Genus V. TAUROTRAGUS.

Type.
Oreas, Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 471 (1822) (nec Hübner, 1806)T. oryx.
Taurotragus, Wagn. Schr. Säug., Suppl. v. p. 439 (1855)T. oryx.
Doratoceros, Lyd. Field, lxxviii. p. 130 (1891)T. oryx.

Very large, heavily-built, bovine Antelopes, differing from the rest of the Tragelaphinæ in the presence of horns in both sexes. Horns longer than the face, arising well behind the orbits and directed backwards in the plane of the nasal bones, massive (in the male) and furnished with a strong but close spiral twist in the basal half; the anterior crest large, making a complete circuit of the horn and reappearing on its anterior surface near the middle when the horn is unworn, and always at some distance from the tip.

Hair on the forehead longer than on the rest of the head, and forming, in old males, a thick and stiff mat; hair on the nape forming a short mane reversed in the direction of the growth, the parting close to the withers. Throat furnished with a flap of loose skin, or dewlap, which bears a beardlike tuft of hairs.

Tail reaching to the hocks, covered with short hair, but tufted at the tip.

Female. Like the male, but slighter in build; without the thick frontal mat of hair; horns longer, thinner, less strongly crested, and usually much less twisted. Mammæ 4.

Range of the Genus. Africa south of the Sahara, from Senegambia and the White Nile in the north to Cape Colony in the south.

The two species of this genus may be shortly diagnosed as follows:—

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XCVIII.

Smit del. et lith.

Hanhart imp.

The Eland.

TAUROTRAGUS ORYX.

Published by R. H. Porter.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XCIX.

Smit del. et lith.

Hanhart imp.

Livingstones’ Eland.

TAUROTRAGUS ORYX LIVINGSTONII.

Published by R. H. Porter.

132. THE ELAND.
TAUROTRAGUS ORYX (Pall.).
[PLATES XCVIII. & XCIX.]

Subspecies a. Taurotragus oryx tyficus.

Le Coudous, Buffon, Hist. Nat. xii. p. 357, pl. xlvi. b (horns).

Le Canna, Allamand, in Buff. H. N. (Schneider’s ed.), Suppl. v. p. 16, pl. vii. (1781); Buff. H. N. Suppl. vi. p. 116, pl. xii. (1782).

Kaapsche Eland, Vosmaer, Regn. An. tab. xvii. (1783).

Antilope oryx, Pallas, Misc. Zool. p. 9 (1766); id. Spic. Zool. i. p. 15 (1767); Müller, Natursyst. Suppl. p. 55 (1776); Erxl. Syst. R. A. p. 275 (1777); Zimm. Spec. Zool. Geogr. p. 539 (1777); Gatt. Brev. Zool. i. p. 79 (1780); Sparrm. Reise, p. 504, pl. xii. (1784); id. Engl. Transl. i. p. 131, & ii. pp. 96 & 204, pl. i. (1786); Lath. & Davies, Faunul. Ind. p. 4 (1795); G. Cuv. Tabl. Elém. p. 163 (1798); Licht. in Förster’s Descr. Anim. p. 33. n. 379 (1844).

Taurotragus oryx, Lyd., Selous, & Penrice, in Ward’s Great and Small Game of Afr. pp. 421–439, pl. xii. figs. 1–3 (1899).

Antilope oreas, Pallas, Spic. Zool. xii. p. 17 (1777); Zimm. Geogr. Ges. ii. p. 109 (1780), iii. p. 269 (1783); Schreb. Säug. pl. cclvi. (1784); Bodd. Elench. Anim. p. 139 (1785); Gm. Linn. S. N. i. p. 190 (1788); Kerr, Linn. An. K. p. 317 (1792); Donnd. Zool. Beitr. i. p. 639 (1792); Lath. & Davies, Faunul. Ind. p. 4 (1795); Link, Beytr. Nat. ii. p. 100 (1795); Bechst. Syst. Uebers. vierf. Th. ii. p. 642 (1800); Shaw, Gen. Zool. pt. 2, p. 319, pl. clxxxv. (1801); Turt. Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 115 (1802); Desm. N. Dict. d’H. Nat. vi. p. 376 (1803), xxiv. p. 32 (1804); G. Cuv. Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 244 (1804); Thunb. Mém. Ac. St. Pétersb. iii. p. 314, fig. p. 106 (1811); Licht. Reise, i. p. 155 (1811), ii. pp. 39 & 646 (1812); G. Fisch. Zoogn. iii. p. 422 (1814); Afz. N. Acta Upsal. vii. p. 220 (1815); G. Cuv. R. A. i. p. 263 (1817); Burchell, List of Quadr. p. 7 (1817); id. Travels, i. p. 245 (1822); Goldf. Schreb. Säug. v. p. 1153 (1818); Gray, Med. Rep. xv. p. 307 (1821); Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 396 (1821); Desmoul. Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. 447 (1822); J. B. Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 477 (1829); Masson, Cuvier’s R. A. i. p. 317 (1836); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 449 (1845); Gieb. Säug. p. 200 (1853); Drumm. Large Game, pp. 137 & 425 (1875); Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p 471 (1887).

Capra oreas, Thunb. Resa, ii. p. 66 (1789); id. Engl. Transl, ii. p. 58 (1793).

Antilope (Bubalis) oreas, Licht. Mag. nat. Freunde, vi. p. 153 (1814).

Antilope (Buselaphus) oreas, Reichenb. Säug. iii. p. 142 (1845).

Antilope (Boselaphus) oreas, Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 201 (1816); A. Sm. S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii. p. 222 (1834); Less. Compl. Buff. x. p. 302 (1836); Wagn. Sehr. Säug., Suppl. iv. p. 465 (1844).

Antilope (Addax) oreas, Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. p. 620 (1861).

Antilope (Oreas) oreas, Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 471 (1822); Schinz, Nat. Abbild. Säug. p. 301, pl. cxxvii. (1827); id. Mon. Antil. p. 45, pl. 1. (1848); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 181 (1842).

Antilope (Taurotragus) oreas, Wagn. Schr. Säug., Suppl. v. p. 439 (1855).

Cerophorus (Boselaphus) oreas, Blainv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.

Damalis (Boselaphus) oreas, H. Sm. Griff. An. K. v. p. 364 (1827).

Damalis oreas, H. Sm. Griff. An. K. v. p. 355, pl. (1827); Sund. K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. lxv. p. 199 (1846); id. Hornsch. Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 150; Reprint, p. 74 (1848).

Boselaphus oreas, Smuts, En. Mamm. Cap. p. 90 (1832); Harris, Wild Anim. S. Afr. p 24, pl. vi. (1840); Gerv. Dict. Sci. Nat., Suppl. i. p. 267 (1840); Jard. Nat. Libr. xxii., Mamm. p. 177, pl. xix. (1845); Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 155 (1843); id. Cat. Ost. B. M. p. 59 (1847); id. Knowsl. Menag. pls. i. & ii. (1850); A. Sm. Ill. Zool. S. Afr. pls. xl. & xli. (1859); Fitz. SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 179 (1869); Brehm, Thierl. iii. p. 245, fig. (1880) (Busephalus).

