Genus II. ORYX.

Type.
Oryx, De Blainville, Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75O. gazella.

Size medium or large. Tail with a long and thick terminal tuft. Hairs along the neck and spine with their points projecting towards the head, the parting being situated on the rump or behind the middle of the back.

Skull with small lachrymal vacuities and of the same general structure as in Hippotragus; but the bases of the horns, instead of rising vertically above the eyes and forming an elevated forehead as in that genus, project straight backwards, continuing the line of the face and lying in the same plane as the nasal bones.

Horns long, cylindrical, slender, straight, or with a gradual and gentle backward curvature, diverging at a very acute angle; ribbed in their basal half.

Female with horns as in the male.

Range of the Genus. Africa south of the Sahara, except in the west-coast woodland and Congo Basin; also Southern Arabia.

The five species of the genus here recognized may be arranged as follows:—

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, Pl. LXXXI

Wolf del. Smit lith.

Hanhart imp

The Leucoryx.

ORYX LEUCORYX

Published by R. H. Porter.

113. THE LEUCORYX.
ORYX LEUCORYX (Licht.).
[PLATE LXXXI]

Algazel, Buff. Hist. Nat. xii. pp. 211 & 272, pl. xxxiii. figs. 1 & 2 (horns) (1764).

L’Algazelle, F. Cuv. H. N. Mamm. i. pl. 376 (1819) (Senegal).

Antilope gazella, Pall. Spic. Zool. fasc. xii. p. 17 (1777) (nec Capra gazella, Linn.); Kerr, Linn. An. K. p. 316 (1792); Daudin, in Lacépède’s Buffon, xiv. p. 182 (1799); Bechst. Syst. Uebers. vierf. Th. ii. p. 642 (1800); Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (1) xxiv. Tabl. p. 32 (1804); Goldf. Schr. Säug. v. p. 1182 (1819); Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 394 (1821); Desmoul. Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. p. 444 (1822); Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 475 (1822); Savi, Isis, 1832, p. 499; Rüpp. N. Wirbelth. p. 16 (1835); Oken, Allg. Naturg. vii. p. 1396 (1838); F. Cuv. Index to H. N. Mamm. p. 5 (1842); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 481 (1844); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 437 (1845); Gieb. Säug. p. 295 (1853).

Cerophorus (Oryx) gazella, Blainv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.

Oryx gazella, Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 135 (1887); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 166 (1892); Matsch. SB. Ges. nat. Fr. 1893, p. 104; Pousargues, Ann. Sci. Nat. (7) iv. p. 131 (1896); Trouessart, Cat. Mamm. fasc. iv. p. 954 (1898).

Cemas algazel, Oken, Lehrb. Nat. iii. pt. 2, p. 741 (1816) (part.).

Antilope algazella, Rüpp. N. Wirb. Abyss. p. 26 (1835).

Antilope tao, H. Sm. Griff. An. K. iv. p. 189, v. p. 327 (1827); A. Sm. S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii. p. 187 (1834); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 425 (1845).

Antilope leucoryx, Licht. Darst. Säug. pl. i. (1827) (nec Pall.); Hempr. & Ehr. Symb. Phys. Decas ii. pl. iii. (1828) (Dongola); Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 478 (1829); Waterh. Cat. Mamm. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 41 (1838); Oken, Allg. Naturg. vii. p. 1394 (1838); Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 618 (1841); Reichenb. Säug. iii. p. 120, pl. xxxvii. (1845); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 434 (1845); id. Mon. Antil. p. 32, pl. xxxvi. (1848).

Oryx leucoryx, Sund. K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1842, p. 201 (1843); Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 156 (1843); id. Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 232 (1846); Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1844, p. 206 (form α et γ) (1846); id. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 157; Reprint, p. 81 (1848); Gray, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 134; id. Knowsl. Men. p. 17 (1850); id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 107 (1852); Barth, Reise, i. p. 589 (1850) (Asben, Centr. Afr.); Scl. P. Z. S. 1863, p. 230 (gestation, 8 mths.); Fitz. SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 177 (1869); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 36 (1872); id. Hand-1. Rum. B. M. p. 104 (1873); Sclater, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 604; Brehm, Thierl. iii. p. 231 (1880); Sclater, in Wolf’s Zool. Sketches, i. pl. xxiii. (1861), ii. pl. xix. (1868); id. List Anim. Z. S. (8) p. 138 (1883), (9) p. 158 (1896); Flow. & Gars. Cat. Coll. Surg. ii. p. 261 (1884); Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 135 (1887); W. Sclater, Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 156 (1891); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 344 (1891); Ward, Horn Meas. (1) p. 148 (1892), (2) p. 188 (1896); Mockler-Ferryman, Up the Niger, p. 50 (1892) (Lokoja, Niger); Jent. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 166 (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 249 (1893); Matsch. SB. nat. Freund. 1893, p. 104; Pousargues, Ann. Sci. Nat. (7) iv. p. 131 (1896); Johnston, P. Z. S. 1898, p. 352; Trouessart, Cat. Mamm. fasc. iv. p. 955 (1898).

Antilope ensicornis, Hempr. et Ehr. Symb. Phys. i. p. i (sub Ant. leucoryge) (1832); Wagner, Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 479 (1844), v. p. 437 (1855) (var. β nubica and var. γ senegalensis).

Oryx ensicornis, Heugl. Ant. u. Buff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act. Leop. xxx. pt. 2) p. 17 (1863); id. N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 113 (1877).

Antilope (Oryx) bezoastica, H. Smith, Griff. An. K. iv. p. 191, v. p. 327 (1827). Oryx bezoarticus, Fitz. SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 178 (1869).

Vernacular Names:—Toa or Tao of the Hebrews and Egyptians (Hamilton Smith); Abu-harb, of Sennaar and Kordofan Arabs (Licht.); Wahsch el Baqer and Baqer el Wádi of the Arabs (Heuglin); Lymbe and Aschamel of the Tuaregs (Barth.).

Height at withers about 40 inches. Prevailing colour of the sides of the body yellowish or reddish white, often more or less dappled with blotches of pale brown; neck and shoulders above the base of the leg ruddy brown, this colour extending from the withers along the back and becoming diffused over the rump, thighs, and base of the tail. Head whitish, with a greyish-brown patch on the nose and on the forehead, the two united by an ill-defined brownish stripe; a stripe of the same hue extending a short distance above the eye and below it on to the middle of the cheek; the hinder part of the cheek of the same reddish-brown colour as the neck; ears dirty white, the tips and rims not darkened. No distinct dark stripe along the throat, no dark stripe along the middle of the back and nape of the neck, and only a faint longitudinal stripe on each side between the flanks and belly; mane of neck brown. Legs whitish in tint, clouded in front with brown, which spreads downwards from the shoulders and thighs. Hairs along the spine reversed from rump.

Horns long, with a bold crescentic backward curvature; attaining a length of nearly 40 inches.

A skull offers the following measurements:—Basal length 13 inches, muzzle to orbit 9, greatest width 5·75.

Female similar to the male, but horns thinner.

Hab. Interior of North Africa from Dongola to Senegal.

Whatever the Oryx of Aristotle, Pliny, and other ancient writers may have been (which has been a subject of much discussion), there can be little doubt that the Oryx of Oppian, commemorated in his celebrated poem on the Chase, was based on an Antelope of this group. In the Latin translation of Oppian’s work it is described as a beast much dreaded by its fellow creatures:—

“In densis etiam sævissima bestia sylvis

Trux stabulatur Oryx, odium commune ferarum

Præcipuusque timor. Cornu gerit acre, colorem

Lactis habet verni: facies est candida, solæ

In vultu malæ picea caligine nigrant:

Turgescit duplex crassa pinguedine dorsum.

Cornua sublimes excelsa feruntur in auras,

In quibus est mucro fuscus, lethalis et acer.”

The classical term “Oryx” was first introduced into scientific literature by Pallas in his memoir on the genus Antilope published in 1767. But here he grossly misapplied the term “Oryx” to the Eland, which he called Antilope oryx. In his second memoir on the same subject, however (1777), Pallas corrected this unfortunate error, and transferred Oryx to the Gemsbok of the Cape, to which it was certainly much better applicable.

In 1816 De Blainville, when subdividing the Antelopes, first adopted Oryx as a generic term, and made the Antilope oryx of Pallas (that is, Oryx gazella) its type. The generic name of the present species was thus settled, but before we can arrive at its proper specific name some further explanation is necessary.

