“As Europeans began to arrive in Zanzibar it became a favourite afternoon’s amusement to go to this island to shoot pigeons; and then the Antelopes got reduced in numbers, and became very rare.
“For some years before I left it was seldom that a good head with horns, such as were common in former times, was ever secured, so that unless the Nesotragus has been preserved by the authorities I should think by this time it must be nearly extinct.
“The Antelope lives in the thick bush, it is seldom met with in the open spaces between the clumps of vegetation, and has to be shot as it darts from one bush to another.
“So far as I know, it has only one natural enemy on these little islands, namely, a python, which is often of a great size, and which can find little to live on here except these Antelopes and mice.”
In his volume on the Mammals of German East Africa, Herr Matschie records the occurrence of the Zanzibar Antelope in several localities on the continent. Stuhlmann met with it in Ukama and Usaramo, Fischer at Gross-Aruscha, and Böhmer near Mpapwa.
The German explorers say that this Antelope feeds ordinarily on fresh leaves, but accustoms itself to grass and bananas in captivity. Gravid females were found in August and October, so that it seems to breed twice a year. Fischer found it common everywhere during his journeys in German East Africa. It is easily to be observed, early in the morning and in the evening, if the sportsman hides away among the bushes, as at these times it is on the feed. On being alarmed it utters a peculiar cry.
In British East Africa Mr. Jackson, in his volume of the Badminton Library Series on “Big Game Shooting,” tells us that the “Grave-Island Gazelle,” as the British sportsmen call this species, is found in the thick bush behind Frere-town, near Mombasa, and also in the Duruma country. Like the “Paa” (Madoqua kirki) it is a bush-feeder, and requires little or no water.
Dr. W. L. Abbott, as recorded by Mr. True, obtained a young male of this species at a height of about 6000 feet on Kilimanjaro, where it was brought to him alive by the natives.
There are no examples of this species from the mainland in the British Museum.
December, 1895.