Genus II. ÆPYCEROS.
| Type. | |
| Æpyceros, Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1845, p. 271 (1847) | Æ. melampus |
Size large. No anteorbital glands. Tail fairly long. False hoofs absent. Hind feet with glandular tufts of hair placed shortly above the hoofs.
Skull without supraorbital pits or anteorbital fossæ; lachrymal vacuities small.
Horns of male medium or rather long, broadly lyrate, half-ringed, slightly compressed. Female hornless.
Range of the Genus. Southern Africa, northwards to Angola on the west, and to the Southern Soudan on the east.
Of this genus we are at present prepared to recognize only two species—the Common Pallah of Southern and Eastern Africa (Æ. melampus) and that of Angola (Æ. petersi). The latter may be readily distinguished from the ordinary form by having a prominent blackish mark running down the upper surface of the muzzle.
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XLVIII
Wolf del, J. Smit lith
Hanhart imp.
The Pallah
ÆPYCEROS MELAMPUS.
Published by R. H. Porter.
77. THE PALLAH.
ÆPYCEROS MELAMPUS (Licht.).
[PLATE XLVIII.]
Pallah, Daniell, African Scenery, no. 9 (1812).
Antilope melampus, Licht. Reise, ii. p. 544, pl. iv. (1812); id. Mag. nat. Freund. vi. p. 167 (1814); Goldf. Schr. Säug. v. p. 1224, pl. cclxxiv. (1818); Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 388 (1821); Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 456 (1822); Burch. Trav. ii. p. 301 (1824); id. List Mamm. pres. to B. M. p. 5 (1825) (Latakoo); H. Sm. Griff. An. K. iv. p. 219, v. p. 334 (1827); Less. Man. Mamm. p. 374 (1827); J. B. Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 462 (1829); Smuts, En. Mamm. Cap. p. 74 (1832); A. Sm. S. Afr. Quart. J. ii. p. 209 (1834); Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 616 (1839); Harr. Wild Anim. S. Afr. p. 78, pl. xv. (1840); Gerv. Dict. Sci. Nat. i. p. 261 (1840); Jard. Nat. Misc. vi. p. 217, pl. xxix. (1842); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 176 (1842); Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 162 (1843); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 417 (1844), v. p. 409 (1855); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 405 (1845); Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 231 (1846); id. List Ost. B. M. p. 56 (1847); Schinz, Mon. Antil. p. 7, pl. vi. (1848); Gray, Knowsl. Men. p. 6 (1850); Peters, Säug. Mossamb. p. 190 (1852) (Zambezi); Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 190 (1853); Gieb. Säug. p. 313 (1853); Drumm. Large Game S. Afr. p. 426 (1875); Brehm, Thierl. iii. p. 203 (1880); Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 477 (1887).
Æpyceros melampus, Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1845, p. 271 (1847); id. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 267; Reprint, p. 87 (1848); Gray, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 116; id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 65 (1852); Gerr. Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 234 (1862); Blyth, Cat. Mamm. Mus. As. Soc. p. 171 (1863); Scl. P. Z. S. 1864, p. 101 (Uzaramo); Kirk, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 656 (Zambesia); Hengl. & Fitz. SB. Ak. Wien, liv. pt. 1, p. 590 (1866); Fitz. SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 157 (1869); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 42 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 112 (1873); Buckl. P. Z. S. 1876, pp. 283 & 291; id. op. cit. 1877, p. 454; Heugl. N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 103 (1877) (S. Kordofan); Selous, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 757; id. Hunter’s Wanderings S. Afr. p. 216 (1881); Pagenst. JB. Mus. Hamb. ii. p. 40 (1884); Flow. & Gars. Cat. Coll. Surg. ii. p. 272 (1884); Johnston, Kilimanjaro, pp. 218 & 394, fig. 47 (1886); Noack, Zool. JB. ii. p. 206 (1887); Jent. Notes Leyd. Mus. ix. p. 173 (1887); id. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 138 (1889); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 170 (1892); Hunter, in Willoughby’s E. Afr. p. 288 (1889); Crawshay, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 654 (Nyasa); W. Scl. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 169 (1891); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 341 (1891); Ward, Horn. Meas. (1) p. 99 (1892), (2) p. 142 (1896); Nicolls & Egl. Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 41, pl. i. fig. 3 (1892); True, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. xv. p. 472 (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 229 (1893); Lugard, E. Afr. i. p. 537 (1893); Scl. P. Z. S. 1893, p. 728 (L. Mweru); Barkley, P. Z. S. 1894, p. 132 (Pungwue Valley); Thos. P. Z. S. 1894, p. 145 (Nyasa); Jackson, in Badm. Big Game Shooting, i. pp. 285 & 306 (1894); Lorenz, Ann. Mus. Wien, ix., Notizen, p. 61 (1894) (Upper Limpopo); Rendall, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 359 (Transvaal).