By modern authorities, almost without exception, the present Antelope has been called the “Leucoryx, Oryx leucoryx,” and it is well known by this name in the Museums and Zoological Gardens of Europe. But when we proceed to investigate the strict claims of the present animal to this title, a difficult question presents itself. The Antilope leucoryx of Pallas in all probability, and certainly the Antilope leucoryx of succeeding authors until about 1827, was not the present species, but, as will be clearly shown in our next article, the Beatrix.

Buffon, in his ‘Histoire Naturelle,’ called the present species “l’Algazel,” and Pallas and his followers named it Antelope gazella. But the term “gazella,” as we shall presently show, had been previously appropriated by Linnæus to the allied Gemsbok of Southern Africa. The fact is that most of the early authors had no clear ideas as to the distinctive characters of the present animal, and habitually confounded it both with the Beatrix of Arabia and the Gemsbok of the Cape.

The earliest travellers of modern days to meet with the Leucoryx in its native wilds and to transmit perfect specimens of it home to Europe were the well-known German naturalists Hemprich and Ehrenberg, who explored Nubia, Arabia, and the adjoining countries from 1820 to 1825. Unfortunately Lichtenstein, who first described and figured their specimens of this Antelope about the year 1827, chose to identify it with the Antilope leucoryx of Pallas and to employ Pallas’s name for it. In the ‘Symbolæ Physicæ,’ in which Hemprich and Ehrenberg’s own account of their expedition was given to the world in 1828, Lichtenstein’s example of using Antilope leucoryx as the scientific name of the present species was followed.

Hemprich and Ehrenberg state that they had originally intended to have called this species Antilope ensicornis, but that they eventually gave up their proposed designation for the term adopted by Lichtenstein. The same was the case also with nearly all the leading authorities subsequent to Lichtenstein, so that to attempt to restore the name “leucoryx” to what is probably its proper owner would now only create confusion. We prefer therefore to designate the present species as Oryx leucoryx (Licht.), to which name it is undoubtedly entitled.

After giving an accurate description of the present animal, and figures of the two specimens brought home, which, although of not first-rate quality, are perfectly recognizable, Hemprich and Ehrenberg inform us that they met with it in Dongola, between Ambukol on the Upper Nile and Simrie near Chor-el-Lebben, where they hunted it along with the Arabs on horseback.

In Dongola and Kordofan, they proceed to tell us, this Antelope is met with in herds in the deserts. Its flesh is much appreciated by the Arabs, and is dried and laid by for future use, being likewise often sold in the markets. Its skins are used for shields and sandals, but are not considered of first-rate quality for these purposes. The Arabs of the Kubabish tribe, they inform us, call this Antelope “Abu-harb,” and state that it lives chiefly on the leaves and twigs of the acacias (Acacia textilis and A. ehrenbergi) which are found in the valleys of the desert in this district.

The next great explorer of North-eastern Africa, Rüppell, does not add much to our knowledge of the present species, which, in his list of Antelopes in the ‘Neue Wirbelthiere,’ he tells us, lives in herds in the deserts of Nubia and also in Egypt proper, as far north as the borders of the Fayoum. He comments, however, upon its confusion by Lichtenstein with the A. leucoryx of Pallas, and calls it Antilope algazella, after Buffon.

Our third leading authority on North-African mammals, Theodor von Heuglin, informs us that the Leucoryx was only met with by him in Southern Nubia and Kordofan, and in the oasis of El-Kāb, west of Dongola. But, according to the Central-African traveller Nachtigal, the range of this species extends into Borgu and Tibeste, while Barth in 1850 met with it in the hills of Air or Asben, north of Agades, in about 19° N. lat. and 9° E. long.

Proceeding still further westward, we may state that there can be little doubt that the Leucoryx was formerly met with in the southern part of Tunisia, although at the present epoch it seems to be nearly, if not quite, extinct in the Beylik. When Sclater was in Tunis in 1898 he observed a stuffed specimen of a young Leucoryx Antelope in the palace of the Bey at Marsa, and was told that it had been originally received alive from the southern frontiers of Tunisia (see P.Z.S. 1898, p. 280).

In the Musée Alaoui, at the Bardo Palace, Tunis, Sclater was also shown an unmistakable figure of a Leucoryx attacked by a Lion, represented on a piece of Roman mosaic pavement. Of this figure Sir Harry Johnston has kindly furnished us with the accompanying sketch (fig. 92, p. 48).

The mosaic pavement in question, which was discovered among the remains of a Roman villa in the vicinity of Tunis, contains representations of various animals of the chase found in that district in Roman times. The Gætulus Oryx of Juvenal (Sat. xi. 140) was therefore in all probability the Leucoryx.

We are not aware of any authentic records of the occurrence of the Leucoryx on the southern frontiers of Algeria and Morocco, where, in recent times, it has probably been driven far into the interior. But when we go on as far west as Senegal and Nigeria it would appear that the Leucoryx, or a form so closely allied to it as to be barely distinguishable, is still abundant in the Senegambian deserts, and is also, according to Capt. Mockler-Ferryman, met with on the Nile in the vicinity of Lokoja.

Fig. 92.

A Leucoryx attacked by a Lion.

The first specimen of the Leucoryx received from Senegal was, so far as we know, that figured by Geoffroy St.-Hilaire and F. Cuvier in 1819 in the ‘Histoire Naturelle des Mammifères’ (plate 376), which was then living in the Jardin des Plantes. This, we are told, was an adult male, standing about four feet high to the top of its head, and having long and well-developed horns.

When the thirteenth Earl of Derby formed his great menagerie at Knowsley between 1835 and 1850, the group of the Leucoryx Antelopes was one of the specialities of the collection. The adult male and female were figured by Waterhouse Hawkins in plate xvii. of the ‘Gleanings,’ and the young one, born at Knowsley, forms one of the figures in plate xvi. of the same work.

Fig. 93.

Young Leucoryx.

(From ‘Zoological Sketches.’)

Lord Derby obtained his first female Leucoryx in 1837, but it was not until the retirement of Mr. Cross from the Surrey Zoological Gardens and the consequent dispersal of that collection, some six or seven years afterwards, that he succeeded in acquiring a male. Owing to the age of the female at that time, although she bred twice with the male she failed to rear her offspring, and died in 1846, being then, as Lord Derby believed, the only female of this species in England. When the Derby Menagerie was dispersed in August 1851, the pair of Leucoryx Antelopes were among the animals selected by the Zoological Society of London, in virtue of Lord Derby’s bequest to them, and became the foundation of a stock which flourished for many years in the Regent’s Park Gardens. Young ones were bred of this pair or of their descendants in 1852, 1853, 1860, and 1864. Fresh examples of the Leucoryx were obtained by the Society in 1870 and 1880, and in 1881 a fine female was brought home and presented to the Menagerie by the late Mr. John M. Cook, F.Z.S.

This Antelope has not done so well in the Regent’s Park of late years, but there is still one example of it living in the Menagerie, obtained last year, and it is hoped that a breeding pair may soon be re-established. An excellent figure of the adults of both sexes of the Leucoryx Antelope, drawn by Wolf from the Zoological Society’s specimens, was published in the first volume of Wolf and Sclater’s ‘Zoological Sketches.’ In the second volume of the same work a young one, likewise drawn by the same skilful artist, is represented on plate xix. The calf in question was born in 1851, and was about six months old when Mr. Wolfs water-colour drawing (from which fig. 93, p. 49, has been taken) was prepared.

Lord Derby’s stock of the Leucoryx is said to have been received from Nubia, while others in the Zoological Society’s Gardens came from Senegal.

We have not been able to recognize any difference between animals from these two countries, although they have been separated as distinct local forms (nubica and senegalensis) by Wagner, and more recently by Herr Matschie as different species.

There are at present no complete specimens of this Antelope in the British Museum, and skins of it fit for mounting both from Dongola and from Senegal are much required, in order that a strict comparison of examples from these widely distant localities may be made. The series now in the National Collection consists only of a mounted skeleton formerly in the Zoological Society’s Museum, a skin and skull of a young one from Sennaar, and some skulls and horns.

Our Plate of this Antelope (Plate LXXXI.), which represents both sexes, was drawn on stone by Mr. Smit from a sketch prepared by Mr. Wolf, and probably represents the same animals as the plate in ‘Zoological Sketches’ above referred to.

May, 1899.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LXXXII

Wolf del. Smit lith.

Hanhart imp.

The Beatrix Antelope.

ORYX BEATRIX.

Published by R. H. Porter.

114. THE BEATRIX ANTELOPE.
ORYX BEATRIX, Gray.
[PLATE LXXXII.]

Gazellæ Indicta cornu singulare, Pallas, Nov. Comm. Ac. Petrop. xiii. p. 470, pl. x. fig. 5 (1769).