Cemas alces, Oken, Lehrb. Nat. iii. p. 735 (1816)

Damalis canna, H. Sm. Griff. An. K. iv. p. 357 (1827).

Damalis (Boselaphus) canna, H. Sm. Griff. An. K. v. p. 365 (1827).

Antilope (Oreas) canna, Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 471 (1822); Less. Man. Mamm. p. 384 (1827).

Boselaphus canna, Smuts, En. Mamm. Cap. p. 91 (1832); Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 155 (1843).

Antilope (Boselaphus) canna, A. Sm. S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii. p. 223 (1834).

Antilope (Buselaphus) canna, Reichenb. Säug. iii. p. 145 (1845).

Oreas canna, Gray, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 143; id. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (2) viii. p. 225 (1851); id. Knowsl. Menag. p. 27 (1850); id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 134, pl. xvii. figs. 3, 4 (1852); Gerr. Cat. Bones B. M. p. 244 (1862); Wood, Ill. Nat. Hist. i. p. 665, fig. (1862); Kirk, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 659; Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 47 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. p. 118 (1873); Flower, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 186 (skull char.); Buckley, P. Z. S. 1876, pp. 284–292; Garrod, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 4 et seq. (anatomy); Max Schmidt, P. Z. S. 1880, p. 307 (duration of life); Selous, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 749; id. Hunter’s Wand. p. 204 (1881); Scl. List An. Z. S. 1883, p. 138, 1896, p. 160; Flow. & Gars. Cat. Ost. Coll. Surg. p. 258 (1884); Bryden, Kloof and Karroo, p. 291 (1889); Scl. fil. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. p. 152 (1891); Flow. & Lyd. Mammals, p. 348 (1891); Nicolls & Eglington, Sportsm. in S. Afr. p. 54 (1892); Ward, Horn Meas. p. 165 (1892), p. 211 (1896); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 258 (1893); id. Royal Nat. Hist. ii. p. 269, fig. (1894); Scl. P. Z. S. 1896, p. 506; Pousargues, Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. p. 81 (1897); Trouess. Cat. Mamm. ii. pt. 4, p. 962 (1898).

Oreas oreas, Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 140 (1887); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 172 (1892).

Antilope triangularis, Günther, P. Z. S. 1889, p. 73 (Zambesi); Scl. P. Z. S. 1896, p. 506.

Doratoceros triangularis, Lyd. Field, lxxviii. p. 130 (1891); id. Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) viii. p. 192 (1891); id. Horns and Hoofs, p. 260 (1893).

Subspecies b. Taurotragus oryx livingstonii.

New or Striped Variety of the Eland, Livingstone, Missionary Travels, p. 210 (cum fig.) (1857).

Striped Eland, Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, p. 384 (1863).

Oreas livingstonii, Scl. P. Z. S. 1864, p. 105; Kirk, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 659; Selous, P. Z. S. 1883, p. 32; Pousargues, Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. p. 81 (1897).

Oreas livingstoni, Rendall, Novitat. Zool. v. p. 213 (1898).

Oreas canna livingstoni, Jacks. Big Game Shooting (Badm. Libr.), pp. 285–286 (1894); Scl. P. Z. S. 1895, p. 690 (skull); id. List of An. (9) p. 160 (1896); Jacks. P. Z. S. 1897, p. 456; Thomas, P. Z. S. 1898, p. 394; Trouess. Cat. Mamm. ii. pt. 4, p. 962 (1898).

Oreas oreas and O. livingstoni, Matsch. Säug. Deutsch-Ost-Afr. p. 141, fig. 73 (1895); id. in Werther’s Die mittl. Hochländ. Deutsch-Ost-Afr. p. 259, figs. 31 & 32, & p. 260 (1898).

Antilope (Taurotragus) livingstonii, Heugl. Reise Weiss. Nil, p. 319 (1869).

Taurotragus oreas livingstonii, Scl. P. Z. S. 1893, p. 507.

Taurotragus oryx livingstoni, Lyd., Sharpe, & Jackson, in Ward’s Great and Small Game of Afr. pp. 421–439 (1899).

Antilope (Damalis) oreas, Peters, Reise n. Mossamb., Säug. p. 192 (1852).

Oreas canna, Hunter, in Willoughby’s E. Afr. p. 287 (1889); Thomas, P. Z. S. 1893, p. 504, 1894, p. 145, 1896, p. 797 (Brit. Centr. Afr.); Lugard, Rise E. Afr. Emp. p. 529 (1893); Bocage, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 745; id. J. Sci. Lisboa, ii. p. 25 (1890) (Angola); Crawshay, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 658 (Nyasaland).

Oreas derbii, Johnst. River Congo, p. 391 (1884) (?).

Subspecies c. Taurotragus oryx gigas.

Alces oreas, Schweinf. Im Herz. Afr. i. p. 387 (1874).

Antilope oreas, id. ibid. ii. pp. 264–266 (horns).

Taurotragus (Bosephalus) oreas, Heugl. N. Act. Leop. xxx. p. 19 (1863); id. Reise Weiss. Nil, p. 319 (1869).

Taurotragus (Boselaphus) gigas, Heugl. N. Act. Leop. xxx. p. 19, pl. i. fig. 2 (1863); id. Reise Weiss. Nil, p. 318 (1869); Fitz. SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 179 (1869).

Vernacular Names:—Eland of the Dutch at the Cape; Canna or Tiganna of the Hottentots; Pohu of the Bachapins (Burchell). Pofo of the Bechuanas; Impofo of the Amandabele, Zulu, and Kafirs; Ee-pofo of the Makalakas; Insefo of the Masubias and Batongas; Doo of the Masurwa Bushmen; Mofo of the Mashunas (Selous). Sofu and Nchefoo in Nyasaland (Sharpe). Mpofu (Swaheli); Musu in Siruwa, B.E.A. (Jackson). Qualqual (Djeng), Adgar (Djur), Newarreh (Dor) on the White Nile (Heuglin).

Adult male, at the withers, about five feet ten inches or, according to some writers, sometimes considerably over six feet in height. Body, head, legs, and neck of a tolerably uniform tawny colour, but often assuming a slaty-grey hue in old age, owing to the rubbing off of the hair and the consequent exposure of the skin beneath. Frontal mat of hairs varying from yellowish brown to black, apparently becoming darker with age; nose generally ashy black; lips and chin white. Ears narrow and pointed, of a uniform greyish-fawn tint, with at most a small black patch on the lower rim in front. A narrow black spinal stripe, extending from the withers to the base of the tail. Tail-tuft and tuft of hair on the dewlap black. Legs like the body, but, on the inner side, sometimes with a greyish patch above the knee on the pasterns; back of the pasterns and narrow rim above the hoofs and false hoofs black.