“Antilope pallah, Cuv.,” Gerv. Dict. Sci. Nat. i. p. 261 (1840).
Strepsiceros suara, Matsch. SB. Ges. nat. Freund. 1892, p. 135 (skin, not horns).
Æpyceros suara, Matsch. Thierw. O.-Afr., Säug. p. 129 (1895).
Æpyceros melampus johnstoni, Thos. P. Z. S. 1892, p. 553 (Nyasa).
Æpyceros melampus typicus, Thos. l. c.
Æpyceros melampus holubi, Lorenz, Ann. Mus. Wien, ix., Notizen, p. 62 (1894) (“N. of Zambezi”).
Vernacular Names:—Pallah of English; Roodebok or Roibok of Dutch; Pala of Bechuanas; Napala of Matabili; Ee-pala of Makalakas; Inzero of Masubias; Umpara of Makubas; Lubondwee of Batongas; Kug-ar of Masaras (Selous); Impaya of Transvaal Shangaans (Rendall); Suare in Tette (Peters); Nswala of Nyasa tribes (Crawshay) and of East-African Swahilis (Jackson); Kulungu and Nosi near Kilimanjaro (Johnston); Om-gaba in Arabic (Heuglin).
Size comparatively large; height at the withers about 36 inches. General colour bright reddish brown, paler along the lower part of the sides. In southern specimens the colour is rather duller and browner than in northern ones, but the difference is very slight. Head dark fawn; a mark over the anterior half of the eye, chin, interramia, and upper part of throat white. Belly pure white. In front of the eye, on the side of the face, there is generally, though not always, in southern specimens an indistinct darker patch, but this is never present in northern ones. A black patch occasionally present on the crown. Ears of medium length, their outer sides fawn, with the terminal third black. Limbs like the back, a lighter ring round the pasterns just above the hoofs; a pair of prominent black tufts of longer hairs on the distal extremity of the hind cannon-bones (whence the name of the species). Tail fairly long, its upperside with a narrow black line along it, extending more or less on to the back, its sides fawn basally, white terminally.
Skull as above described. The dimensions of a male skull are:—Basal length 10·3 inches, greatest breadth 4·4, muzzle to orbit 6·1.
The horns are particularly graceful, lyrate, convex forwards below, concave above, evenly spreading. In length, in the south, good specimens may attain about 18 or 20 inches in a direct line, and in the north more, up to about 21 or 22 inches, the largest recorded being 23. But in the intermediate districts, Nyasa, Zambesia, and Gazaland, they are much shorter, fully adult horns being often only 14 inches in length.
Female similar to the male, but without horns.
Hab. Southern and Eastern Africa, from Bechuanaland to Southern Kordofan.
The first account of the Pallah seems to have appeared in one of the early numbers of a work called Daniell’s ‘Illustrations of African Animated Nature and Scenery,’ published in London in 1812. The author of the letterpress, however, did not give it a scientific name, believing that it might be the “Kob” of Buffon, or an allied species. At about the same date Prof. Lichtenstein, who had met with this animal during his journeyings in Southern Africa from 1803 to 1806, published a description and figure of it in his ‘Reise nach südlichen Afrika’ under the name Antilope melampus. This description, with additional particulars, was repeated in the same author’s classical monograph of the genus Antilope, published in 1814, and his name, taken from the black tufts of short hair at the back of the hind legs just above the foot (which are clearly shown in our figures), has been employed, almost universally, for this species by subsequent writers. Lichtenstein met with his specimens near Klip Fontein in Namaqualand, where it was found to occur in small herds of five or six individuals. In 1812 the celebrated African traveller Burchell likewise met with the Pallah in Bechuanaland, and secured the first specimens which arrived at the British Museum.
