(Mr. F. Gillett, F.Z.S.)
A still more recent explorer of Somaliland, Mr. A. E. Pease, M.P., F.Z.S., has most kindly favoured us with some excellent notes on Speke’s Gazelle and its sister species, which we cannot do better than reproduce. Mr. Pease has also sent us along with his MS. remarks a sketch-map of the northern part of Somaliland, in which the ranges of these two species are accurately shown.
He writes as follows:—
“Speke’s Gazelle is called ‘Dhero’ by the Somalis, who do not distinguish it by name from Gazella pelzelni. It is a ‘Dhero,’ just as the other, and yet there is no Somali shikari or any other observer who cannot discriminate at a glance between these two very distinct species—distinct in colour, size, horns, and habitat, whilst the peculiar nose, covered with soft pliable folds of loose skin, of the G. spekei is alone sufficient to mark it as a species apart.
“The Speke’s or Plateau Gazelle has been termed the Mountain Gazelle by some writers; but it is not strictly a mountain Gazelle, but one that frequents the higher plains and low foot-hills north and south of the Golis. But with its distribution I will deal later.
“In colour the Speke’s Gazelles are much darker than Pelzeln’s Gazelles, the predominating colour in life being a rich strong burnt-sienna buff, distinctly darker over the back. The side-stripes are very dark brown, strongly marked, and maintaining their depth of colour to the edge of the white under the ribs and belly. The tail is a dark reddish brown, and the colour on the quarters towards the tail is of a deeper shade. The coat, though fine in texture, is very long for a Gazelle, being sometimes fully two inches long on the withers, and the stern is heavily feathered with long white hair. Altogether it is one of the most beautifully coloured of all the Gazelles. The head is also strongly marked, the deep dark brown patch on the nose and the tear-mark sprinkled with dark hairs are very distinctive. The enlargement of the nose is covered with three or four folds of loose pliable skin. The horns are more curved back and forward towards the tips than those of Pelzeln’s Gazelle, and on the average do not reach to quite the same length as in that species. Twelve inches along the curve would be an abnormally long horn for G. spekei, whilst this measurement is not uncommon in Pelzeln’s Gazelle. The female is very slightly lighter in colour, and has weak horns, reaching to about 9 inches in old ones, with slight indications of the annulations, which are deep and strong in the male.
“This Gazelle I have observed in large numbers on both sides of the Golis range. I have seen it in bands numbering from fifteen to twenty on the plateaux behind (S. of) Gan Libah and Dunanoof. In the Gadabursi country, on the northern limits of the Haud, west of Lija Uri, I have seen them frequently in small bands of from five to eight, and herds of this size may be said to be the rule in the zone north of the Golis Range and south of the Maritime Plain. I cannot call to mind having seen them much further south than the grass plains of Toyo, but there I have observed them mixed up with the Aoul or Soemmerring’s Gazelle.
“I should put down the height of this Gazelle at about 24 inches, and its weight, when living, at about 40 pounds.”
So far as we know, but one specimen of Speke’s Gazelle has as yet reached this country alive. This was a young male, presented to the Zoological Society’s Menagerie in November last year by Dr. L. de Gébert, who had obtained it at Djibutil, the French port of Abyssinia. Unfortunately it did not live long in captivity, but after its death Sclater, with Mr. F. E. Beddard’s kind assistance, was able to examine the specimen more closely. It exhibited a slight protuberance on the nose, as shown in the figure (fig. 64), which by the kindness of the Zoological Society we are enabled to reproduce on the present occasion. Underneath the skin of the nose was a slight cavity, which was easily inflated into a protuberance by blowing air into the nostrils. But dissection, which was carried out by Mr. Beddard, revealed no trace of any glandular structure.