Horns about 30 inches or more in length.

Female like the male in colouring, but smaller and more slightly built; the horns thinner, less strongly crested, and less twisted, but usually longer and (exceptionally) reaching a length of 34 inches.

The subspecies T. o. livingstonii is generally similar to the typical form, but has the coat of a ruddier fawn-colour, and is ornamented on each side of the body and hind-quarters with from about eight to eleven narrow vertical white stripes: these are strong upon the flanks and faint upon the haunches; they commence from the black spinal stripe and gradually fade away upon the belly and lower part of the thighs. In the typical form, moreover, there is a large black patch on the inner and posterior side of the fore leg above the knee. Horns reaching about 32 inches.

Female differing from the male in the same respects as in T. o. typicus.

The subspecies T. o. gigas is based on a pair of horns obtained by Heuglin on the White Nile, and distinguished by their large size, great length (35 inches), and strong corrugations. From Schweinfurth’s observations we learn that this form carries well-marked body-stripes throughout life, sometimes 15 in number. In these two respects it would seem to approach Taurotragus derbianus, but Schweinfurth says nothing about the black neck of the last species.

Hab. South Africa, from the Cape Colony (where it is now extinct) to Angola on the west and to the Transvaal and Mozambique on the east, and thence up to the Zambesi; at its northern limits passing into the striped form (T. o. livingstonii), which extends throughout Eastern Africa up to and rather beyond Mount Kenia; also found on the White Nile and in the adjacent districts (T. o. gigas).

At the close of the long series of Antelopes we arrive at the largest and finest form of the whole group, and one, moreover, that might well become of great economical importance to mankind, if proper measures were taken for its acclimatization.

The “Eland,” as it is now universally called, was well known to the early settlers of the Cape, where it received its name from some fancied resemblance to the Elk (Alces machlis), which is the “Eland” of the Hollanders and the “Elenn” or “Elendthier” of the Germans. It must have been size, we suppose, more than any other point of similarity, that induced the Dutchmen to apply such an unsuitable name to this animal.

The old traveller Peter Kolben, about 1719, gave the first recognizable, though rather misleading, account of the Eland, which at that epoch was still found in the mountains near Capetown. In 1764 Buffon, in the twelfth volume of his ‘Histoire Naturelle,’ called it “Le Coudous,” or, at any rate, gave unmistakable figures of its horns under that name, which, we suppose, he had by some error transposed to it from the Kudu (Strepsiceros capensis). It was mainly upon Kolben’s Alces capensis and Buffon’s “Coudous” that Pallas, in his first essay on the genus Antilope (1776), based his Antilope oryx, alleging that it “seemed to be” the Antilope oryx of ancient authors! At the same time he states that he had examined a complete skeleton of this animal in the Museum of Prince William of Holland. Very unfortunately, in his second and amended list of the Antelopes, Pallas proposed to make a change in his former names by transferring the term “oryx” to another animal (the Antilope bezoartica of his first memoir) and assigning the new name “oreas” to the Eland. This change, however, we may say, has been generally acquiesced in, and the name oreas has been almost universally applied to the Eland, either specifically or generically, until modern days, when the zealous searchers after priority have resuscitated Pallas’s long-forgotten term “oryx.” This, indeed, seems certainly to be the earliest specific name applicable to the present animal and should, in strict justice, be adopted.

As regards its generic name the Eland has been equally unfortunate. Desmarest, in 1822, first proposed to use “Oreas” as a subgeneric term for this form; and Gray, in 1850, employed it as a genus, combining it with the specific term “canna,” so that the name of the Eland became Oreas canna. As will be seen by our list of synonyms, this name was generally adopted, and has been in constant use for the present species for the last twenty years. We have, however, shown that “oreas,” as a specific term, must give place to “oryx”; and in like manner “Oreas” cannot stand as a generic term for the present animal, because it has been previously employed in zoology as a genus of Lepidoptera (1806) and as a genus of Mollusca (1808), both of which antedate Desmarest’s use of it in 1822. Under these circumstances it is necessary to adopt the next given name, Taurotragus of Wagner, and the correct scientific name of the Eland, according to modern usage, will be Taurotragus oryx.

Having now stated at full length our reasons for the unwelcome but necessary change of name of this Antelope, we will resume our comments on its literary history.

In the Supplement to his ‘Histoire Naturelle,’ published in 1782, Buffon was able to give an improved account of the Eland. This was mostly copied from Allamand’s article inserted in Schneider’s edition of the ‘Histoire Naturelle,’ issued at Amsterdam in the previous year, and was accompanied by a perfectly recognizable figure of the whole animal under the name of “Le Canna,” adopted from its supposed Hottentot appellation. Shortly afterwards (1783) Vosmaer, in a number of his ‘Regnum Animale,’ published a full description and coloured figure of the Eland from a specimen then living in the Menagerie of the Prince of Orange in Holland, probably the same as that from which Allamand had taken his information. Sparrman, who visited the Cape about this period, also gave a good account of the structure and habits of this Antelope, as observed by him in the Alexandria and Somerset-East Divisions of the Colony. Paterson, in 1790, recorded having met with Elands in Caledon, as also in the Van-Ryndorp and Uitenhage Divisions a few years previously. Thunberg, another well-known traveller and naturalist (1795), found the Eland in Uniondale, and Lichtenstein in Calvinia, Aberdeen, and Middelburg (1803–4). Our countryman Burchell, as recorded in his ‘Travels,’ came across Elands in 1822, in Prieska, Herbert, and Britstown, and found them numerous in Hanover.

We may now pass on to the days of Harris, whose celebrated hunting-expedition into the interior took place in 1836 and 1837. Even at that date the Eland was pronounced to be extinct in the Cape Colony, but was met with in abundance on the banks of the Vaal River, where Harris feasted himself and his followers on its succulent meat.

By all classes in Africa, Harris writes, the flesh of the Eland is deservedly esteemed over that of any other animal:

“Both in grain and color it resembles beef, but is far better tasted and more delicate, possessing a pure game flavor, and exhibiting the most tempting looking layers of fat and lean—the surprising quantity of the former ingredient with which it is interlarded exceeding that of any other game-quadruped with which I am acquainted. The venison fairly melts in the mouth; and as for the brisket, that is absolutely a cut for a monarch.”

It is right, however, to mention that other experienced authorities do not altogether agree with Harris’s pronouncement on this subject. Mr. Selous, for example, states his opinion that the flesh of the Eland has been “very much over-estimated,” and is “not to be compared in flavour with that of the Buffalo, Giraffe, Hippopotamus, and White Rhinoceros.” (De gustibus non est disputandum!)