Little more was added to our knowledge of this beautiful Antelope until the publication of Harris’s ‘Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa’ in 1840. Harris devotes his fifteenth plate mainly to the illustration of the “rare and graceful Pallah,” which he states “first gladdens the sight of the traveller in Southern Africa upon the elevated districts north of Latakoo.” Here in the wooded slopes and valleys that environ the mountain-ranges of Kurrichane and Cashan it was met with in families of from twelve to twenty individuals of both sexes.
Harris, with all his experience, could recall to his memory “few objects more picturesque than the graceful figures of a wandering herd of these Antelopes dancing and bounding through the thousand stems of the acacia-groves in all the poetry of motion.” To these wooded districts Harris considered the Pallah to be restricted, not a single specimen having been observed in the open country. The flesh of the Pallah he characterizes as “tender and palatable,” although “rather dry,” like that of most Antelopes.
In these days, however, as we are informed by Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington, it is only on rare occasions that the Pallah is met with in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and its present distribution is described by them as follows:—“A few herds still linger in the Transvaal along the Crocodile River. Almost exterminated in the regions through which the north-west tributaries of that river flow, it is only when the Zambesi is reached that the Palla is again to be frequently met with in any number. On the Chobe River it is still fairly common, being unknown on the Botletle, but it is only after passing the shores of Lake ’Ngami, and reaching the densely wooded banks of the Tonke, that the species again makes its appearance in a westerly direction. In those parts of Mashonaland and Matabeleland where it is not subject to continual persecution it is still fairly numerous. The Palla is highly gregarious, and frequents the thick, forest-clad banks of rivers, from which it never strays, except after periods of heavy rains, and then only when the pans and vleys (which are always dry during the greater portion of the year) are for a time filled with water. In remote parts, not very much frequented by man, the herds often exceed a hundred in number. Where not continually disturbed, this Antelope, so elegant and graceful of motion, is not by any means shy when approached, generally running but a short distance, and then standing and looking back again, a habit which easily permits of its being stalked.”
In the Transvaal, Mr. Barber kindly informs us, the Pallah was plentiful in the Waterburg and Lydenburg districts up to 1880. Now, however, it has been driven away many miles east, into the valleys that intersect the Lebombo range.
On the north-west of the Cape Colony the Pallah, as we shall see presently, is represented by a nearly allied, though probably distinct, form. But on the eastern side of Africa the Pallah has a wide range, and extends north certainly into British East Africa, and probably still farther into Kordofan. We will endeavour to trace its range throughout this wide area.
Mr. Selous found the Pallah on the tributaries of the Limpopo, and thence northwards on the banks of every river and stream which he has explored in Matabeleland and Mashonaland. The Impalas of the Limpopo he considers to be larger than those of the Chobe.
Peters records the Pallah as met with in the mountainous parts of the Portuguese province of Mozambique, near Tette, Chidima, and Sena, and gives its native names as here ‘Psuara’ or ‘Suara.’ Passing into British Central Africa we find this Antelope recorded by Mr. Crawshay as not common anywhere in Nyasaland, but where met with, as a rule, found in even larger numbers than the Waterbuck. Mr. Crawshay has seen it in companies of one hundred or more, and gives a number of localities around Lake Nyasa in which he has come across herds of it. No Antelope, Mr. Crawshay tells us, can compare with the Pallah in fleetness of foot, and certainly “no other can display such wonderful leaping powers. They go off like the proverbial arrow from the bow, and with most beautiful gliding bounds, cover the ground without apparently the least effort.” In Northern Nyasaland, Mr. J. B. Yule tells us, the Pallah is found only along the stony ridges between Deep Bay and Karonga.