Antilope leucoryx, Pallas, Spic. Zool. xii. p. 17 (1777); Herm. Tab. Affin. Anim. p. 108 (1783); Zimm. Geogr. Ges. ii. p. 108 (1780), iii. p. 269 (1783); Schreb. Säug. pl. cclvi. B (1784); Bodd. Elench. Anim. p. 139 (1785); Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 190 (1788); Kerr, Linn. An. K. p. 316 (1792); Donnd. Zool. Beytr. i. p. 639 (1792); Link, Beytr. Nat. ii. p. 99 (1795); Bechst. Syst. Uebers. vierf. Th. ii. p. 641 (1800); Shaw, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, p. 359 (1801); Turt. Linn. S. N. i. p. 115 (1806); Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (1) xvii. p. 132 (1803), xxiv. Tabl. p. 32 (1804); G. Cuv. Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 237 (1804); Tiedem. Zool. i. p. 408 (1808); Thunb. Mém. Acad. Pétersb. iii. p. 313 (1811); G. Fisch. Zoogn. iii. p. 425 (1814); Afz. N. Act. Ups. vii. p. 219 (1815); Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 204 (1816); G. Cuv. R. A. i. p. 262 (1817); Goldf. Schr. Säug. v. p. 1180 (1818); Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 391 (1821); Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 474 (1822); Desmoul. Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. p. 444 (1822); H. Sm. Griff. An. K. iv. p. 186, v. p. 326 (1827); Rüpp. N. Wirbelth. p. 16 (1835); Pearson, J. As. Soc. Bengal, ix. p. 519 (1840).

Leucoryx Antelope, Penn. Quadr. i. p. 68 (1781); id. ibid. 1793, p. 76 (not fig.).

Antilope (Bubalis) oryx, Licht. Mag. nat. Freund, vi. p. 156 (1814).

Cemas oryx, Oken, Lehrb. Nat. iii. pt. 2, p. 734 (1816).

Cerophorus (Oryx) leucoryx, De Blainville, Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.

Antilope besoarctica, Jard. Nat. Misc. (1) vii. p. 203 (1842); Reichenb. Säug. iii. p. 120, pl. xxxvii. (1845).

Antilope ensicornis, var. α asiatica, Wagner, Schr. Säug. Suppl. v. p. 437 (1855).

Oryx beatrix, Gray, P.Z.S. 1857, p. 157, pl. lv.; id. Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 36 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 112 (1873); Sclater, P.Z.S. 1872, p. 603; St. John, P.Z.S. 1874, p. 95; Sclater, P.Z.S. 1881, p. 819; id. List An. Z. S. (8) p. 138 (1883), (9) p. 159 (1896); W. Sclater, Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 156 (1891); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 344 (1891); Ward, Horn Meas. (1) p. 148 (1892), (2) p. 188 (1896); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 249 (1893); Matsch. SB. nat. Freund. 1893, p. 104; Thomas, P.Z.S. 1894, p. 451; Pousargues, Ann. Sci. Nat. (7) iv. p. 131 (1896); Trouessart, Cat. Mamm. fasc. iv. p. 955 (1898).

Antilope beatrix, Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) ix. p. 61 (1887).

Oryx Leucoryx Pallasi, Fitz. SB. Wien, lix. p. 178 (1869).

Vernacular Names:—El Walrush and El Bukrus of Bahrein Arabs (Pennant).

Height at withers about 35 inches. Prevailing colour of body, neck, and head a dirty white, slightly darker on the haunches. On the face the frontal and nasal patches are brown in colour and sometimes separated from each other; the brown stripe that passes from the eye unites with the stripe that arises near the base of the ear to form on the cheek a large patch which extends below the jaw and joins across the inter-ramal area with the corresponding patch of the opposite side; from this patch a narrow brown stripe runs along the throat, and is traceable as far as the chest, which is also brown. Ears whitish; the tip and edges not black or brown. Mane on neck whitish like the rest of the body, and there is no median dorsal black stripe. Tail white; the tuft black at the end. Fore leg from the shoulder, and hind leg from the thigh, deep brown, both on the outer and inner side down to the fetlocks; pasterns white. A faint brown longitudinal stripe is traceable on each side between the belly and the flanks. Hair along spine reversed from rump.

Horns long, straight, attaining a length of about 25 inches; ribbed for about two-thirds of their length; the ribs small and close-set.

Female. Similar to the male, and horns equally long or longer.

Hab. Southern Arabia, to the shores of Persian Gulf.

As we have already pointed out, it is highly probable, if not certain, that the Antilope leucoryx of Pallas and his immediate successors was the present species and not the preceding, which, however, is now universally known as “The Leucoryx.” In the description of his Antilope leucoryx (which forms the sixteenth species in his second memoir on the genus Antilope published in 1777) Pallas affords us so little information that not much can be made of it. He gives “Arabia, and perhaps Libya,” as its locality, and adds references to the passage in the ‘Cynegetica’ of Oppian which we have already quoted, and to “Gazellæ Indicæ cornu singulare”—a “curious horn of an Indian Gazelle” which he had described in a former memoir on some fossil bones from Siberia. On referring to this memoir, and to the figure by which it is accompanied, we cannot say that we are by any means satisfied that the “curious horn” in question, which is remarkable for its length and slenderness (33 inches long, as given by Pallas) and for its numerous annulations, belonged to the present species. We will, however, go so far as to allow that it may possibly have done so. At any rate we must admit that it could hardly have been a horn of the Antelope which we now call the Leucoryx.

The second original authority to describe the present species was our countryman Pennant in his ‘History of Quadrupeds,’ where he gives the “Leucoryx” as the fifth species of his genus “Antelope.” Pennant based his Leucoryx mainly upon “two drawings of animals in the British Museum, taken from life in 1712 by order of Sir John Lock, Agent of the East India Company at Ispahan; they were preserved as rarities by the Shah of Persia in a park eight leagues from the capital.” Pennant informs us that he had copied his description of these animals from a paper accompanying the drawings. This species, he tells us, inhabits “Gaw Behrein, an island in the Gulf of Bassorah,” meaning, no doubt, what we now call Bahrein Island in the Persian Gulf. Judging from the description and locality it would appear that Pennant’s “Leucoryx” of 1781 was intended for the present Antelope, but the figure in the edition of Pennant’s work of 1793, it must be allowed, gives one rather the idea of a Beisa (Oryx beisa).

As regards the other authors which we have quoted above as following Pallas in calling this animal Antilope leucoryx, it is not necessary to take much trouble about them. They merely repeat the stories of their predecessors without adding anything original thereto, and seem to have had no true ideas of the distinctness of the present species from its allies. It was not, in fact, until 1857 that the present Antelope became properly known to science in Europe by the receipt of living specimens. The first of these was brought from Bombay to England in that year and presented to the Zoological Society of London by Capt. John Shepherd. This animal, which was at first supposed to be a half-grown specimen of the Gemsbok of the Cape, quickly attracted the notice of the late Dr. J. E. Gray, of the British Museum, who had a capital eye for strange mammals of all sorts. Dr. Gray immediately recognized it as belonging to a species unknown to him, and, having apparently no suspicion that it was possibly the veritable “Leucoryx” of the older authors, described it as new at a Scientific Meeting of the Zoological Society held on June 23rd of that year, at which Sclater (then recently elected a member of the Council) well recollects having been himself present, and proposed to call it Oryx beatrix, after H.R.H. The Princess Beatrice. Dr. Gray’s description, published in the ‘Proceedings,’ is accompanied by an excellent coloured figure of the Beatrix Antelope drawn by Wolf. Dr. Gray conjectured that the specimen had been brought to Bombay from the shores of the Red Sea, but it is more probable that it was carried there from the Persian Gulf. The typical specimen, which died shortly afterwards, was deposited in the British Museum.

In March 1872 a second specimen of the Beatrix Antelope was received by the Zoological Society, and fortunately with sufficient information to solve the enigma as to its real patria. It was the survivor of a pair of these animals, obtained for the late Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.Z.S., by Col. Pelly, then British Resident at Bushire on the Persian Gulf. In 1878 a third living specimen of this Antelope, a male, was received by the Zoological Society; this was presented by Commander F. M. Burke, of the B.I.S.N.S.S. ‘Arcot,’ by whom it had been obtained at Jeddah in the Red Sea from a friend who had received it as a present from the Shereif of Mecca. It was stated to have been originally captured in the neighbourhood of Tyeff or Tayf, in the Hedjaz Passes, some 150 miles east of the Red Sea. In 1881 two additional specimens of the Beatrix Antelope were presented to the same Society by the late Lord Lilford, and since that date three other examples of the same animal have been received alive by the Zoological Society. These were a pair presented by Col. E. C. Ross, C.S.I., H.B.M. Consul at Bushire, in 1890, and a single female presented by Lt.-Col. Talbot in 1892.