Harris describes the favourite haunts of the Eland on the Vaal River in his days as follows:—

“The Eland frequents the open prairies and low rocky hills interspersed with clumps of wood, but is never to be met with in a continuously wooded country. Rejoicing especially in low belts of shaded hillocks, and in the isolated groves of Acacia capensis which, like islands in the ocean, are scattered over many of the stony and gravelly plains of the interior, large herds of them are also to be seen grazing like droves of oxen on the more verdant meadows, through which some silver rivulet winds in rainbow brightness betwixt fringes of sighing bulrushes. Fat and lethargic groups may be seen scattered up and down the gentle acclivities, some grazing on the hill side, and others lazily basking in the morning sunbeam. Advancing they appear to move like a regiment of cavalry in single files, the goodliest bulls leading the van; whereas during a retreat these it is that uniformly bring up the rear. As the day dawned over the boundless meads of the Vaal River spread with a rich carpet of luxuriant herbage, and enamelled with pastures of brilliant flowers, vast droves of these lordly animals were constantly to be seen moving in solemn procession across the profile of the silent and treeless landscape, portions of which were often covered with long coarse grass, which when dry and waving its white hay-like stalks to the breeze, imparted to the plain the delusive and alluring appearance of ripe cornfields.”

Since Harris issued his work in 1840 all the writers on the game-animals of Southern Africa have devoted more or less space to the Eland. Delagorgue, who published his travels in 1847, found this Antelope in plenty in Zululand. Methuen, in his ‘Life in the Wilderness’ (1848), describes its habits in the Kalahari Desert, and Livingstone (1857) alludes to the Eland as being able to exist without water, and states that one may see hundreds of them in places thirty or forty miles distant from that element. The Hon. W. H. Drummond, in his ‘Rough Notes on the Large Game of South Africa,’ has devoted a whole chapter to the pursuit of the Eland, which he met with on the Black and White Umvalosi Rivers, and in other districts, but not within the Colony itself, in which, according to Bryden, it became extinct between 1840 and 1850, having probably lingered longer in the waterless deserts of Bushman’s Land than in any other locality.

Finally, Mr. H. A. Bryden, writing in 1897, in his ‘Nature and Sport in South Africa,’ on the rapidly disappearing forms of South-African game, laments the noblest of all the Antelopes of the world as taking the lead in this sad progress. At the present time, he says, one must go far north into the parched and pathless recesses of the Upper Kalahari before the “vanishing Eland” can be reached, and “even in these unexplored wilds these rare creatures can nowadays be scarcely considered safe.” Mr. Bryden proceeds to describe the progress of its extermination now going on as follows:—

“Directly the rain falls, hunters from among the Bakwèna, Bangwaketse, and Bamangwato tribes, well-mounted, and armed with breech-loading rifles, penetrate to the innermost recesses of the Kalahari, and, wandering from one pool of rain-water to another, deal destruction among the game, and especially among the Giraffes and Elands. That Elands are still plentiful in these regions of the Kalahari I can personally testify, having found them in numbers, and procured specimens in two or three days’ hunting from the desert road between Khama’s and the Botletli river (between Inkonanē and Kannē) within recent years. Coming down country, too, I saw at Sechele’s town—Molepolole—numbers of horns and heads of freshly slain Elands, some of them magnificent examples, which had been recently shot by Bakwèna hunters. But that, even in the North Kalahari, these and other game can long resist the incessant war of extermination waged against them, I am much more than doubtful.”

Thus we see that the typical brown unstriped Eland, which formerly pervaded the whole of the Cape Colony and the adjacent districts, and in 1652 (according to Van Riebeck) was found even on Table Mountain, is now, as nearly as possible, extinct; although its closely-allied white-striped brother, called Livingstone’s Eland, after the distinguished explorer and missionary, is still to be met with in the countries further north. As regards the points of difference between Livingstone’s Eland and the typical form, which we will now proceed to explain, we cannot do better than quote from Mr. Selous’s excellent article on the subject lately published in Mr. Rowland Ward’s ‘Great and Small Game of South Africa’:—

“The Eland of South-western Africa, as described by the earlier European travellers who visited the Cape Colony in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and more recently figured by Sir Cornwallis Harris from specimens obtained in 1837 in what is now British Bechuanaland and the Western Transvaal, was of a uniform pale fawn-colour from birth, though the coats of the older animals gradually became so thin that the dark colour of the underlying skin showed more and more through the scanty hair, giving them a general greyish appearance, the old bulls often looking a bluish-black in deep shade, and being described by the colonists as ‘blue bulls.’ On the other hand, all the Elands found throughout Rhodesia and Eastern South Africa, and wherever I have travelled to the north of the Zambesi, are striped. The calves are a rich reddish-fawn in ground-colour, with a dark mark down the back, black patches on the insides of the fore-legs, and eight or nine conspicuous white stripes on each side,”

As these striped Elands grow up, Mr. Selous continues, they differ considerably one from another. Both bull and cow become of a bluish grey as their coats become thinner with age, and at a little distance the white stripes are often indistinguishable, although as long as there is any hair left they can always be seen on close inspection. Also the dark patches on the inner sides of the front legs become more faint with age, and in very old animals disappear altogether.

Mr. Selous also points out that intermediate forms are found between the two subspecies of Elands, and that, in fact, there is a complete passage through a long series of variations from one form to the other.

That this is the case is shown clearly by Mr. Selous’s own observations. He writes (in the same work) as follows:—

“In April 1879 I shot some Elands in the Northern Kalahari, between Bamangwato and the Botletli River. None of these Elands showed any signs of stripes, but two of them had light grey patches on the insides of the fore-legs. About 150 miles farther north, however, nearly all the Elands that I shot were more or less striped, though in most cases the stripes were so faint that they only became apparent on a close inspection. Travelling northwards towards the Chobi River, I found that although Elands were still to be met with, on which no stripes could be detected, most of them were more or less plainly striped, the patches on the insides of the fore-legs becoming gradually darker at the same time. North of the Chobi, and between that river and the Zambesi, the Elands, taken as a whole, become well striped, and the dark markings on the insides of the fore-legs more and more conspicuous, many individuals being as richly marked as the real Taurotragus oryx livingstonii, which was first observed by Dr. Livingstone at Sesheke, immediately north of the Central Zambesi. Thus, speaking from my own experience, I should say that all the Elands found in South Africa at the present day south of the 23rd parallel of latitude are grey Elands (Taurotragus oryx typicus), but that north of that parallel of latitude a tendency to show white stripes on each side of the body, and dark patches on the insides of the fore-legs, together with a dark median line down the centre of the back, from the withers to the tail, commences. I would say further that this tendency is at first confined to certain individuals, but becomes more general, and the white stripes and dark markings gradually more intensified in individuals, as one travels north and north-east, until north of the Zambesi and in Mashunaland, and all over South-eastern Africa, all the Elands are striped without exception, and all of them show black patches on the insides of the fore-legs and a dark mark down the centre of the back, and often a white arrow-shaped mark across the nose, as in the Koodoo and Bushbuck.”

Mr. Bryden and other well-known authorities on the game-animals of South Africa entirely confirm Mr. Selous’s observations.

