Size small; height at withers only about 43 inches, and therefore markedly less than in the other species. Facial hairs reversed upwards for about two inches on the nose, then slanting downwards from a point on the forehead just below the horns, where there is a twisted whorl from which the hairs radiate in all directions. Colour uniform pale rufous or fawn, entirely without darker patches on forehead, chin, or limbs; there is, however, an ill-defined patch of greyish on each side of the muzzle above the nostrils; lower part of rump not whitish. Tail black on the terminal tuft only, the rest like the back.
Skull long, but the elongation less than in B. caama. Approximate dimensions:—basal length 13 inches, greatest breadth 4·8, muzzle to orbit 10[3]. Facial length from between the horns to the tip of the nasals 13·5 inches; breadth of the forehead, across the frontal horn-support, 4·0. Horns diverging from each other at an even rounded curve, so as together to form a
when viewed from the front, a method of curvature only found in this and the next species. In length, when measured round the curves, they attain to a little more than 14 inches.
Hab. Northern Africa (interior of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis) and Arabia.
The Bubal (Bubalis or Bubalus) is one of the few Antelopes known to the ancient writers, being included by Herodotus among the beasts of Libya, and being likewise mentioned by Aristotle, Æschylus, and Pliny. The Bubal is also referred to in the Old Testament and called “Yachmur”—a term which has been incorrectly translated in the authorized version as “Fallow Deer.” Under this name it is included in the list of the daily provisions of King Solomon (i. Kings, iv. 23) as one of the animals brought to the royal table.
Coming to more modern days we find that in the time of Dr. Thomas Shaw, F.R.S., of Queen’s College, Oxford (who was resident twelve years at Algiers as British Chaplain), the Bubal was abundant on the north of the Atlas. Dr. Shaw (‘Travels in Barbary and the Levant,’ Oxford, 1738), in his “Physical and Miscellaneous Observations on the Natural History of Algiers and Tunis,” tells us:—
“Of cattle that are not naturally tame and domesticated, these Kingdoms afford large Herds of the Neat kind called Bekker el Wash by the Arabs. This Species is remarkable for having a rounder Turn of Body, a flatter Face, with Horns bending more towards each other than in the tame kind. It is therefore, in all Probability, the Bos africanus of Bellonius, which he seems justly to take for the Bubalus of the Ancients; though, what he describeth is little bigger than the Caprea or Roe-Buck, whereas ours is nearly of the same size with the Red-Deer, with which also it agreeth in Colour. The young Calves of this Species quickly grow tame, and herd with other Cattle.”
Since the days of Shaw, however, the Bubal has retired far beyond the Atlas into the recesses of the desert, and has become a difficult animal to meet with. Loche (Expl. Sc. de l’Algérie) tells us that it is now confined to the mountainous districts of the Sahara, where it roams about in small troops. Canon Tristram states that “the hunters of Souf frequently obtain this, the largest of game in North Africa.” But he does not think that it “ever ventures north of the Wed R’hir and M’zab districts, while its home is certainly further south. It is considered to be the most savoury meat of the desert-epicure.” During his extensive explorations in the Great Sahara Canon Tristram saw this Antelope only on one occasion: this was at a distance, in the south of the Djereed of Tunis.
From the Algerian Sahara the Bubal extends no doubt into Morocco on one side and Tripoli on the other; but our knowledge of the animals of both these countries is still very meagre, and we are unable to quote precise authorities. In Egypt, so far as we know, the Bubal appears to be now quite extinct, but on the other side of the Red Sea it reappears in Arabia and extends even up to the confines of Palestine. Canon Tristram never saw it alive in Palestine; “but it certainly exists on the borders of Gilead and Moab,” and is well known to the Arabs, who assured him that “it sometimes comes down to drink at the head-waters of the streams flowing into the Dead Sea, where they not unfrequently capture it.” Canon Tristram has kindly allowed one of us to examine a pair of horns obtained from the Arabs in this locality, which are apparently referable to a female of this species.