Our countryman Henry Salt, F.R.S., who travelled into the interior of Abyssinia at the beginning of the present century, and obtained many objects of Natural History, was the original discoverer of this species, which appropriately bears his name. It will be found mentioned in the fourth Appendix to his ‘Voyage in Abyssinia’ under the name “Madoqua” by which he says it is called in Tigré. Salt’s specimen in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons attracted the notice of M. de Blainville when he came to London in 1815 to collect materials for his articles on Mammals, and upon them was based the name Antilope saltiana, by which de Blainville afterwards described them before the Société Philomatique of Paris.
The next observer that seems to have met with this Antelope was the German naturalist Rüppell, who transmitted many specimens to the Senckenbergian Museum at Frankfort-on-the-Main. These were correctly described and figured by Cretzschmar in his Atlas to Rüppell’s ‘Travels,’ published in 1826. Rüppell met with this species in great numbers on the eastern flanks of the Abyssinian coast-range, where, he says, it is known by the natives as the “Atro.” “It is found amongst the low brush-wood, and is fleet and wary in escaping from its numerous enemies.”
About the same time Salt’s Dik-dik was figured by Lichtenstein from specimens in the Berlin Museum obtained by Hemprich and Ehrenberg near Massowah, under the name Antilope saltiana. But these celebrated travellers, when they came to treat of it again in their ‘Symbolæ Physicæ,’ although they used the name Antilope saltiana on their plate, proposed in their letterpress to change it to that of Antilope hemprichiana (of Ehrenberg’s MS.), alleging that the original Antilope saltiana of Blainville must have referred to some different species. These authors tell us that Hemprich obtained his first specimens of this species in the month of May, in the woods of the Gedam Mountains, and others in the month of July, near Ilet. They describe it as very common in these localities, but not gregarious. A gravid female was obtained at the beginning of May.
Mr. W. T. Blanford, when accompanying the Abyssinian Expedition of 1867–68, met with numerous examples of this Antelope, of which he gives us the following account:—
“The ‘Beni Israel’ or ‘Om-dig-dig,’ one of the smallest Antelopes known, abounds on the shores of the Red Sea and throughout the tropical and sub-tropical regions of Abyssinia. It is occasionally, but rarely, found at higher elevations; I heard of instances of its being shot both at Senafé and Dildi; but it is not often seen above about 6000 feet. It inhabits bushes, keeping much to heavy jungle on the banks of watercourses, and is usually single, or in pairs, either a male and female or a female and young being found together; less often the female is accompanied by two younger ones, which remain with her until full-grown.
“Like Gazella dorcas and many larger Antelopes, the Beni Israel has the habit of depositing its dung frequently on the same spot, so that its usual haunts may be known by little piles of its droppings. It rarely leaves the shelter of the bushes during the day, and is, I suspect, somewhat nocturnal in its habits, as I have seen it feeding on leaves at the edges of the jungle in the dusk of evening.
“All the specimens of Salt’s Antelope seen in the Anseba valley differed from those of the coast and of the pass between Komayli and Senafé in their much more rufous colour. There is no distinction, so far as I can see, in size or shape. I am inclined to look upon this as an unimportant variation, the more so that, as previously noticed when speaking of the Hyraces, many animals, and especially mammals, have a tendency at times or in particular localities to assume a rufous phase; so that the difference between rufous and grey, or rufous and brown, is one of the least characteristic and certain of specific distinctions.”
Another good authority on Abyssinian Mammals, Theodor von Heuglin, has also told us that this little Antelope is very common in the Abyssinian coast-district, ranging north to the mountains of the Beni Amer, and westwards as far as Takeh. He says that it is more plentiful in the bushes on the borders of the hill-district than on the plateau of the sea-coast, and that it ascends the mountains to a height of 6000 feet. Finally, as is recorded by Dr. Giglioli, the Italian naturalists Boutourline and Traversi, who went to Shoa in 1884, obtained specimens of this Antelope much further south, at Assab. It is, however, quite possible that these last-named examples may have belonged to one of the allied species which next follow.
Salt’s Dik-dik is represented in the British Museum by a mounted pair in the Gallery, of which the male was obtained by Rüppell and the female by Sir William Cornwallis Harris. There are also in that Collection skins of both sexes procured by Mr. Blanford during the Abyssinian Expedition, and a skeleton and skull collected by Mr. Jesse on the same occasion.
Our figure of this Antelope (Plate XXX.) was put on the stone by Mr. Smit from a water-colour drawing by Wolf. This drawing, which was prepared under Sir Victor Brooke’s direction, is now in Sir Douglas Brooke’s possession.