Under these circumstances it seems quite impossible to treat Livingstone’s Eland as a distinct species, but, as will be seen by our list of synonyms, we have placed it under a different heading, and have assigned most of the references to Elands north of the Zambesi to Taurotragus oryx livingstonii.

We will now, starting from the Zambesi, endeavour to trace the Eland into the most northern part of its range.

Fig. 116.

Skull and horns of Livingstone’s Eland, ♂.

(P.Z.S. 1895, p. 690.)

Peters, in his ‘Reise nach Mossambique,’ gives several localities for the Eland in the Portuguese Provinces on the Zambesi. Mr. R. Crawshay, who has devoted great attention to the Antelopes of Nyasaland, tells us that the Eland is widely distributed there, both on the hills and on the wooded plains at the foot of them, and gives many localities in which they are to be met with. As regards its markings, he informs us that it is subject to great variety in British East Africa, “both in colour and as regards the plainness or otherwise of the white stripes.” In a single troop, individuals may be seen varying from a light tawny yellow to the slaty blue of old age, while in some the stripes are clearly defined, in others faintly, and in others again they are not distinguishable at all.

In 1895 Sir Harry Johnston, K.C.B., F.Z.S., presented to the Zoological Society of London a remarkably fine pair of horns of Livingstone’s Eland, which are now suspended in their meeting-room at Hanover Square. The animal which carried them was shot in 1893 in Nyasaland between Zomba and Lake Chilwa. By the kind favour of that Society we are able to insert in these pages a copy of the figure of these horns (fig. 116, p. 205), which was published in the ‘Proceedings’ for 1895.

When we go further north into German East Africa, the Eland appears to be not quite so abundant, although Herr Matschie mentions it as found in Usagara, and it was seen by Neumann between the Pangani River and Irangi during his recent journey, besides having been met with in Ugogo by Speke and Grant in former years.

In British East Africa it would appear to be more prevalent again, although somewhat local. Mr. Jackson, in his volume on ‘Big Game,’ writes as follows concerning its range and habits in that country:—

“The striped variety of the Eland is the only one found in British East Africa. It is known to the Swahilis as ‘Mpofu,’ and is decidedly a local beast. It is seen more often in open bush and country thinly wooded with mimosa-trees than quite out in the open. In 1887 it was plentiful round Taveta, where I have seen as many as from sixty to seventy in one herd. In the open bush country west of Mount Kisigao Elands are fairly numerous. Other places in which they are found are the park-like country below Ndi in Teita; the open country east of Ndara and north of Mount Maungu; and the Siringeti plains. I have also seen them between Lakes Nakuro and Baringo, and again in Turkwel, in the Suk country. As a rule they go about in herds of from four or five up to fifteen or twenty. Sometimes two or three bulls will be found together, but very often an old bull is met with quite by himself.”

Mr. S. L. Hinde has kindly favoured us with the following field-notes of his recent experience of the Eland in British East Africa:—

“Having just returned from British East Africa, where I have spent the greater part of the last five years, the following field-notes may be of some interest to you. The Eland of East Africa, which, so far as I have observed, has well-marked white stripes on its back and haunches, is both rare and wary. It is reported to have suffered severely from the rinderpest in the early nineties. In the bush-country within 200 miles of the coast, and more particularly in the neighbourhood of what is known as the Taro Desert, Elands have always been met with, and are even now comparatively numerous. But the heads from the herds in this neighbourhood, if one may judge by the few specimens which have been obtained, have usually small and misshaped horns. Outside the bush-country, on the Mkindu and the Athi Plains, herds of the Eland are occasionally met with, but there is no doubt that they migrate from one district to another. It is commonly reported that Elands were never seen on the Athi Plains until a few years ago, but at present, during the months of June, July, and August, Elands are generally to be found in the vicinity of the Athi river. In these months of the years 1898 and 1899 there were, to my knowledge, two or three herds of Elands on the Athi Plains. The largest herd that I observed contained over 60 head, but I have never seen a really good pair of horns from this neighbourhood.”

Count Teleki, as we are informed by Herr v. Höhnel in his narrative of the first expedition to Lake Rudolf, met with the Eland on the Likipia plateau, north of Mount Kenya, where, according to a letter addressed by v. Höhnel to Sclater, they encountered a herd of about 170. But we are not aware of any evidence of its being found further north in British East Africa or in any part of Somaliland. Here, therefore, we appear to have reached its furthest limits in this direction, but further west, in the Valley of the Nile, there is good evidence of the existence of this form of Antelope in much higher latitudes.

The famous explorer Baron von Heuglin was the first traveller who recorded the existence of an Eland in the districts of the Upper Nile, although v. Pruyssenaer (as Heuglin states) had previously recognized its occurrence on the Bahr el-Abiad and Bahr-el-Sobat. But Heuglin, having obtained a pair of Eland’s horns from the Upper White Nile, about 7° N. lat., referred them, on account of their large size, to a new species, “Boselaphus gigas.” He gives a figure of these horns and states that they measure 35 inches in length, and show a distance of 32 inches between the two points. We have thought it advisable to reproduce Heuglin’s figure of this remarkable pair of horns (see fig. 117, p. 208). In a subsequent work (‘Reise in das Geb. d. Weiss. Nil’) Heuglin adds that his Taurotragus gigas is found in pairs and singly in the forests of the Djur River and amongst the Arol negros.

Fig. 117

Horns of Taurotragus oryx gigas.

(Heuglin, Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. pl. i. fig. 2.)

The well-known traveller Schweinfurth, in his ’Im Herzen von Afrika,’ also alludes more than once to the existence of the Eland on the upper confluents of the White Nile. In the first place, he met with it in Bongoland, where he says that it resorts to the drier slopes of the hills during the rains, and descends to the valleys in the winter months. In the second volume of his narrative, Schweinfurth mentions it again, and gives two figures of the horns of what he calls the Central-African Eland, of two very different forms. Schweinfurth states that the skin is plainly striped, and that this is certainly no mark of youth, because he has seen very old examples which had about fifteen narrow parallel stripes, about a finger in breadth, on both sides. It is quite evident, therefore, that the Eland of this part of Africa belongs to the striped form. It may be identical with T. o. livingstonii, but, as Heuglin has given it a name, we will allow him the benefit of the doubt for the present, and will call this northern striped form Taurotragus oryx gigas until further investigations have been made.

Fig. 118.

Abnormal horns of female Eland.

a, front view; b, side view; c, transverse section at spot marked x.

(P.Z.S. 1889, p. 74.)