In the highlands of Zomba and the adjacent districts of Nyasaland a local race of the Common Pallah is found, distinguished by its slenderer skull and much shorter horns; but as regards the colour of its fur it is precisely similar to the South-African form. Thomas was at one time of opinion that this highland form should constitute a separate subspecies, and proposed to name it after its discoverer, Sir Harry Johnston, who has done so much in investigating the fauna of British Central Africa, Æpyceros melampus johnstoni. Thomas, however, since the examination of further specimens is not disposed to insist upon the necessity of recognizing this subspecies as distinct.
In the low, dry, thicket-covered hills to the north of Lake Mweru both Mr. Crawshay and Mr. Sharpe have obtained specimens of this Antelope, which, according to the latter, is often confounded by the natives with the Lechee and Vardon’s Antelope under the common name “msala.”
In German East Africa, according to Dr. Matschie’s excellent Handbook, the Pallah occurs in many localities all over the country. At first misled by the association of the horns of a Lesser Koodoo and a skin of a Pallah, Dr. Matschie proposed to found a new species of Koodoo upon this animal, and to call it Strepsiceros suara. Afterwards recognizing his mistake he proposed to retain the term suara for the East-African Pallah, and to separate it specifically from the South-African animal as Æpyceros suara, on the ground of certain small discrepancies in colour. But after examining many specimens of the Pallah from East Africa we have come to the conclusion that the differences pointed out by Dr. Matschie are not confined to individuals from the same locality, and we cannot therefore regard Æ. suara as a distinct species.
The late Mr. F. Holmwood, formerly H.B.M. Consul-General at Zanzibar, wrote to us, “I have met with the Pallah in the countries of Usagara and Uzeguha, about 150 miles straight inland from Zanzibar, where they were very plentiful. The country has an elevation of 500 feet and is well watered. The Pallah go in troops of from 15 to 120. I once saw a pack of wild dogs hunt and run down one of these Antelopes which they first separated from a large herd.”
In British East Africa the Pallah is well known, and has been obtained by all the great sportsmen that have visited that territory. Mr. H. C. V. Hunter, in his appendix to Sir John Willoughby’s ‘East Africa,’ speaks of this Antelope as “common everywhere in thin bush and on the plains.” Dr. Abbott, as recorded by Mr. True, sent to Washington a good series of specimens obtained in 1889 from Taveta and Mount Kilimanjaro, where it had likewise been met with by Sir Harry Johnston during the Kilimanjaro Expedition of 1884. Mr. F. J. Jackson, in his notes on Antelopes published in the first volume of ‘Big Game Shooting’ of the Badminton Library, tells us that the Pallah is not met with in the coast-district of British East Africa. “But it occurs in small herds about 60 miles inland, and is plentiful at Adda and in the Teita country, and is found as far north as Turkwel in suitable localities, that is, in park-like open bush and thinly-wooded country, not far from water.” “The best heads,” Mr. Jackson says, “are obtained between Lakes Navaisha and Baringo, particularly in the vicinity of the small salt-lake Elmatita, where these beautiful beasts inhabit the open woods of juniper-trees.” In his paper on the Antelopes of the Mau district, recently read before the Zoological Society, Mr. Jackson likewise speaks of this Antelope, and again mentions the large size of the horns of the bucks in that part of British East Africa, which he gives as 22 and 23 inches from base to tip.
Fig. 47.
Head of Pallah, ♂, front view.
Whether the Pallah ranges further north than British East Africa and the neighbouring district of Turkwel is perhaps not quite certain, though it may possibly be the case. Our only authority on the subject is Heuglin, who states that the Pallah occurs on the White Nile at Scherk-el-Akaba, and is “very common” on the Djur River, where it is known by the Arabic name of ‘Om-gàba,’ or ‘Om-sàba.’ But Heuglin’s observations on this point, so far as we know, have not been confirmed, and we have never seen specimens from this locality.
On the whole, therefore, we consider Æpyceros melampus to be a wide-ranging species, extending from Bechuanaland in the south throughout the eastern side of Africa to British East Africa on the north, and perhaps reaching even to the White Nile. But over all these districts there is a certain amount of variety amongst the specimens, and we are not, therefore, at present inclined to recognize, even as subspecies, what have been designated as suara, johnstoni, and holubi, although future researches may lead us to a different conclusion.