The typical specimen of Oryx beatrix, as already mentioned, is in the collection of the British Museum, as is also the adult female transmitted to the Zoological Society by Col. Pelly. Besides these, the National Collection possesses a skeleton of a young female obtained on the Persian Gulf by Mr. B. T. ffinch, F.Z.S., and some skins and skulls collected in Muscat by Dr. A. S. G. Jayakar, C.M.Z.S. Specimens of the Beatrix Antelope are, however, excessively rare in European collections, and we are not aware that any of the continental museums have succeeded in obtaining specimens of it.

From what has been stated it is evident that the range of the Beatrix Antelope reaches from the shores of the Red Sea across Southern Arabia to Muscat. How far up the coast of the Persian Gulf it extends is uncertain, but the specimens stated by Pennant to have been brought to Ispahan from the Bahrein Islands had probably been obtained from the opposite mainland.

Our figure of this Antelope (Plate LXXXII.) was put upon the stone by Mr. Smit from a sketch prepared under Sir Victor Brooke’s directions by Mr. J. Wolf. This was probably taken from the same animal as that figured in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings,’ as above mentioned.

May, 1899.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LXXXIII.

Wolf del. Smit lith.

Hanhart imp.

The Gemsbok.

ORYX GAZELLA.

Published by R. H. Porter.

115. THE GEMSBOK.
ORYX GAZELLA (Linn.).
[PLATE LXXXIII.]

Gazella Indica cornibus rectis longissimis nigris, Ray, Quadr. p. 79 (1693).

Capra gazella, Linn. Syst. Nat. (10) i. p. 69 (1758), (12) i. p. 96 (1766); Müll. Natursyst. i. p. 412 (1773).

Antilope recticornis, Erxl. Syst. R. A. p. 272 (1777); Gatt. Brev. Zool. i. p. 78 (1780).

Gazella recticornis, Pallas, Nov. Comm. Ac. Petrop. xiii. p. 468.

Antilope bezoartica, Pallas, Misc. Zool. p. 8 (1766) (nec Linn.); Müll. Natursyst. Suppl. p. 55 (1776); Zimm. Spec. Zool. Geogr. p. 538 (1777); Gatt. Brev. Zool. i. p. 79 (1780).

Antilope oryx, Pallas, Spic. Zool. fasc. xii. pp. 16 & 61 (1777); Zimm. Geogr. Gesch. ii. p. 107 (1780); Herm. Tabl. Affin. Anim. p. 108 (1783); Schreb. Säug. pl. cclvii. (1784); Bodd. Elench. Anim. p. 139 (1785); Gmel. Linn. S. N. i. p. 189 (1788); Kerr, Linn. An. K. p. 315 (1792); Donnd. Zool. Beytr. i. p. 636 (1792); Link, Beytr. Nat. ii. p. 99 (1795); Dandin, in Lacépède’s Buffon, xiv. p. 182 (1799); Shaw, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, p. 312 (1801); Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (1) xxiv. Tabl. p. 32 (1804); Turt. Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 114 (1806); G. Fisch. Zoogn. iii. p. 425 (1814); Afz. N. Act. Ups. vii. p. 219 (1815); Goldf. Schr. Säug. v. p. 1177 (1818); Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 391 (1821); Desmoul. Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. p. 444 (1822); Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 473 (1822); Burch. Travels, ii. p. 23 (1824); Less. Man. Mamm. p. 385 (1827); Fischer, Syn. Mamm. p. 478 (1829); Smuts, En. Mamm. Cap. p. 71 (1832); Rüpp. Neue Wirbelth. p. 16 (1835); Wagn. Säugeth. v. p. 1177 (1836); Waterh. Cat. Mamm. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 41 (1838); Oken, Allg. Nat. vii. p. 139 (1838); Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 617 (1847); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 476 (1844); id. v. p. 436 (1855); Reichenb. Säug. iii. p. 121, pl. xxxviii. (1845); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 434 (1845); id. Mon. Antil. p. 31, pl. xxxv. (1848); Gieb. Säug. p. 294 (1853); Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 483 (1887).

Oryx capensis, Ogilby, P. Z. S. 1836, p. 139; A. Sm. S. Afr. Quart. J. ii. p. 187 (1834); Harr. Wild Anim. S. Afr. p. 38, pl. ix. (1840); Sund. Pecora K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1845, p. 207 (1847); id. Hornsch. Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 157; Reprint, p. 81 (1848); Fitz. SB. Wien, lix. p. 178 (1869); Buckley, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 289, 1877, p. 455; Brehm, Thierl. iii. p. 230 (1880); Bryden, Kloof and Karroo, p. 292 (1889); Trouessart, Cat. Mamm. fasc. iv. p. 953 (1898).

Onyx onyx, Gray, Med. Repos. xv. p. 307 (1821).

Antilope gazella, Forst. Descr. Anim. p. 380 (1844).

Antilope (Bubalis) oryx, Licht. Mag. nat. Freund, vi. p. 155 (1814).

Antilope pasan, Daudin, in Lacépède’s Buffon, xiv. p. 182 (1799).

Cemas pasan, Oken, Lehrb. Nat. iii. pt. 2, p. 741 (1816).

Cerophorus (Oryx) oryx, De Blainv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.

Oryx gazella, Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 156 (1843); id. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (1) xviii. p. 232 (1846); id. List Ost. B. M. p. 58 (1847); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 134; id. Knowsl. Men. p. 17 (1850); id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 105 (1852); Gerr. Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 240 (1862); Sclater, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 604; Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 35 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 104 (1873); Drumm. Large Game S. Afr. p. 426 (1875); Selous, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 755; id. Hunter’s Wanderings in S. Afr. p. 212; Bocage, J. Sci. Lisboa, (2) v. p. 26 (1890) (Benguela); W. Sclater, Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 155 (1891); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 343 (1891); Ward, Horn Meas. (1) p. 143 (1892), (2) p. 184 (1896); Nicols & Egl. Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 49 (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 246 (1893).

Oryx oryx, Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 135 (1887); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 166 (1892); Matsch. SB. nat. Freund. 1893, p. 102; Pousargues, Ann. Sci. Nat. (7) iv. p. 131 (1896).

Vernacular Names:—Gemsbok of the Dutch at the Cape; Gemsbuck of English; Kukama of Bechuanas and Makalakas; Ko of the Masuras (Selous). Uhlaza of Kaffirs (Drummond); Gallengue in Benguela (Bocage).

Height at withers about 48 inches. General colour of neck and body pale greyish tawny. Head with a black frontal patch at the base of the horns and a large patch of the same colour upon the nose, the two united by a narrow black line. Above the eye is a black stripe extending to the base of the horn, and below the eye a broad stripe passes downwards towards the corner of the mouth and, uniting with the nasal patch, spreads below on to the underside of the jaw; there is also a black stripe running from near the base of the ear along the line where the cheek passes into the neck and expanding on the lower part of the cheek fuses with the lower extremity of the ocular stripe, and contributes to the formation of the broad black area that occupies nearly the whole of the inter-ramal space. Muzzle, chin, and lips white. Ears with tip and the adjacent edges black. From the dark inter-ramal area to the chest extends a black stripe along the throat; the hairs of this region long, forming a mane, which at one spot near the middle of the throat is produced into a pointed crest or beard. Mane of nape blackish; a black line traceable along the back as far as the rump. Rump black or clouded with black above, the black extending on to the root of the tail, the tuft of which is entirely black. Along the sides of the body above the belly, which is white, extends a broad black stripe, continuous in front with the black area of the chest and passing behind on to the lower part of the thigh, where it expands into a broad black patch covering the outer side of the hind leg as far as the hock and spreading round the leg on its inner side. Hind legs below the hocks nearly white, except for a longitudinal black stripe on the front of the cannon-bone. Fore legs white below knee, with a black spot or stripe on the front of the cannon-bone; above the knee on the outer and inner side the leg is black almost up to the shoulder, but on the inner side it is sometimes white above, the white area extending for a short distance on to the front of the leg at its base.

Horns nearly straight, rarely attaining a length of about 47 inches, more commonly less than 40. A skull has the following dimensions:—Basal length 14·5 inches, eye to nose 10, greatest width 6·25.

