In 1861 Mr. E. L. Layard describes the Grysbok as still found in some abundance at the foot of Table Mountain and on the Lion’s Hill in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town, though we are somewhat doubtful whether that is the case at the present time.
Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington speak of the Grysbok as being mostly found in the eastern districts of the Colony and on the borders of Natal. Its habits, they state, are solitary and almost identical with those of the Steinbok (R. campestris), except that it invariably frequents hilly, broken, and stony country in preference to open flats. Its flesh, they add, is not particularly good. As regards its range farther north, Mr. Selous tells us that beyond the Limpopo the Grysbok is only met with in certain hilly districts of the more easterly portions of the interior. In Matabeleland it is very scarce, but in all the hilly country of the Victoria Falls and throughout Mashonaland down to the Zambesi it is fairly numerous. Mr. Selous also speaks of it as being met with in the South African territory north of the Zambesi as far as he penetrated; and Peters has recorded its presence, not uncommonly, in the plains of Sena, Tette, and Macanga in Mozambique up to 16° N. latitude.
The Grysbok is included by Matschie in his recently published work on the Mammals of German East Africa, but only upon the ground that it will probably be found to occur there. We are not able to confirm this statement, having never seen specimens of the Grysbok from any locality so far north.
The Grysbok has been occasionally brought alive to Europe, but does not appear to do well in captivity. The first example recorded in the Zoological Society’s register is a female presented by Sir George Grey in 1861. A second specimen was obtained by purchase in 1864, and a third in 1869. In May of the present year a female specimen was presented to the Society by Mr. J. E. Matcham, of Port Elizabeth, but did not live long in the Gardens. From this animal the figure of the Grysbok now given (Plate XXVII. fig. 2) has been coloured by Mr. Smit, though the plate was originally taken by the same artist from a water-colour drawing prepared by Wolf, under the direction of the late Sir Victor Brooke, from some other specimen. This drawing, along with many other original sketches of Wolf’s, is now in the possession of Sir Douglas Brooke.
The National Collection is not well provided with examples of this Antelope. Besides a pair collected by Burchell in 1814 there are in the series only some skulls and skeletons of somewhat doubtful authority. Good fresh specimens of both sexes of the Grysbok, accompanied by their skulls, would therefore form a valuable acquisition to the British Museum.
December, 1895.
47. THE STEINBOK.
RAPHICERUS CAMPESTRIS (Thunb.).
[PLATE XXVII. Fig. 1.]
Capra grimmia, Thunb. Resa, ii. p. 8 (1789); id. Engl. Transl. ii. p. 7 (1793) (nec Linn.) (Cape Town).
Antilope campestris, Thunb. Mém. Ac. Pétersb. iii. p. 313 (1811).
Calotragus campestris, Gray, Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 71 (1852); Layard, Cat. S. Afr. Mus. p. 68 (1861); Gerr. Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 235 (1862).