So far as we know, the Pallah has been brought to Europe alive on two occasions only, and in both instances the animals were imported by Mr. C. Reiche, of Alfeld, from the northern part of the Transvaal. The first specimen (in 1890) went to the Zoological Garden of Berlin and the second (in 1890) to the Zoological Garden of Vienna. Both were young males, and generally of a reddish colour, with the horns slightly developed. They did not live long after their arrival in the Gardens.
The Pallah is represented in our National Collection by a mounted male from Kilimanjaro shot by Mr. F. J. Jackson and by a mounted head from Lake Elmetaita presented by Captain Lugard, the horns of which are amongst the longest of known specimens. There is likewise a mounted head from the Zomba highlands presented by Sir Harry Johnston and representing the short-horned race which inhabits the mountain-districts south of Lake Nyasa. Besides these there are skulls, skins, and horns from various districts in South and East Africa.
Our illustration of the Pallah (Plate XLVIII.) has been put upon the stone by Mr. Smit from a water-colour drawing by Wolf prepared for the late Sir Victor Brooke and now belonging to Sir Douglas Brooke. The drawing is noted on the back as having been taken from a head belonging to Mr. Selous and a loose skin. It represents an adult male in two positions. The female, as already stated, is absolutely hornless.
The woodcut (fig. 47, p. 23), which gives a front view of a good head of the Pallah, was drawn by Mr. Smit under Sir Victor Brooke’s directions.
August, 1897.
78. THE ANGOLAN PALLAH.
ÆPYCEROS PETERSI, Bocage.
Æpyceros petersi, Boc. P. Z. S. 1878, p. 741; Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 479 (1887); Scl. P. Z. S. 1890, p. 460 (woodcut of head); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 341 (1891); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 231 (1893).
Æpyceros melampus, Jent. Notes Leyd. Mus. ix. p. 173 (1887) (?) (Mossamedes).
Similar, so far as is yet known, to Æ. melampus in all respects except that on the face, as is shown in our woodcut (p. 26), there is a prominent brown patch running along the top of the muzzle. This character is said to be perfectly constant, and we therefore admit for the present the validity of the Angolan form as a distinct species.
The Angolan Pallah was first recognized as a distinct species by Prof. J. V. Barboza du Bocage, a distinguished naturalist of Portugal, in a list of Angolan Antelopes published in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1878. M. du Bocage based his description upon two specimens forwarded to the Lisbon Museum by the well-known explorer d’Anchieta. Of these the male was stated to have come from Capangombe, the female from Humbe—two places both in the province of Mossamedes north of the Cunene River. M. Bocage distinguished the new species from Æ. melampus principally by its black face, and dedicated it to the late Professor Peters, of Berlin, whose opinion agreed with his that it was distinct. It is probable that the skull from the Cunene River, obtained by Heer Van der Kellen in October 1885, and referred by Dr. Jentink, in his paper on Mammals from Mossamedes, to Æ. melampus, may belong properly to Æ. petersi.
Fig. 48.
Front view of head of Angolan Pallah.
(P. Z. S. 1890, p. 460.)
In 1889 Capt. F. Cookson, during a sporting excursion into Hasholand or Kaokoland, in the neighbourhood of the Cunene River met with some twenty or more specimens of this Antelope, and brought back a single head to England. This head, mounted by Mr. Rowland Ward, was exhibited by Sclater at a meeting of the Zoological Society on June 17th, 1890, as an example of Æpyceros petersi. The notice of Sclater’s exhibition published in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ was accompanied by an illustration, which, by the kindness of the Council of the Zoological Society, we are enabled to reproduce (fig. 48). The dimensions of these horns are given by Mr. Rowland Ward, in his ‘Records of Big Game’ (1896), as 18¾ inches in a straight line and 22¾ on front curve, and the distance between the tips as 12¼ inches.
So far as we know, this is all the evidence to be offered as to the existence of this species, concerning which further particulars would be very desirable. There is no example of it in the British Museum.
August, 1897.