Female similar to the male, but slighter, with longer and more slender horns, which are less distinctly ringed and sometimes slightly bent.

Hab. Arid deserts of South-west Africa, from Bechuanaland north to Mossamedes.

The Dutch colonists who settled at the Cape in the course of the seventeenth century named the principal Antelopes which they met with there after the animals in Europe that they supposed to be their closest allies, or to be most nearly similar to them, but in many cases very inappropriately. Thus the “Eland” received its name from the Elk (Alces machlis), the “Reh-bok” from the Roe (Capreolus caprœa), and the present Antelope from the Chamois or Gemse of the Alps (Rupicapra tragus), although in all these cases it is difficult to discern much resemblance between the European species and the South-African animals which were called after them.

Nevertheless the term “Gemsbok” has stuck to the Oryx of the Cape, and is still a familiar name for this beautiful Antelope both among the Dutch and the English in South Africa. As we have already shown, it is the type, or at any rate the first species, of de Blainville’s genus Oryx, and that must be its generic name, but to decide what term should be selected as its proper specific name is by no means an easy task.

The “Capra gazella” of the tenth and twelfth editions of Linnæus’s ‘Systema Naturæ’ has been held by many authors to refer to this species, whereas Pallas and his followers called the Leucoryx “Antilope gazella” and the present species “Antilope oryx” Modern writers have mostly called the Gemsbok either “Oryx capensis, Ogilby” (a name that is undoubtedly applicable to it), or “Oryx gazella” or “Oryx oryx” Of these three names we think we are justified in selecting the Linnæan “gazella” which has undoubted priority. It is true that Linnæus’s species is based mainly on Ray’s very imperfectly described “Gazella Indica cornibus rectis longissimis nigris,” and that its “habitat” is given as “India.” But Pallas himself quotes Linnæus’s Capra gazella as a synonym of his “Antilope oryx”—so that we cannot justly use the latter term even if it were not the same as the generic name. It may also be urged that traditionally at least Linnæus’s term “gazella” has usually been acknowledged to refer to this species, which we therefore propose to designate Oryx gazella.

As may be gathered from what has been already stated, most of the older authors had no clear ideas as to the differences between this and the two preceding Antelopes, which they only knew from imperfect specimens, and did not even realize that their areas of distribution are in every case perfectly distinct. We must, however, make one exception from this statement. In the Dutch edition of Buffon’s ‘Histoire Naturelle,’ published by Schneider at Amsterdam, to which we have had occasion more than once to refer, there will be found a very recognizable figure of the Gemsbok, which the author identifies, perhaps correctly, with the “Pasan” of Buffon. Allamand’s figure was taken from a skin received from the Cape of Good Hope, and is accompanied by a full and fairly accurate description. Both the figure and description of Allamand were reprinted by Buffon in the sixth volume of his ‘Supplement’ to the ‘Histoire Naturelle,’ published at Paris in 1782. Allamand’s figure was again copied by Schreber on plate cclvii. of his ‘Säugethiere,’ which is believed to have been issued (long before the letterpress) in 1784. It is there named “Antilope oryx, Pallas,” as is also the case in the accompanying letterpress, issued in 1836, and in Wagner’s supplementary volumes of the ‘Säugethiere,’ in which the plate of this Antelope, published in 1848, is apparently also an improved copy of Allamand’s original figure.

We will now turn to some of the chief authorities on the Natural History of the Cape, and see what we can learn from them as to the habits and exact distribution of the present animal, of which the systematists tell us very little. Sparrman, who was in South Africa in 1772 and the following years, after commenting on the unsuitable appellation applied to it, says that the Gemsbok is in all probability peculiar to the north-western part of the Colony, for that in the country which he traversed, which was mainly east from Cape Town, he neither saw nor heard anything of it. But its remarkable horns were not at that period scarce in collections at Cape Town. Patterson, about 1790, met with the Gemsbok in Clanwilliam; and Barrow, about ten years later, seems to have come across it in Willowmore. Lichtenstein, in the second volume of his travels (1812), notes the occurrence of the Gemsbok in the Hopetown District, and writes of it as Antilope oryx. Steedman, whose ‘Wanderings in South Africa’ were published in 1835, devotes considerable attention to this animal and gives a good figure of it (vol. ii. p. 55) from specimens obtained on the farm of Stoffel Jacobs, near Bushman’s Poorte, just south of the Orange River.

We now come to the epoch of the celebrated traveller Sir William Cornwallis Harris, who penetrated far into the interior of South Africa in 1836 and 1837. On plate ix. of his ‘Portraits’ Harris gives excellent figures accompanied by full descriptions of both sexes of the Gemsbok, which he met with on the Moloppo and Modder Rivers in Bechuanaland, and in the adjoining districts of the Orange Free State. We extract the following passages from Harris’s lively chapter on this Antelope:—

“The South-African Oryx is a most wild and warlike-looking animal, not less remarkable for beauty, speed, and vigour, than famed for the excellence of its venison, which is everywhere held in the highest estimation. Although usually found in pairs on the Karroos and unfrequented stony districts, which form its invariable habitation, the males sometimes possess two females, constituting, with their young, a family of five or six individuals. The calves, which are born of a reddish cream colour, become whiter as they increase in bulk, and are easily domesticated; but their uncertain temper renders it difficult at any time to pronounce them tame. Their horns, at first blunt and round at the tips, are soon ground to a fine needle-like point, by dint of raking and whetting them against rough-stemmed trees,—thus becoming most formidable weapons, whether of offence or defence. The horns of the females are much longer and more bodkinish in appearance than those of the males, who never meet during the rutting season without desperate battles, their courage and quarrelsome disposition frequently rendering their duels fatal, one of the combatants often being run slap through the body by a lunge from the long rapier-resembling weapons of his antagonist. The natives of Southern Africa occasionally arm their spears with the horns of the Oryx; and the Hollanders of the Cape have them polished and headed with silver, to serve as walking-sticks, for which purpose they are frequently too long! Strong, active, and vigorous, the Gemsbok boldly defends itself when pressed by the hunter, using its horns with amazing energy and address, by striking right and left at its assailant with prodigious violence. Oppian, the modern Arabs of the desert, and the Hottentots, are all agreed in describing the danger of approaching these animals before they are totally disabled.”

A few years later another well-known sportsman, Roualeyn Gordon Cumming, arrived in South Africa and commenced the five years of his ‘Hunter’s Life,’ of which he has given to the world such a vivid description. Cumming first met with the Gemsbok in December 1843 in the “vast Karroo plains” west of Colesberg, where it was abundant at that epoch. He describes some of its chief peculiarities as follows:—

“The Gemsbok was destined by nature to adorn the parched karroos and arid deserts of South Africa, for which description of country it is admirably adapted. It thrives and attains high condition in barren regions, where it might be imagined that a locust would not find subsistence, and, burning as is its climate, it is perfectly independent of water, which, from my own observation and the repeated reports both of the Boers and aborigines, I am convinced it never by any chance tastes. Its flesh is deservedly esteemed, and ranks next to the Eland. At certain seasons of the year they carry a great quantity of fat, at which time they can be more easily ridden into. Owing to the even nature of the ground which the Oryx frequents, its shy and suspicious disposition, and the extreme distances from water to which it must be followed, it is never stalked or driven to an ambush like other Antelopes, but is hunted on horseback, and ridden down by a long, severe, tail-on-end chase. Of several animals in South Africa which are hunted in this manner, and may be ridden into by a horse, the Oryx is by far the swiftest and most enduring.”

In his ‘Hunter’s Wanderings’ Mr. Selous gives us an excellent account of the range of the Gemsbok about twenty years ago. He says (p. 212):—

“The Gemsbuck is almost entirely confined to the arid deserts of South-western Africa. In the Kalahari desert, to the west of Griqualand West, it is fairly plentiful, and on the road leading along the eastern border of the desert from Kuruman to Bamangwato it is occasionally to be met with, becoming plentiful if one penetrates into the waterless country to the westward, but being unknown to the eastward, of the road. Along the waggon-road leading from Bamangwato to Tati there are a few Gemsbuck above Pelatsi, Serule, and Goqui, and they are sometimes to be met with on the upper course of the Macloutsi, Shashi, and Tati rivers. A few sometimes even wander as far eastwards as the Ramokwebani river. On the road leading from Tati to the Zambesi Gemsbuck are not often met with, but a few are occasionally to be seen in the neighbourhood of Thammasanka and Thammasetsi. A little farther westwards, however, in the neighbourhood of the great saltpans, they are numerous, as they are also in all the country between the saltpans and the Botletlie river, whilst to the west of that river, right through the desert into Damaraland, they are said to run in large herds. Where I have met with them, the country has either been open or covered with stunted bush, and along the waggon-road from Bamangwato to the Mābābe their northern range seems to be limited by the heavily-timbered sand-belts, which run east and west immediately to the south of that river, and into which the Gemsbuck does not penetrate. North of the Mābābe, in the direction of the Chobe, although many parts of the country appear well fitted for it, the Gemsbuck is unknown.

