Just as the Kudu, which is spread over the greater part of southern and eastern Africa, has a smaller relative (the Lesser Kudu) confined to Somaliland, so the Eland, which has a still wider range, has a near, but quite distinct, ally in a limited part of western Africa. But in the latter case the ally is what is called a “representative form,” since the typical Eland does not occur in the same country, whereas in Somaliland both the Greater and Lesser Kudus are found together in one district.
The discovery of the West-African Eland is due to the researches of the collector, J. Whitfield, who was employed by the thirteenth Earl of Derby to procure living specimens of the larger Antelopes and other animals for his celebrated Knowsley Menagerie. With this object Whitfield made several expeditions to the River Gambia, and on his return, in 1846, brought with him some horns of a large Antelope nearly resembling those of the South-African Eland, but “larger, longer, and much heavier.” In his expedition of 1847 Whitfield succeeded in procuring from the same district the upper part of the skull and horns of a male and the flat skins (unfortunately without heads or feet) of an adult male and female of this animal, of which the native name was said to be “Gingi-ganga.” It was upon these specimens that the late Dr. Gray, in October 1847, established his species Boselaphus derbianus, by publishing a short description of it in the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History’ for that month. It has been imagined, and even stated in print, that living specimens of this Eland were received by Lord Derby; but such, we believe, was not the case. The drawings made by Waterhouse Hawkins, and subsequently issued in the ‘Gleanings from the Knowsley Menagerie,’ were taken, we believe, not from living examples, but from the specimens brought home by Whitfield, as already mentioned.
So far as we know, no further information respecting this remarkable Antelope was brought to Europe until 1863, when the well-known African traveller, the late Mr. Winwood Reade, returned to England from one of his expeditions into Western Africa. Along with other spoils of the chase, Reade brought with him a head and skin of the present Antelope, which he at first believed to be undescribed; but on inspecting them, at Reade’s request, Sclater at once recognized them as belonging to the little-known Derbian Eland, and persuaded Reade to exhibit them at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London in May of that year. Reade’s notes upon this occasion were subsequently published in the Society’s ‘Proceedings’ and illustrated by a plate drawn by Joseph Wolf from Mr. Reade’s specimens. So little is known of this most interesting Antelope, that we propose to give Mr. Reade’s account of it at full length as follows:—
“When I was on the Casamanza, a river of Senegambia, in December 1862, I was informed of the existence of an enormous Antelope, double the size of the Senegal Bullock, with horns lying backwards, a black mane, and white stripes on its sides. My French host informed me that it was unknown in France, which is quite true, as, in fact, its very existence has been denied by French naturalists. I asked where this animal was most abundant, and was told in the bamboo-forest of Bambunda, about fifty miles north-east of Sedhu, where I was staying. I immediately rode over to a village called Nussera, situated on the borders of the forest, taking a rifle with me. The hunters of that village told me that at that time it would be impossible to kill the Djik-i-junka, the bush being dark, as they expressed it; but that in a few weeks they would burn the tangled undergrowth of the forest and the high grass of the plains, according to their annual custom. They would then have a battue; hundreds of people would collect, and the animated nature, towards the close of the day, would be driven into a large plain. There Antelopes, Gazelles, Wild Boars, Porcupines, &c. would be found so exhausted that many of them could be killed with sticks; and indeed only a limited number of guns were allowed in case of accidents. Accordingly I made an arrangement with them that the first specimen they killed should be sent to Sedhu, where my friend M. Rapet would buy it for me, and send it on. Thus I obtained one specimen; the others I purchased at Macarthy’s Island, Gambia.
Fig. 119.
Herd of Derbian Elands.
(From Winwood Reade’s ‘Savage Africa.’)
“I made inquiries of the hunters of Nussera as to the habits of the Derbian Eland. They told me that the forest was its home; that it never of its own accord entered the plains; that it never grazed, but that the bull would tear down branches of trees for the does and fawns to feed upon.
“A fawn, destined for le Jardin des Plantes, was once sent by M. Rapet from the Casamanza, but it died at Goree. When I was at Macarthy’s Island, I saw a fawn of this Antelope which was in the possession of an officer of the 2nd West Indian Regiment; it was extremely tame, allowing itself to be caressed, and was so young that it used to be fed on milk.”