The first author after its describers to recognize its existence was Heuglin, who in 1877, in the second volume of his ‘Reise in Nordost-Afrika,’ writes of this species, the name of which he had previously misapplied to another Gazelle, and gives a coloured figure of its head and figures of two pairs of its horns. Heuglin met with G. leptoceros in the Libyan desert of Egypt, near the Natron Lakes and the Fayoum, where he states its Arabic name is “Abu el haráb.”
Sir Victor Brooke had never seen specimens of this Gazelle, and in his ‘Monograph’ relies mainly upon Heuglin’s description.
So matters remained until recent years, when examples of this Gazelle, or of a very closely allied form, turned up unexpectedly from a new quarter.
Loche, Lataste, and other authorities on the zoology of Algeria had mentioned the existence far in the interior of that country of an Antelope called “El Rim,” and examples of the horns of a problematical Gazelle called “El Reem” had been brought to England from the shops at Biskra. In 1894 an enthusiastic sportsman and naturalist, Sir Edmund Loder, F.Z.S., resolved to make a serious attempt to discover this mysterious animal, and proceeded to Algeria for that purpose. We cannot do better than transcribe for our readers Sir Edmund’s own account of the results of this successful expedition, which was read before the Zoological Society of London on June 5th, 1894:—
“Seventeen years ago (in 1877) I bought in the bazaar at Biskra several pairs of Gazelle horns. They obviously belonged to three species: Gazella dorcas, called by the Arabs ‘Rezal’; Gazella cuvieri, which they call ‘Admi’; and a third called ‘Reem,’ which I was not able to identify with any described species. All these horns were on frontal bones only. It is very rarely that the Arabs bring in any whole skulls or skins for sale, and I have never seen anything but frontlets of the ‘Reem.’
“In 1891 and again in 1893 I went out to Algeria for the purpose of hunting Mouflon (Ovis tragelaphus).
“In 1877 I had been prevented from going after them except for a few hours at a time. On these later trips I was more successful and secured some fine male Mouflon, a female of the large Mountain Gazelle (Gazella cuvieri), and a few specimens of Gazella dorcas.
“At Biskra I again found horns of the Reem, but got no information about it except that it was reported to live in the sand. I heard a French name for it for the first time, ‘Gazelle des sables.’
“As my friend Mr. Alfred Pease was spending a second winter at Biskra and had made the acquaintance of several native hunters, I requested him to try what he could do to find out the habitat of the Reem. About Christmas-time last year he wrote to me that he believed he had reliable information that the Reem was to be found in the desert near Chegga, only about 50 kilometres south of Biskra on the caravan-route to Touggourt.
“We made arrangements for a camping trip, and I left England on February 1st, and started from Biskra with Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Pease on February 8th of this year.