Some further details on the subject will be found in Winwood Reade’s ‘Savage Africa,’ where they are accompanied by a beautiful lithographic plate representing a herd of Derbyan Elands, drawn by Joseph Wolf and signed with his initials. This plate (fig. 119, p. 218) by the kindness of Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co., we are enabled to reproduce in the present work.
Fig. 120.
Horns of Derbian Eland.
(P. Z. S. 1898, p. 349.)
Since Winwood Reade’s visit to the West Coast, although several heads of the Derbian Eland have been obtained at the Gambia by Dr. Percy Rendall and others, little additional information has been received on the subject. In 1898 Sir R. B. Llewellyn, K.C.M.G., the Governor of the Colony, brought home, amongst other spoils of the chase, a fine pair of horns of this Antelope, which were exhibited by Sclater at a Meeting of the Zoological Society on May 5th of that year. A figure of them was given in the ‘Proceedings,’ which the kindness of the Society enables us to reproduce (fig. 120, p. 219) on the present occasion. These horns are of large dimensions, measuring 31 inches in length from the base in a straight line, and about 11½ inches round their bases. They are apparently those of an adult male animal.
Mr. J. S. Budgett, F.Z.S., who made a zoological expedition to the Gambia last year, specially with a view of collecting and observing the river-fishes, has favoured us with the following notes on what he saw of the Derbian Eland during several visits to the upper districts of the Protectorate:—
“The Derbian Eland of the Gambia is known to the Mandingoes by the name of ‘Jinke-janko.’ It does not seem to be very abundant, and is undoubtedly very shy. During my stay on the river, several pairs of horns were found in the possession of natives. Two were met with on the south bank, west of M’Carthy’s Island, and one at Koina, on the north bank, 100 miles east of M’Carthy’s Island. All these had been procured in the year 1899.
“A head of a young female was taken from a carcase floating down the river near Yarbutenda by Mr. P. E. Wainewright, the travelling Commissioner of the M’Carthy’s Island district, and presented to me.
“I was assured by Mr. Wainewright that the hair on the neck of this animal was ‘bluish,’ though the animal was a good deal decomposed.