Fig. 117
Horns of Taurotragus oryx gigas.
(Heuglin, Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. pl. i. fig. 2.)
The well-known traveller Schweinfurth, in his ’Im Herzen von Afrika,’ also alludes more than once to the existence of the Eland on the upper confluents of the White Nile. In the first place, he met with it in Bongoland, where he says that it resorts to the drier slopes of the hills during the rains, and descends to the valleys in the winter months. In the second volume of his narrative, Schweinfurth mentions it again, and gives two figures of the horns of what he calls the Central-African Eland, of two very different forms. Schweinfurth states that the skin is plainly striped, and that this is certainly no mark of youth, because he has seen very old examples which had about fifteen narrow parallel stripes, about a finger in breadth, on both sides. It is quite evident, therefore, that the Eland of this part of Africa belongs to the striped form. It may be identical with T. o. livingstonii, but, as Heuglin has given it a name, we will allow him the benefit of the doubt for the present, and will call this northern striped form Taurotragus oryx gigas until further investigations have been made.
Fig. 118.
Abnormal horns of female Eland.
a, front view; b, side view; c, transverse section at spot marked x.
(P.Z.S. 1889, p. 74.)
Before closing our systematic account of the Eland we must say a few words respecting some curious horns which were at first ascribed to a new and unknown Antelope, but are now generally admitted to be nothing more than abnormal horns of the cow Eland. These horns were first brought before the scientific world by Dr. Günther, who exhibited a pair of them at a meeting of the Zoological Society in 1889, and stated that they had been obtained on the frontiers of Natal. Dr. Günther’s opinion was that they belonged to an unknown Antelope of the Tragelaphine group, but under the uncertainty as to what form they were most nearly allied, he proposed to designate the presumed species Antilope triangularis. Through the courtesy of the Zoological Society of London, and with Dr. Günther’s kind permission, we are able to reproduce here the illustration of these horns (fig. 118, p. 209) which accompanied Dr. Günther’s paper in the Society’s ‘Proceedings.’