curved first outwards, then upwards and inwards, and finally abruptly bent backwards, their terminal portions nearly or quite parallel with each other, and comparatively close together. The largest horns are just 20 inches in length.
Hab. East Africa, north of the Sabi River, throughout Nyasaland and Mozambique to Usagara, opposite Zanzibar.
The late Dr. Wilhelm Peters, a distinguished zoologist, who explored different parts of the Portuguese territory of Mozambique from 1842 to 1848, was the discoverer of this Antelope, which he named after Lichtenstein, his not less celebrated predecessor in the keepership of the Royal Museum of Berlin, and a former well-known authority on this group of mammals. Peters gives as its locality the provinces of Tette, Sena, and Boror, from the 16th to the 18th degree of south latitude; and Sir John Kirk, in his notes on the ‘Mammals of Zambesi,’ published in 1864, says that “it is very common during the dry season in the forest of Shupanga and in Inhamunha, in small herds.” South of the Zambesi Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest appears to extend as far as the Pungue and Sabi Rivers. Messrs. Nicholls and Eglinton tell us that it is plentiful on the eastern course of the Sabi; and Mr. Buckley met with it in the rough grassy plains of the Upper Pungue Valley, in herds sometimes of considerable size. Mr. Buckley always observed these Antelopes on the open veldt, and found that they kept clear of the more hilly and timbered country.
The great hunter, Mr. F. C. Selous, met with this Antelope only on the open downs of the Manica plateau, north of the Zambesi, where it is called the “Konze.” He was a little doubtful about its identity with the “Inkulanondo” of South-eastern Mashunaland; but we believe that both the native names last mentioned refer alike to Bubalis lichtensteini. Mr. Selous makes the following remarks upon this species (P. Z. S. 1881, p. 764):—
“The Konze very closely resembles the Hartebeest of South Africa; the horns, however, are shorter and flatter at the base, and the forehead is not nearly so elongated. The black mark down the front of the face of the Hartebeest is also wanting in the Konze, where the colour is of a uniform light red. The general colour of the animal is a little lighter than that of the Hartebeest, the tail, knees, and front of all four legs being black. As in the Hartebeest, there is a patch of pale yellow on the rump; and the insides of thighs and belly are also of a very pale yellow. One old bull that I shot was of very rich dark red colour all along the back and the upper part of the sides. About a hand’s breadth behind each shoulder was a patch of dark grey about six inches in diameter. A female that I shot also had these grey patches behind the shoulders. In two other full-grown males these patches were wanting.”
Throughout Nyasaland, so far as it has yet been explored, Lichtenstein’s Antelope appears to be an abundant species; and Mr. R. Crawshay, our principal authority on the Antelopes of this country, tells us (P. Z. S. 1890, p. 663) that it is very generally met with in the hills, if not too steep and rocky, and also in the plains, but appears to prefer a flat or undulating woody district with intervening open glades. Mr. Crawshay adds the following account of his personal experience with this Antelope:—
“In 1883 I first met with this Antelope on the plains between the Kiwira and Insesi Rivers, in Makyusa’s country, at the north-west of the lake; there were just three in the troop, and with the help of another gentleman I was lucky enough to kill one—a nearly full-grown bull. In 1885 I saw several herds of these animals to the south-east of Nyasa, and between it and Lake Shirwa, and from all accounts they must be plentiful in the Yao country, to the east of the lake.
“On the West Coast, later in the same year, I came across a good many on the Kanjamwana River, and between Amuwa and Mpemba’s: here they usually consorted with Impalas; but on the same plains there were also to be seen in their company, from time to time, Water-bucks, Reed-bucks, and occasionally Koodoos and Elands. Inland from Bana to the north again, I was told there were Hartebeests, and I saw some heads of animals said to have been killed there.
“In 1889–90 I repeatedly saw a few in the low red-sandstone hills to the north of Chombi, between Makwawa’s and Afunanchenga’s, on the Hara River; here they generally went in company with Water-bucks or Zebras, and once I noticed three Hartebeests herding and feeding in the midst of some thirty or forty Water-bucks, all cows. Between Nkanga and Karonga’s, on the coast-line, and in all the intervening country between that and the Anyika Mountains, Hartebeests are commonly met with, notably at Vuwa, Mrali, and Taowira. At Nkanga, during my stay there, a cow was killed in a game-pit, and of this animal I secured the horns and frontal bone. As a rule, I have seen Hartebeests in herds numbering from half a dozen or even less to perhaps fifteen or twenty, but I never remember having come across more than that number. This Antelope possesses extraordinary vitality, and in this respect is very little behind the Water-buck.”
Mr. B. L. Sclater, R.E., who has recently passed two years in the Shiré Highlands, and has traversed nearly every part of that district[6], informs us that he considers this Hartebeest to be the commonest of the larger Antelopes there, after the Waterbuck. He met with it in all parts of the country, more frequently in the open districts, but also in the wooded valley of the Shiré, sometimes singly, and at other times in larger or smaller herds. On the Tochila plains under Mount Milanji, at an elevation of about 2000 feet, in November 1891 he saw a large herd of this Antelope mixed with Zebras.
From Nyasaland, so far as we can make out, Lichtenstein’s Antelope extends northwards to the plains of the Wami River opposite Zanzibar, where Sir John Kirk procured specimens, which are now in his collection. In the hills of Usagara, north-east of this district, B. lichtensteini is replaced by B. cokei, as already mentioned in our article on the latter species. Herr P. Matschie, of Berlin, considers the Hartebeest of German East Africa, which he says extends as far north as the Pangani River, to be different from B. lichtensteini (although he admits that the horns of the two species very closely resemble each other), and proposes to call it B. leucoprymnus. We are not, however, with due respect to Herr Matschie’s views, yet prepared to recognize B. leucoprymnus as distinct from B. lichtensteini, though we fully admit the possibility of being obliged hereafter, by future evidence, to alter our opinion on this point.
Fig. 6 a.
Skull of Bubalis lichtensteini, ♂.
(Brooke.)
The main distinguishing feature of Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest is the short and thick basal portion of its horns, which induces us to place it in a section by itself, and which renders it easily recognizable from the seven preceding species of this genus. This character is well shown in the accompanying woodcuts (figs. 6 a and 6 b). Figure 6 a, prepared under the superintendence of Sir Victor Brooke, shows the skull of a male of this species; fig. 6 b, p. 50 (which has been kindly lent to us by the Zoological Society of London) represents, as we now believe, the skull of a female, though originally supposed by Mr. Crawshay to belong to a young male.
Fig. 6 b.
Skull of Bubalis lichtensteini, ♀.
(P. Z. S. 1890, p. 662.)
Our coloured figure of this Antelope (Plate V.) was prepared by Mr. Smit from a male specimen (now in the British Museum) which was shot on the River Sabi by Mr. Selous in July 1885. Besides this, the National Collection contains a stuffed female from the same locality, and a series of skulls and skins from Nyasaland, transmitted by Mr. H. H. Johnston, C.B., F.Z.S., and other specimens from the Manica plateau (Selous) and Usagara (Kirk).
May, 1894.