“So far as my experience goes, the Gemsbuck is far from being the fleetest or most enduring Antelope in South Africa, and in these respects cannot be compared to the Tsessebe or Hartebeest. I do not think it is either fleeter or more enduring than the Sable or Roan Antelope; and I have myself run one to a standstill without firing a shot, and I know of several other men having done the same thing. The horns of the cow become longer than those of the bull, as a rule; the longest pair of the former I have ever seen measured 3 feet 10½ inches, and of the latter 3 feet 6 inches,”

Mr. H. A. Bryden, writing in 1889, describes the Gemsbok as then “very nearly extinct in the Cape Colony.” Seven or eight years previously two of the last had been shot in the north of Calvinia, near the banks of the Orange River.

Mr. W. L. Sclater, Director of the South African Museum, Cape Town, writing of the present distribution of the Gemsbok in South Africa, informs us that, according to the statistics of the Agricultural Department, there are about 5000 Gemsboks still existing in Bechuanaland between Namaqualand and Kenhart. There are also said to be plenty of these Antelopes still to be found throughout the German South-west African territory and the western part of the Kalahari Desert. North of German South-west Africa, we know from Capello and Ivens, and other Portuguese authorities, that the Gemsbok is also found in Mossamedes and in the adjoining arid districts of Southern Angola.

The Gemsbok is very rarely seen in captivity, and we are not aware that living examples of it have ever been brought to Europe. Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, of Hamburg, who has had great experience in such matters, informs us that he has never seen this animal alive.

There is a fine mounted pair of the Gemsbok in the Gallery of the British Museum, obtained by Mr. F. C. Selous in the Bamangwato District of Bechuanaland, and a frontlet and horns procured by the same enterprising hunter on the Botletli River. Besides these there are several older stuffed specimens, as also some heads and skins, of which the exact localities are unknown.

Our figure of the Gemsbok (Plate LXXXIII.) was drawn on the stone by Mr. Smit from Mr. Wolf’s sketch, but it is, unfortunately, impossible to ascertain from what specimen it was taken.

May, 1899.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LXXXIV.

Smit del. et lith.

Hanhart imp.

The Beisa.

ORYX BEISA.

Published by R. H. Porter.

116. THE BEISA.
ORYX BEISA (Rüpp.).
[PLATE LXXXIV.]

Leucoryx Antelope, Penn. Quadr. i. pl. xii. (1793) (not description) (?).

“Antilope dammah der Araber,” Cretzschm. Atl. Rüpp. Reise, p. 22 (footnote) (1826) (?), whence

Antilope dammah, Rüpp. Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 475 (1829).

Antilope beisa, Rüpp. N. Wirb. Abyss. p. 14, pl. v. (1835); Oken, Allg. Naturg. vii. p. 1392 (1838); Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 617 (1841); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 477 (1844), v. p. 436 (1855); Reichenb. Säug. iii. p. 123, pi. xxxviii. (1845); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 436 (1845); id. Mon. Antil. p. 33, pi. xxxvii. (1848); Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 71 (1887).

Oryx beisa, Sund. Pecora K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1844, p. 207 (1846); id. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 157; Reprint, p. 81 (1848); Gray, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 134; id. Knowsl. Men. p. 17 (1850); id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 106 (1852); Heugl. Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act. Leop. xxx. pt. 2) p. 17 (1863); Fitz. SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 178 (1869); Blanf. Zool. Abyss. p. 262 (1870); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 35 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 104 (1873); Scl. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 604, 1874, p. 323, 1875, p. 633; Heugl. N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 111 (1877); Brehm, Thierl. iii. p. 231 (1880); Scl. P. Z. S. 1881, p. 626, pl. liv. (adult and young); id. List Anim. Z. S. (8) p. 139, fig. 19 (1883), (9) p. 159 (1896); Flow. & Gars. Cat. Coll. Surg. ii. p. 262 (1884); Lort Phillips, P. Z. S. 1885, p. 931; W. Scl. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 155 (1891); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 343 (1891); Thos. P. Z. S. 1891, p. 207; Scl. P. Z. S. 1892, p. 102; Swayne, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 300; Ward, Horn Meas. (1) p. 146 (1892), (2) p. 186 (1896); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 247 (1893); Matsch. SB. nat. Fr. Berl. 1893, p. 103; Swayne, Seventeen Trips to Somaliland, p. 298 (1895); Rhoads, P. Ac. Philad. 1896, p. 519; Pousargues, Ann. Sci. Nat. (7) iv. p. 131 (1896); Elliot, Publ. Chicago Mus. Zool. i. p. 130 (1897); Neumann, Elephant-Hunting, p. 363 (1898) (Lake Rudolf); Trouessart, Cat. Mamm. fasc. iv. p. 954 (1898).

Oryx biessa, Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 232 (1846).

Vernacular Names:—Beisa of Arabs at Massowa (Rüppell); Beida (Heuglin); Baet of Somalis (Swayne); Ari of Danakils (Heuglin).

Height at withers about 46 inches. Colour of neck and body a tolerably uniform tawny. Head and throat with the same ornamentation of black stripes and patches as in the preceding species, but the nose-patch does not spread so far laterally, and does not fuse with the lower extremity of the stripe that runs from the eye; this stripe also stops short at a point about on a level with the corner of the mouth, and is not produced inferiorly on to the lower side of the jaw; thus the whitish muzzle is not surrounded by a complete black ring as is the case in O. gazella, and there is less black on the inter-ramal area and on the upper end of the throat. Hair of throat not produced to form a mane or beard. Ears black at tip and on rim as in O. gazella. Black spinal stripe more sharply defined than in that species and extending from a point near the middle of the rump; hind-quarters of the same colour as the body and neck, there being no black patch on the rump and none on the lower half of the thighs. The black stripe that passes backwards from the chest along the side of the body above the white belly is narrower than in O. gazella, and is not continued on to the thighs. Hind legs whitish, not black above the hocks, and without a black spot on front of the cannon-bone, but stained with black above the false hoofs and below the hocks. Fore legs whitish, banded as in O. gazella, but the stripe above the knee narrower and only extending about halfway up to the shoulder on the outer side, and to the chest on the inner. Tail-tuft black. Hairs along the neck and spine lying forwards, the parting situated on the rump.

Horns nearly straight, ribbed in their basal half; about 36 or 37 inches in length, often only about 30.

A skull gives the following measurements:—Basal length 14 inches, orbit to nose 12·75, greatest width 5·75.

Female. Similar to the male, but horns rather longer and thinner.

Hab. Western shores of the Red Sea from Suakin southwards to Danakilland; Somaliland and British East Africa north of the Tana.

The famous traveller and naturalist, Dr. Eduard Rüppell, of Frankfort-on-the-Main, whose name we have already frequently mentioned in this work, was the discoverer of this fine Antelope, which he met with in 1832 on the coast of the Red Sea west of Massowa, and subsequently described and figured in his ‘Neue Wirbelthiere.’ Rüppell called this animal “Beisa” after the native name by which it was known to the Arabs of the district, and at the same time attempted to identify it with an Antelope which he had heard of but not obtained seven years previously in Dongola, there known as the “Dammah.” But, as Heuglin has pointed out, it seems by no means certain that the “Beisa” of the coastland of Abyssinia is the same as the “Dammah” of Dongola. Although, therefore, the name “dammah” as will be seen by our list of synonyms, was published by Cretzschmar and Fischer before Rüppell’s “beisa” it would be neither just nor reasonable upon this uncertain plea to deprive Rüppell, who certainly supplied the first recognizable description of it, of the name of this species.

Rüppell informs us that the Beisa in his time (about 1832) was not uncommon in the low-country at the back of Massowa, and extended northwards along the coast to Suakin. It was usually found in small families in the flat valleys which are slightly grassed, and was said to be fleet and shy, being much persecuted by the Turkish soldiers then in garrison at Massowa.

Mr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., met with this Antelope in the same district during the Abyssinian Expedition of 1867–68, and, in his volume on the ‘Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia,’ writes as follows:—

“On returning from the interior I stopped for three days at a halting-place in the semi-desert north of Massowa, and succeeded in shooting four of these superb and rare Antelopes. All were females; but there is little, if any, difference in the sexes, both having equally fine horns.