Before closing our systematic account of the Eland we must say a few words respecting some curious horns which were at first ascribed to a new and unknown Antelope, but are now generally admitted to be nothing more than abnormal horns of the cow Eland. These horns were first brought before the scientific world by Dr. Günther, who exhibited a pair of them at a meeting of the Zoological Society in 1889, and stated that they had been obtained on the frontiers of Natal. Dr. Günther’s opinion was that they belonged to an unknown Antelope of the Tragelaphine group, but under the uncertainty as to what form they were most nearly allied, he proposed to designate the presumed species Antilope triangularis. Through the courtesy of the Zoological Society of London, and with Dr. Günther’s kind permission, we are able to reproduce here the illustration of these horns (fig. 118, p. 209) which accompanied Dr. Günther’s paper in the Society’s ‘Proceedings.’

Writing of these horns in 1891, Mr. Lydekker was so convinced of their essential difference from those of any other known Antelope that he proposed to raise the animal that bore them to generic rank under the name “Doratoceros.”

Some years subsequently, in 1896, Sclater obtained, on loan, a fine pair of horns of nearly similar character from Mr. Justice Hopley, of Kimberley, and, after comparing them with the typical pair of Antilope triangularis in the British Museum, came to the conclusion that they must have belonged to the same species of Antelope. Mr. Justice Hopley’s pair were not quite so long, rather more incurved backwards, and less broadly spread; they were also smoother at the base, showing but slight traces of corrugations. When exhibiting these horns to the Zoological Society, Mr. Sclater stated that he could see nothing whatever to negative the opinion, already prevailing amongst other naturalists, that these horns were abnormal horns of the cow Eland, which had grown into a lengthened form without making the ordinary twist usually observable in that species and in other Tragelaphs. It is right to add that Mr. Lydekker himself is now also of the same opinion, and has stated (‘Horns and Hoofs,’ p. 260) that these horns “are almost certainly abnormal specimens of those of a cow Eland.”

As we have already stated, living examples of the Eland were received in Holland from the Cape as long ago as about 1783, when they were described by Vosmaer and others as being in the menagerie of the Prince of Orange. In England the first examples of this species of which we can find any record were those which constituted the herd in the celebrated menagerie of Edward, 13th Earl of Derby, President of the Zoological Society of London. There is, unfortunately, little information available as to the origin and history of this celebrated herd, but from some notes published by Lord Derby in the first volume of the ‘Gleanings,’ we learn that the first specimens received were obtained for him by Mr. Burke from the Cape in November 1842, and consisted of two males and a female. The female first bred in August 1843, and produced young in 1844, 1845, and 1846, at which date Lord Derby remarked that he had in his possession four males and two females of this Antelope. At the dispersal of the Derby Menagerie by auction in October 1851 the Knowsley herd consisted of two males and three females. These passed into the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London, having been selected out of the whole stock by the Council of the Society in virtue of a bequest by Lord Derby to that Society of any group of animals in his collection that they might prefer.

The original stock of the Zoological Society’s herd of Elands consisted, therefore, of these five animals received by the Society in December 1851. Of these an old female had been born at Knowsley in 1846, and the other individuals, two males and two females, had been imported by Lord Derby in 1850. These animals throve well in their new quarters and began to increase rapidly. As will be seen by the list given in Wolf and Sclater’s ‘Zoological Sketches’ (vol. i.), two calves were born in 1853, three in 1854, four in 1855, and four in 1856. The first additions made to the original stock were a female presented by the late Sir George Grey in April 1859, and a male received in exchange from Viscount Hill in November of the same year. Since the date of its first institution, the Zoological Society’s herd of Elands has never failed, although occasionally reduced to somewhat small dimensions. Nearly every year one or more Eland-calves have been born in the Gardens, and care has been taken to lose no opportunity of introducing fresh blood whenever the occasion has offered. At the present moment, however, we regret to say, in consequence of the great difficulties now prevailing in obtaining living examples of the larger Antelopes of Africa, the Eland is represented in the Society’s Antelope-House by only two specimens, namely, a male, about six years old, bred in the Jardin d’Acclimatation of Paris, and received on October 12, 1898, and a young female, purchased of Herr Reiche, of Alfeld, in April 1899. The latter is more rufous in colouring and shows slight traces of stripes, which, however, she may probably lose when quite adult.

From these two specimens our illustration of Taurotragus oryx typicus (Plate XCVIII.) has been prepared by Mr. Smit.

Besides the Zoological Society’s animals, the only herd of Elands that we are aware of now existing in this country is that belonging to the Duke of Bedford, the President of the Zoological Society of London, which is kept in the beautiful Park at Woburn, along with a splendid series of Deer and other Ungulates. Through the kindness of His Grace we have been furnished with the following particulars concerning this herd, which now consists of fourteen individuals. Three of these are adult females, two of which were purchased from dealers, and the third from the Zoological Society of London, in whose Gardens it was bred. The adult male was purchased of Herr Reiche, of Alfeld. Five young males and two females have been bred at Woburn up to the end of 1899. Three calves, one male and two females, have been born at Woburn since the commencement of the present year.

Allusion has already been made to the Elands possessed by the late Roland, Viscount Hill, who, about the year 1861, possessed a fine herd of these animals. When visited by Sclater about that date, Lord Hill’s stock consisted of three males and seven females, which were kept at his Lordship’s residence Hawkstone, in Shropshire. They were the produce of individuals principally purchased by him from the Zoological Society, and were kept in grazing paddocks in Hawkstone Park. Unfortunately, a few years later Lord Hill lost his interest in these animals and got rid of them.

About the same period John, 2nd Marquis of Breadalbane, likewise purchased a herd of Elands, which, however, we believe, was not maintained long after the Marquis’s death in 1862.

In almost all the Zoological Gardens of the Continent also the Eland is a well-known object of interest, and in many of them, until the last few years, has thriven well and produced its kind; but, as already mentioned, the supply of Elands from abroad has recently much decreased, and at the present time there is a great difficulty in keeping our herds of Elands in Europe up to the mark by the necessary introduction of fresh blood.

One of the chief ornaments of the Mammal-Gallery in the British Museum is the mounted pair of Livingstone’s Elands obtained by Mr. F. C. Selous in Mashonaland in 1883. The male (as Mr. Selous informs us) was shot near Sadza’s Kraal, west of Marandalla’s, a station on the main road from Salisbury to Umtali, in July of that year, and the female near Salisbury in the following October. The male stands 67¾ inches high at the withers, and carries a pair of horns 22½ inches in length in a straight line; the female is 57½ inches in height, and has horns 27 inches in length. In both these animals the lateral stripes are well defined, and there are no black patches above the knee on the fore leg of the male, though in the female the patches are slightly visible. These specimens are fair representatives of Taurotragus oryx livingstonii, and have been figured as such in our illustration (Plate XCIX.), prepared by Smit. But it is right to add that it appears that the skins have apparently shrunk slightly in drying, as in his measurements of the male specimen in question, lately given in the ‘Great and Small Game of Africa’ (p. 426), Mr. Selous states that the height of this animal, “taken on the naked carcase after the skin had been removed,” was 69 inches. Moreover, in former days there were probably still larger specimens, as such reliable authorities as Barrow and Harris agree in stating that the old male Elands were known to attain a height of 6½ feet at the withers.

