Antilope dama, var. occidentalis, Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1845, p. 266 (1847); id. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 262; Reprint, p. 82 (1848).

Vernacular Name:—Nanguer in Senegal (Buffon).

Size about as in G. ruficollis and G. mhorr. Markings throughout very much as in the next species, Gazella mhorr, but the white of the rump-patch, although less than in G. ruficollis, where it spreads all over the body, is considerably more extended, uniting on the thighs with the white of the sides of the belly, and therefore cutting off the dark colour of the outer sides of the hind limbs from that of the back. Other characters very much as in G. mhorr.

Hab. Senegal and Gambia.

Passing now to the western end of Northern Africa we find this group of Antelopes represented by the “Dama” Gazelle, a species which has been known to naturalists ever since the time of Buffon. By him it was described and figured in the twelfth volume of his ‘Histoire Naturelle,’ under the name of “Le Nanguer” the appellation stated by Adanson to be given to it in Senegal. Upon the “Nanguer” of Buffon, Pallas in 1766 established his Antilope dama, so that there can be no question as to Gazella dama being the correct name of the representative species of this group in Senegal. But whether Pallas was right in assigning the term “dama” of Pliny to the present animal is a matter open to much question. The late Mr. E. T. Bennett has discussed this subject in his article on the Mhorr Antelope published in the first volume of the Zoological Society’s ‘Transactions,’ to which we may refer our readers. But there can be little doubt that the ordinary “Dama” of the Romans was not the present animal, but the well-known Fallow-Deer, Cervus dama.

For many years the naturalists following Buffon and Pallas gave us no further information concerning this Antelope, and merely copied what their predecessors had said of it. Sundevall, in his well-known treatise on the “Pecora,” united the three members of this group together under “Antilope dama,” designating the forms of Morocco and Senegal as “var. occidentalis,” and stating that he had examined a specimen of it in the Frankfort Museum. If the locality and the references given by Rüppell in his catalogue of the Senckenbergian Collection are correct, the specimen in that collection must be the “Mhorr” of Morocco, and not the “Nanguer” of Senegal. We are told by Gray (‘Gleanings from the Knowsley Menagerie,’ p. 5) that the Frankfort specimen was originally received from the Zoological Society of London.

Among the numerous Antelopes procured from the Gambia for the Derby Menagerie by Lord Derby’s agent Whitfield were several examples of this species. Dr. Gray, in the letterpress to the ‘Gleanings,’ tells us that at the time of his writing (April 1850) there was a fine male of Gazella dama living at Knowsley, and that a female, procured by the same collector, which died on its passage home, was preserved in the British Museum. This specimen, a skin of an immature animal, is still in the Museum, to which it was presented by the Earl of Derby, and, strange to say, is still the only example of this Antelope in the National Collection.

In 1865 a pair of this Gazelle (as recorded in the Society’s ‘Proceedings,’ 1865, p. 675) were acquired by the Zoological Society of London, from the Zoological Gardens, Antwerp. About the same period Sclater recollects having seen other examples of this Antelope in the Antwerp Gardens, but does not remember to have noticed them in any other of the continental Gardens which he has visited from time to time for many years.

In some MS. notes on the Antelopes of the Gambia which Sir Robert Llewelyn, K.C.M.G., the Governor of the Colony, has kindly sent to Sclater, “the Springbuck,” or “Kongko-tong” of the Mandingos, is stated to be “common all over the south bank of the river.” This “Springbuck” can be hardly any other Antelope than the present species. If such is the case, it is remarkable that a beautiful animal, so abundant in a British Colony a few days’ steam from our shores, should be still so little known in our Museums and Menageries.

September, 1898.