“The Beisa is found singly or in small herds, rarely exceeding ten in number, in the somewhat hilly barren country near the sea-coast. They are said to keep to the more hilly parts of Samhar. Near Annesley Bay, where the country is more wooded, this Antelope does not occur, but it abounds farther south in the Somali country, and the horns are brought in considerable numbers to Aden and Berbera. They are used as weapons by the Somalis.

“The principal food of the Oryx near Massowa is a coarse grass, almost resembling a diminutive bamboo. They appear to be grazers rather than browsers, although, like all Antelopes, they occasionally eat the young shoots of Acacia and other trees. They are quite diurnal in their habits, feeding in the morning and evening, in this respect resembling the Gazelles, to which they are unquestionably closely allied. When we were in the Samhar country in July and August, the Oryx drank apparently every day, always coming to the water about one or two o’clock. It is probable that they drink less regularly in cold weather.

“The appearance of a herd of Oryx is very imposing. They are some of the most elegant and symmetrical of animals, their motions being those of a wild horse rather than of an Antelope. Their favourite pace appears to be either a steady quick walk or a trot; they rarely break into a gallop unless greatly alarmed. When frightened, they dash off, sometimes snorting and putting their heads down as if charging, raising their long tails, and looking very formidable. They are wary animals, though far less so than some other Antelopes.

“Like the Gazelles and true Antelopes, all equally inhabitants of deserts and open plains, the Oryx has a pointed foot, each of the divisions being rudely triangular. Its tracks may consequently be instantly distinguished from those of cattle or of any of the bovine Antelopes. So far as my acquaintance with the family goes, most of the forest and bush-hunting Antelopes—Koodoo, Nylgai, Tetraceros—have their feet formed like those of the Cervidæ, with rounded hoofs, whilst the Antelopes of the plain, and especially desert forms, have pointed hoofs.”

Heuglin met with this Antelope further south on the Danakil coast of the Red Sea, and also in Northern Somaliland, where he states that it resorts to the more open sandy districts beset with low bushes (Salvadora), occasionally retreating into the lower hills.

But in Somaliland we have excellent accounts of its habits and distribution from modern observers—of whom we will first quote Captain Swayne, the leading authority on the game-animals of that country.

Writing of the Antelopes in his ‘Seventeen Trips through Somaliland,’ Col. Swayne sums up his great experience of the Beisa as follows:—

“The Oryx of Somaliland is a very stoutly-built, bovine Antelope, standing as high as a donkey, and inhabits open stony ground, or barren hills, or open grass plains. It is fairly common and very widely distributed over the Somali country, and it may be found in all kinds of country except in the thick jungle with aloe undergrowth (which is so much liked by the Lesser Koodoo), and the cedar-forests on the higher ranges. The best Oryx ground is in the Haud and in Ogádén.

“The Oryx feeds chiefly on grass, and is often found very far from water. It has a keen sight, and probably protects itself more by this than by its sense of hearing or scent. Oryxes are found in herds of from half a dozen to thirty or forty, chiefly composed of cows. Bull Oryxes are found wandering singly all over the country, and possibly these make up in number for the preponderance of cows in the herds.

“Sometimes two or three cows with growing calves will be found together, making up a small herd of half a dozen. It is nearly impossible to distinguish which are the bulls in a herd, and they are so few in proportion to the cows that it is best, if shooting for sport alone, not to fire at a herd at all. The bull is slightly thicker in the neck and higher in the withers than the cow; and the horns, though an inch or two shorter in the bull, are more massive, especially about the base, and more symmetrical, whilst the cow’s horns are frequently bent and of unequal length. The Oryx is often revengeful when wounded and brought to bay; twice I have seen a wounded one make a determined charge into a mob of Somális armed with spears.

“The Midgáns, who are armed with bows and poisoned arrows, hunt the Oryx with packs of savage yellow pariah-dogs. The thick skin round the withers of a bull is made by them into a white gáshan or fighting shield. The method of hunting, as carried out by the Midgáns in the Bulhár Plain, is as follows:—Three or four of them, with about fifteen dogs, go out just before dawn, and walk along silently through the scattered thorn-trees till fresh tracks are found, and these are followed till the game is sighted. By throwing stones, whistling, and other signs which the dogs understand, they are shown the herd, and settle down to their work. The dogs run mute, the men following at a crouching trot, which in a Somáli is untiring; and this lasts until the dogs open in chorus, having brought the game to bay. The Oryxes make repeated charges at the dogs, which, they often wound or kill. If the latter can avoid the sharp horns of the mother they fasten on to a calf, and sometimes the whole herd will charge to the rescue. The Midgáns run up silently under cover of the bushes and let off a flight of poisoned arrows into the herd, which, seeing the human enemy, takes to flight. Frequently an animal wounded by a poisoned arrow takes a line of its own, and is in due time carefully followed up and found dead, or it may be pulled down in its weak state by the dogs,”

Mr. D. G. Elliot, in his report on the collection of the Mammals of Somaliland made for the Field-Columbian Museum of Chicago in 1896, writes of the Beisa as follows:—

“Oryxes are not often seen in the country north of the Golis Range, but their numbers increase as the Haud is traversed, and on the south of Toyo and in Ogaden they are plentiful. At a distance it is impossible to distinguish the bulls from the cows, as both carry horns, those of the cows more slender and usually longer than the average of bulls’ horns. But this difference in size is not perceptible unless one is very close to the animals. The horns are annulated for two-thirds their length, then become smooth, and end in a sharp point. The average lengths of bulls’ horns are not much over 30 inches, although occasionally specimens are obtained that are several inches longer, and the cows’ horns sometimes reach a length of 37 or 38 inches. They are very formidable weapons, and it is dangerous to approach a wounded Oryx. In charging its enemy the Oryx puts its head low down between its fore legs, with the horns pointed forward not much above the ground, and rushes at the object of its hate with much swiftness. These lance-like horns are quite capable of passing entirely through the body of an animal. Oryxes seem to be quite independent of water, and are often seen many miles from any place where it could be procured. They frequent the waterless, treeless plains, such as Toyo, Silo, &c., in herds sometimes of large size, and subsist upon the harsh dry grass common in such localities. The skin of a bull is very thick on the neck and withers, in, some cases as much as three-quarters of an inch through. The natives select this part of the hide to make their shields, which are sufficiently tough to stop any spear or arrow. As the bulls are very pugnacious, no doubt their tough thick hides are a great protection against the lance-like horns, and save them from being run through this vital portion of the body.”

Mr. Elliot’s expedition brought home twelve specimens of the Beisa of both sexes and of various ages from the Toyo Plain, Hullier, Bodeleh, the Silo Plain, the Haud, and the Ogaden Country. But he tells us that this fine animal is already practically extinct north of the Golis Range, and can only be found in any numbers in the southern portion of the Haud and in the country beyond.

Fig. 94.

Female Beisa.

(From the Garden Guide Z. S. L., 1876.)

Mr. J. Benett Stanford, F.Z.S., a well-known sportsman in Somaliland, tells us a curious story about this Antelope. On one occasion when shooting in that country he killed a female Beisa, and, leaving his men to skin her, went on in pursuit of other game. On his return to the camp, late in the afternoon, he found a young Beisa frolicking about, and was greeted by one of the party with the words “How did you catch it?” It appeared that the men had cut the young animal out from the dead mother, and found it perfectly formed in every respect. This young Antelope lived with the caravan for several months, and was eventually killed by an accident.

The following extract from Capt. Francis B. Pearce’s recently published ‘Rambles in Lion-Land’ will show that, notwithstanding the persecutions of the numerous sportsmen who now visit the Somaliland Protectorate every winter, the Beisa is as yet by no means an extinct animal in the interior of that attractive country:—

“We struck camp after having spent a very successful week on the Tyuli Hills, and turned our faces south en route for the zebra-country. Shortly after leaving camp I saw the largest herd of Oryx I have ever seen. It is a difficult matter to estimate the number of a herd of animals unless one possesses some education in that line, but at the lowest estimate there could not have been less than five hundred head. This enormous herd galloped past us at a distance of a little over two hundred yards. It was a beautiful sight to watch. With glistening coats and horns laid back, they tore past. Both J—— and I were too fascinated to think of firing.”