There are also in the National Collection other skins and skulls of the Eland obtained by Mr. Selous, and a number of other specimens, amongst which we may specify a skull and horns of a female from Nyasaland, presented by Sir Harry Johnston, and a skull and horns from the district of Kilimanjaro, presented by Mr. F. J. Jackson in 1892. We may remark that examples of the Eland of the White Nile (the problematical T. o. gigas) are much wanted to complete the series in the National Collection, besides which specimens from other definite localities in Eastern Africa and Angola would be very acceptable.

April, 1900.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, Pl. C.

Waterhouse Hawkins, del. Smit lith.

Hanhart imp.

The Derbyan Eland.

TAUROTRAGUS DERBIANUS.

Published by R. H. Porter.

133. THE DERBIAN ELAND.
TAUROTRAGUS DERBIANUS (Gray).
[PLATE C.]

Boselaphus oreas, Gray, Cat. Ost. B. M. p. 145 (1847).

Boselaphus derbianus, Gray, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. xx. p. 286 (1847); id. Silliman’s Amer. Journ. v. p. 279 (1848); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 144; id. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2) viii. p. 226 (1851); id. Knowsl. Menag. pl. xxv. (1850); Gerv. H. N. Mamm. ii. p. 201, pl. xxxviii. (1855); Fitz. SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 179 (1869).

Oreas derbianus, Gray, Knowsl. Menag. p. 27 (1850); id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 136 (1852); Gerr. Cat. Bones B. M. p. 245 (1862); Winwood Reade, P. Z. S. 1863, p. 169, pl. xxii.; id. ‘Savage Africa,’ p. 398 (cum tab.) (1864); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 47 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. p. 118 (1873); Rochbr. Faune Sénégamb. p. 120, pl. vii. fig. 2 (1883); Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 141 (1887); Ward, Horn Meas. pp. 165–168 (1892), p. 211 (1896); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 260 (1893); id. Royal Nat. Hist. ii. p. 273 (1894); Pousargues, Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. p. 81 (1897); Scl. P. Z. S. 1898, p. 349 (horns).

Antilope (Taurotragus) derbianus, Wagn. Sehr. Säug., Suppl. v. p. 439 (1855).

Taurotragus derbianus, Lyd. & Bryden, in Ward’s Great and Small Game of Afr. p. 439, pl. xii. fig. 2 (1899).

Oreas colini, Rochbr. Bull. Soc. Phil. Paris, (7) vii. p. 8 (1883); id. Faune Sénégamb. p. 121, pl. vii. fig. 1 (1883).

Vernacular Names:—Gingi-ganga or Djik-i-junka of the Mandingoes of Senegambia (Whitfield and Winwood Reade).

Exact height at withers unknown, but probably equal to, if not exceeding, that of the preceding species (70 inches). Forehead covered with hair of a rich ruddy-brown hue, extending from the base of the horns to a point below the level of the eyes; nose black; sides of the head dusky brown or dark fawn; a whitish stripe running inwards and forwards from the inner edge of the eye on each side; upper lip and chin white. Ears large and expanded, much larger than in the other species; the margins broadly white in front and ornamented on the lower side with a large black patch; the posterior surface mostly black, brownish at the base. Neck covered with long hair of a dark brown or black colour, blacker towards the shoulder than in front; base of the neck bordered by a white collar, directed obliquely upwards and backwards at least halfway up to the withers. Body of a rich ruddy fawn-colour, becoming paler or nearly white below, the middle of the belly black; a broad black stripe of longer hairs extending all down the spine from the neck to the root of the tail; sides of the body and haunches ornamented with thirteen or fourteen narrow white stripes, commencing at the dorsal stripe above and gradually fading away on the lower part of the belly and hind-quarters. Legs down to the knees and hocks of the same colour externally as the body, whitish on the inner side; there is a large black patch on the fore leg above the knee on the posterior and inner sides. Horns very large and massive, diverging from the base, the divergence in some cases amounting almost to a right angle; length of horns up to about 34·25 inches.

Female. Smaller than the male, and without the mat of hairs on the forehead; horns smaller and less divergent than in the male, but much more strongly twisted and crested than in the females of the other species.

Hab. Senegal and the Gambia Colony.

Just as the Kudu, which is spread over the greater part of southern and eastern Africa, has a smaller relative (the Lesser Kudu) confined to Somaliland, so the Eland, which has a still wider range, has a near, but quite distinct, ally in a limited part of western Africa. But in the latter case the ally is what is called a “representative form,” since the typical Eland does not occur in the same country, whereas in Somaliland both the Greater and Lesser Kudus are found together in one district.

The discovery of the West-African Eland is due to the researches of the collector, J. Whitfield, who was employed by the thirteenth Earl of Derby to procure living specimens of the larger Antelopes and other animals for his celebrated Knowsley Menagerie. With this object Whitfield made several expeditions to the River Gambia, and on his return, in 1846, brought with him some horns of a large Antelope nearly resembling those of the South-African Eland, but “larger, longer, and much heavier.” In his expedition of 1847 Whitfield succeeded in procuring from the same district the upper part of the skull and horns of a male and the flat skins (unfortunately without heads or feet) of an adult male and female of this animal, of which the native name was said to be “Gingi-ganga.” It was upon these specimens that the late Dr. Gray, in October 1847, established his species Boselaphus derbianus, by publishing a short description of it in the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History’ for that month. It has been imagined, and even stated in print, that living specimens of this Eland were received by Lord Derby; but such, we believe, was not the case. The drawings made by Waterhouse Hawkins, and subsequently issued in the ‘Gleanings from the Knowsley Menagerie,’ were taken, we believe, not from living examples, but from the specimens brought home by Whitfield, as already mentioned.

So far as we know, no further information respecting this remarkable Antelope was brought to Europe until 1863, when the well-known African traveller, the late Mr. Winwood Reade, returned to England from one of his expeditions into Western Africa. Along with other spoils of the chase, Reade brought with him a head and skin of the present Antelope, which he at first believed to be undescribed; but on inspecting them, at Reade’s request, Sclater at once recognized them as belonging to the little-known Derbian Eland, and persuaded Reade to exhibit them at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London in May of that year. Reade’s notes upon this occasion were subsequently published in the Society’s ‘Proceedings’ and illustrated by a plate drawn by Joseph Wolf from Mr. Reade’s specimens. So little is known of this most interesting Antelope, that we propose to give Mr. Reade’s account of it at full length as follows:—

“When I was on the Casamanza, a river of Senegambia, in December 1862, I was informed of the existence of an enormous Antelope, double the size of the Senegal Bullock, with horns lying backwards, a black mane, and white stripes on its sides. My French host informed me that it was unknown in France, which is quite true, as, in fact, its very existence has been denied by French naturalists. I asked where this animal was most abundant, and was told in the bamboo-forest of Bambunda, about fifty miles north-east of Sedhu, where I was staying. I immediately rode over to a village called Nussera, situated on the borders of the forest, taking a rifle with me. The hunters of that village told me that at that time it would be impossible to kill the Djik-i-junka, the bush being dark, as they expressed it; but that in a few weeks they would burn the tangled undergrowth of the forest and the high grass of the plains, according to their annual custom. They would then have a battue; hundreds of people would collect, and the animated nature, towards the close of the day, would be driven into a large plain. There Antelopes, Gazelles, Wild Boars, Porcupines, &c. would be found so exhausted that many of them could be killed with sticks; and indeed only a limited number of guns were allowed in case of accidents. Accordingly I made an arrangement with them that the first specimen they killed should be sent to Sedhu, where my friend M. Rapet would buy it for me, and send it on. Thus I obtained one specimen; the others I purchased at Macarthy’s Island, Gambia.

