The Pallah is represented in our National Collection by a mounted male from Kilimanjaro shot by Mr. F. J. Jackson and by a mounted head from Lake Elmetaita presented by Captain Lugard, the horns of which are amongst the longest of known specimens. There is likewise a mounted head from the Zomba highlands presented by Sir Harry Johnston and representing the short-horned race which inhabits the mountain-districts south of Lake Nyasa. Besides these there are skulls, skins, and horns from various districts in South and East Africa.
Our illustration of the Pallah (Plate XLVIII.) has been put upon the stone by Mr. Smit from a water-colour drawing by Wolf prepared for the late Sir Victor Brooke and now belonging to Sir Douglas Brooke. The drawing is noted on the back as having been taken from a head belonging to Mr. Selous and a loose skin. It represents an adult male in two positions. The female, as already stated, is absolutely hornless.
The woodcut (fig. 47, p. 23), which gives a front view of a good head of the Pallah, was drawn by Mr. Smit under Sir Victor Brooke’s directions.
August, 1897.
78. THE ANGOLAN PALLAH.
ÆPYCEROS PETERSI, Bocage.
Æpyceros petersi, Boc. P. Z. S. 1878, p. 741; Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 479 (1887); Scl. P. Z. S. 1890, p. 460 (woodcut of head); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 341 (1891); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 231 (1893).
Æpyceros melampus, Jent. Notes Leyd. Mus. ix. p. 173 (1887) (?) (Mossamedes).
Similar, so far as is yet known, to Æ. melampus in all respects except that on the face, as is shown in our woodcut (p. 26), there is a prominent brown patch running along the top of the muzzle. This character is said to be perfectly constant, and we therefore admit for the present the validity of the Angolan form as a distinct species.
The Angolan Pallah was first recognized as a distinct species by Prof. J. V. Barboza du Bocage, a distinguished naturalist of Portugal, in a list of Angolan Antelopes published in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1878. M. du Bocage based his description upon two specimens forwarded to the Lisbon Museum by the well-known explorer d’Anchieta. Of these the male was stated to have come from Capangombe, the female from Humbe—two places both in the province of Mossamedes north of the Cunene River. M. Bocage distinguished the new species from Æ. melampus principally by its black face, and dedicated it to the late Professor Peters, of Berlin, whose opinion agreed with his that it was distinct. It is probable that the skull from the Cunene River, obtained by Heer Van der Kellen in October 1885, and referred by Dr. Jentink, in his paper on Mammals from Mossamedes, to Æ. melampus, may belong properly to Æ. petersi.