The Beisa is well known in the Zoological Gardens of Europe, and has bred in captivity on more than one occasion. The first living example of this Antelope (a male) was received by the Zoological Society of London, as a present from Admiral Cumming, in 1874, and a female was presented by the Sultan of Zanzibar in the following year, from which the figure in the Society’s ‘Garden Guide’ for 1876 (see fig. 94, p. 70) was taken. This made a pair of this animal for the Collection, believed at that time to be the only pair in Europe. In 1877 and 1878 other specimens were obtained. On April 12th, 1881, the first calf was born, and in September 1885 a second calf from the same pair. At the present time there are three representatives of this Oryx in the Society’s Collection, and specimens of it may also be seen in many of the Zoological Gardens on the Continent.

A coloured figure of the first Beisa calf born in the Zoological Society’s Gardens will be found in the ‘Proceedings’ for 1881 (plate liv.).

In the British Museum there is an adult mounted female specimen of the Beisa Antelope, from the Red Sea coast, obtained in 1871. There is also the skull of an adult from the River Juba, obtained by Sir John Kirk and presented by him in 1879, besides other skins and skulls from various parts of Somaliland presented by Mr. W. F. Sinclair, Col. A. Paget, and Capt. Swayne.

Our figure of this species (Plate LXXXIV.) was lithographed by Mr. Smit for Sir Victor Brooke many years ago, and was taken, it is believed, from a specimen in the British Museum.

May, 1899.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LXXXV.

Smit del. et lith.

Hanhart imp.

The Tufted Beisa.

ORYX CALLOTIS.

Published by R. H. Porter.

117. THE TUFTED BEISA.
ORYX CALLOTIS, Thomas.
[PLATE LXXXV.]

Oryx beisa, Hunter, in Willoughby’s E. Africa, p. 289 (1889).

Oryx callotis, Thomas, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 195, pl. xiv. (head); Ward, Horn Meas. (1) p. 149 (1892), (2) p. 189 (1896); True, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xv. p. 470, pl. lxxxvi. (1892) (full figure); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 248 (1893); Lugard, E. Afr. i. p. 534 (1893); Matsch. SB. nat. Fr. Berl. 1893, p. 103; Jackson, in Badm. Big Game Shooting, i. p. 293 (1894); Matsch. Säug. Deutsch-Ost-Afr. p. 135 (1895); Pousargues, Ann. Sci. Nat. (7) iv. p. 131 (1896); Jackson, P. Z. S. 1897, p. 454; Trouessart, Cat. Mamm. fasc. iv. p. 954 (1898).

Vernacular Names:—Cheroa of the Swahilis in Brit. E. Africa (Jackson); Kiroha, Swahilis of German East Africa (Stuhlmann); Muhambura in Kirongi (Stuhlmann); Palla-Palla or Kolongo in Uniamuesi (Matschie).

Of the same size and general characters as the preceding species, to which it is very closely allied. The colour seems to be usually of a richer ruddier tint, and the black stripe on the face that passes from the eye towards the corner of the mouth is generally, but not always; continued downwards on to the lower edge of the jaw, thence backwards, bounding the inter-ramal area on each side and uniting with the lower end of the stripe that runs from below the base of the ear to the throat. In some cases, however, the stripe in question stops short behind the corner of the mouth as in O. beisa. The frontal patch and the nose-patch are sometimes entirely separated, sometimes joined by a narrow stripe as in O. beisa. The stripes on the body and fore legs resemble those of O. beisa, but there is no black patch upon the front of the cannon-bone on the fore leg, such as is present in that species.

The most striking difference between the two species consists in the development of the hairs on the tips of the ears in O. callotis so as to form a long black tuft; in O. beisa the hairs at the extremity of the ear are scarcely longer than those covering the adjacent edges of that organ. Lastly, in O. callotis, the hairs along the median dorsal line are reversed in direction of growth from a point, only a little behind the middle of the back; whereas in O. beisa the parting is situated on the rump.

Hab. British East Africa, south of the River Tana, and interior of German East Africa.

Southwards of the River Tana in British East Africa, or thereabouts, the Beisa appears to be replaced by a nearly allied form, distinguishable by the conspicuous tufts which adorn the tips of its ears and by other less noticeable characters. It will be easily understood that this animal was not at once distinguished from the typical form by those who first met with it, and was consequently referred to “Oryx beisa” by Mr. Hunter in his Appendix to Willoughby’s ‘Big Game in East Africa,’ and by other earlier authorities.

It was not, in fact, until 1892 that the conspicuous difference of this species from O. beisa, as regards its ears, attracted notice, when Mr. Rowland Ward, F.Z.S., first called Thomas’s attention to it. Thomas, after examining into the subject, brought it before the notice of the Zoological Society of London on March 15th of that year, and proposed to call the new form Oryx callotis. Thomas’s communication was subsequently printed in the Society’s ‘Proceedings’ accompanied by a good coloured figure of the mounted head of the typical specimen, which was subsequently presented by Messrs. Rowland Ward and Co. to the British Museum.

As will be seen by reference to Mr. Rowland Ward’s ‘Records of Big Game,’ the horns of this typical specimen are among the shortest of the series of 18 specimens of this species of which measurements are there given, the longest pairs being over 30 inches in length. These latter are, no doubt, those of females, which in all the species of Oryx seem to be rather longer and thinner than those of males.

In the first volume of ‘Big Game Shooting’ in the ‘Badminton Library,’ Mr. F. J. Jackson gives us the following account of Oryx callotis in British East Africa:—

“The East African Oryx is known to the Swahilis as ‘Cheroa.’ The Cheroa is found in the Kilimanjaro district in greater numbers (particularly near Useri) than elsewhere. It is also plentiful in the Galla country, between the Sabaki and Tana rivers, and I have myself seen it within a mile of the sea at Merereni.

“It is found more often in open bush country than in the bare arid plains. It is not only a beautiful beast, but is very shy, difficult to approach, and exceedingly tough, and for these reasons many sportsmen covet its head more than the trophies of any other kind of Antelope. The skin of its neck is extraordinarily thick, and à propos of this, all head-skins preserved as trophies should have the skin of the neck shaved down to at least half its thickness to ensure its being properly cured.

“The Oryx is found in herds varying in number from six or eight up to thirty or forty. A bull Oryx is often found entirely by himself, and occasionally along with a herd of Gazella granti or other Antelopes. It is perhaps as well to warn sportsmen to approach Oryx, when lying wounded, with caution, as on one occasion my gun-bearer, on going up to cut the throat of an Oryx, received a severe blow on the thigh from the side of one of the wounded beast’s horns. The blow might have been very serious had the Oryx caught him with the point of his horns instead of with the flat.”

Mr. R. B. P. Cator, of the British East African Administrative Service, sends us the following account of his adventures with this Antelope:—

“On the morning of the 20th February, 1898, I fell in with a herd of Oryx on my way down from Machakos to Kibwezi. The herd consisted of some 15 to 20 animals or possibly more. When I first saw them they were feeding near some thickets on the edge of a broad open piece of ground that lay between them and myself, and I was unable to gain cover before I was detected. On seeing me the herd divided and made off in different directions, but, so far as I could judge, the two parts effected a junction before I saw them again. The country hereabout consists of open glades and meadows of all sizes alternating with impenetrable thickets, so being very anxious to secure a specimen of an Oryx, a very uncommon Antelope in this part of the country, I made a long detour, and, by good fortune, again hit off what was, I have not the least doubt, the same herd or a portion of it.

“Without detailing the various attempts that I made to get a good shot it is enough to say that I was fortunate enough to secure two specimens, the one a very fine bull and the other a cow.

“The horns of the bull measure respectively 33½″ and 32″ on the outer curve; circumference of largest horn 7″ and distance from tip to tip 13″: all these measurements exceeding those of the best East African Oryx given in Ward’s book. The horns of the cow are fairly good but much worn and cracked.”

Our figure of this Antelope (Plate LXXXV.) has been prepared by Mr. Smit from the skin and skull of the male specimen obtained on this occasion by Mr. Cator, who kindly placed them at our disposal for this purpose.

The Tufted Beisa extends south of the British Protectorate far into the interior of German East Africa.

Herr Matschie, in his valuable volume on the Mammals of the German Protectorate, includes this Antelope in his list, and gives a figure of it in the text. He tells us that it was met with in Southern Masailand, south-east of Irangi, by Stuhlmann, and in Northern Ugogo, between Mpapwa and Usandawe, by Neumann. This, so far as we know, gives its furthest extension south. We are not aware that the Tufted Beisa has ever been imported alive to Europe.

The typical head of Oryx callotis already mentioned is the only example of this form of Oryx in the collection of the British Museum.

May, 1899.