Fig. 119.

Herd of Derbian Elands.

(From Winwood Reade’s ‘Savage Africa.’)

“I made inquiries of the hunters of Nussera as to the habits of the Derbian Eland. They told me that the forest was its home; that it never of its own accord entered the plains; that it never grazed, but that the bull would tear down branches of trees for the does and fawns to feed upon.

“A fawn, destined for le Jardin des Plantes, was once sent by M. Rapet from the Casamanza, but it died at Goree. When I was at Macarthy’s Island, I saw a fawn of this Antelope which was in the possession of an officer of the 2nd West Indian Regiment; it was extremely tame, allowing itself to be caressed, and was so young that it used to be fed on milk.”

Some further details on the subject will be found in Winwood Reade’s ‘Savage Africa,’ where they are accompanied by a beautiful lithographic plate representing a herd of Derbyan Elands, drawn by Joseph Wolf and signed with his initials. This plate (fig. 119, p. 218) by the kindness of Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co., we are enabled to reproduce in the present work.

Fig. 120.

Horns of Derbian Eland.

(P. Z. S. 1898, p. 349.)

Since Winwood Reade’s visit to the West Coast, although several heads of the Derbian Eland have been obtained at the Gambia by Dr. Percy Rendall and others, little additional information has been received on the subject. In 1898 Sir R. B. Llewellyn, K.C.M.G., the Governor of the Colony, brought home, amongst other spoils of the chase, a fine pair of horns of this Antelope, which were exhibited by Sclater at a Meeting of the Zoological Society on May 5th of that year. A figure of them was given in the ‘Proceedings,’ which the kindness of the Society enables us to reproduce (fig. 120, p. 219) on the present occasion. These horns are of large dimensions, measuring 31 inches in length from the base in a straight line, and about 11½ inches round their bases. They are apparently those of an adult male animal.

Mr. J. S. Budgett, F.Z.S., who made a zoological expedition to the Gambia last year, specially with a view of collecting and observing the river-fishes, has favoured us with the following notes on what he saw of the Derbian Eland during several visits to the upper districts of the Protectorate:—

“The Derbian Eland of the Gambia is known to the Mandingoes by the name of ‘Jinke-janko.’ It does not seem to be very abundant, and is undoubtedly very shy. During my stay on the river, several pairs of horns were found in the possession of natives. Two were met with on the south bank, west of M’Carthy’s Island, and one at Koina, on the north bank, 100 miles east of M’Carthy’s Island. All these had been procured in the year 1899.

“A head of a young female was taken from a carcase floating down the river near Yarbutenda by Mr. P. E. Wainewright, the travelling Commissioner of the M’Carthy’s Island district, and presented to me.

“I was assured by Mr. Wainewright that the hair on the neck of this animal was ‘bluish,’ though the animal was a good deal decomposed.

“I myself, one day in May 1899, saw a large herd of very large Antelopes in the distance near the town of Berreef on the north bank of the Gambia, about 15 miles from Yarbutenda. I have little doubt that these were Derbian Elands, though I was not fortunate enough to secure one. They were of an extremely light colour all over the body, but the head and neck were darker, and the horns appeared rather short and straight at the distance of 400 yards.”

Fig. 121.

Front view of the horns of the Derbian Eland.

Before concluding our account of the Derbian Eland, it is necessary to say a few words respecting the supposed new species of Eland described by M. Rochebrune in the ‘Bulletin’ of the Société Philomathique of Paris in 1883, and subsequently in his ‘Fauna of Senegambia,’ although we are not generally willing even to allude to this most untrustworthy publication. So far as we can make out, the specimens of this animal promised in the text of M. Rochebrune’s work to be sent to the Gallery of the Museum of Paris have never reached that Institution, and the only evidence we have, therefore, for its existence is contained in M. Rochebrune’s descriptions and figures. As well as we can judge from these and from the extreme improbability of there being a species of Eland in Senegal different from that of the Gambia, we are inclined to place the so-called Oreas colini as a synonym of the present species. The figure of the head given by Rochebrune is stated to have been taken from a sketch made by “M. le Dr. Colin” of a head of this animal obtained in the forest of Kita in Senegal. In this figure the whole head of the animal is represented as of a nearly uniform slaty grey, with the exception of a patch of reddish hair on the forehead at the base of the horns and a black patch in the middle of the nose. These are certainly striking differences, if we could trust them as being accurate, but we do not know how far M. le Dr. Colin’s sketch was correctly made, nor what alterations the copier of it may have introduced into M. Rochebrune’s plate. We cannot admit the existence of the supposed new species upon such unsatisfactory evidence.

The authorities of the Liverpool Museum have most kindly sent up to us for examination the specimens of the Derbian Eland now in the Derby Museum, Liverpool, which are probably those from which the original figures in the ‘Gleanings’ were drawn by Waterhouse Hawkins. The frontlet is apparently that of an adult specimen, as will be seen from our view of it (fig. 121, p. 221) prepared by Mr. Grönvold. The horns measure 30½ inches in length from base to tip, the tips are nearly 23 inches apart in a straight line. The two flat skins which accompany it are without heads, and the legs have been cut off at the knees.

In the British Museum there are frontlets of one female and two male specimens of the Derbian Eland, obtained at the Gambia by the same collector (Whitfield) and presented by Lord Derby. In the same collection there is a flat skin brought home by Winwood Reade, and the head of a female, dried with the skin on, obtained by Dr. Percy Kendall on the Gambia.

The material available not being, in our opinion, sufficient for the preparation of a correct figure of the Derbian Eland, we have thought it best, as our illustration of this Antelope, to copy, on a reduced scale (Plate C.), the original figures of the Derbian Eland drawn by Waterhouse Hawkins for plate XXV. of the ‘Gleanings.’

We admit, however, that these are by no means satisfactory, for the head and legs of the specimens from which the figures were taken are absent, and the details as to these parts in the figures were probably filled up from conjecture. Wolf’s figure of the head of Reade’s specimen in the ‘Proceedings’ is, no doubt, more accurate, but in this example the legs are likewise deficient.

April, 1900.