“I once came across a very trusting troop of Roans consisting of a bull and four cows, in the morning soon after sunrise, on an open plain; they allowed my companion to shoot the bull from the road: we put him on a wagon and went on to camp at a stream a few miles further on. During the day the four cows came along and grazed with our oxen within a few hundred yards of where we were camped. When the boy went to bring in the oxen, I went with him and I walked up to within 75 yards of the Roans before they showed any signs of uneasiness; then they looked awhile, kicked their heels in the air, and galloped off a bit and had a little fight in play, came back again and continued playing about there while the oxen were being inspanned.
“On another occasion, in November, I found a cow and calf by themselves in the middle of the day, on an open flat. I sat down on the top of an ant-hill to watch, and presently, after inspecting me carefully at 800 yards distance, the cow lay down on the top of another ant-hill, the better to keep me in view, while the calf played about and nibbled the grass; after half an hour or so the cow got up and they moved off leisurely to the hills.”
Passing to the north of the Zambesi we have already recorded the occurrence of the Roan Antelope on the Manica Plateau in the Barotse country on the testimony of Mr. Selous. Herr Lorenz. in his list of Dr. Holub’s Mammals, also catalogues a male specimen obtained by that traveller in the same district. Further north it was found by Mr. Alfred Sharpe to be abundant near Lake Mweru, and five heads of it were sent home by him in 1895. Mr. Sharpe, on his journey from Lake Nyasa to Mweru in 1892, first met with the Roan Antelope after crossing the Saisi, which flows into Lake Rikwa (see P. Z. S. 1895, p. 723). In the Protectorate of Nyasaland this Antelope would appear to be not so common, and Mr. Crawshay did not include it in his list. But it occurs, according to the late Capt. Sclater, in the Shiré Highlands on the Tochila Plains between Blantyre and Milanji (see P. Z. S. 1895, p. 728), and Major Frank Trollope is stated to have shot specimens on the east coast of Lake Nyasa (Johnston, Br. Centr. Afr. p. 318).
On the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau between the two lakes, according to information supplied to us by Mr. James B. Yule, the Roan is one of the most abundant Antelopes, and is met with in herds of from 20 to 30.
Passing on northwards we now come to German and British Eastern Africa, on specimens from which countries Herr Neumann has lately based his Hippotragus rufo-pallidus. As already stated, we regard this local form, so far as present evidence goes, as at most not more than a subspecies of H. equinus. As regards its alleged variation in colour, it should be recollected that an excellent observer, Mr. Selous, tells us that these Antelopes “differ very much one from another in colour, some being of a strawberry-roan, others of a deep dark grey or brown, and others again so light as to appear almost white at a distance”[5].
In this part of Africa the Roan Antelope appears to have been first observed by Speke, who met with it in swampy ground near Kazeh in Uniamwesi “in considerable numbers,” and sent home a single head. Herr Matschie records it as observed by Böhm in Uganda. Herr Oscar Neumann kindly informs us that during his two years’ journeyings in East Africa he only met with one herd of this Antelope, out of which he shot five specimens, all females. This was on the 24th of September, 1893, on the upper River Bubu, halfway between Irangi and Mount Gurui. “When approached, the herd did not go off at full speed, but trotted away and then broke into a slow canter.” Herr Neumann believes he could have shot more of them if he had not been exhausted by hard running.
Herr Matschie kindly furnishes us with the following additional localities for this Antelope in German East Africa:—Upper Pangani River, south of Kilimanjaro (Kaiser and Schillings); between Lumbwa and Kavirondo (Schillings); and Ufipa in Ukonongo (Hösemann).
In British East Africa, likewise, this Antelope appears to be local and rather rare. Mr. Jackson believes that he saw it on the northern slopes of Mount Elgon (Big Game Shoot, i. p. 292), and, more recently, has recorded that Capt. F. S. Dugmore, R.N.R., shot a male on the Athi Plains in July 1896[6]. Mr. Jackson also writes to us from the Ravine Station on the Uganda Road as follows:—
“In April last, two marches from here, I saw a herd of 7 Antelopes much resembling the Roan. They were about 800 yards off, and I had a good look at them with a powerful telescope before commencing a stalk, which, I regret to say, was unsuccessful through one of them, that I did not notice, seeing me. There were four cows, one bull, and two half-grown calves. In colour they were like an Oryx, and not unlike it in shape, though larger and longer on the leg. The back of the neck was arched, like a Sable, and appeared to carry a short dark zebra-like mane. The ears were very long and tufted, and the horns of both the bull and cows were thick in proportion to their length, the bull’s perhaps 20 inches or more, and curved backwards like a Roan. With the exception of one calf they were all standing under a big tree in the shade, and as they were all broadside on to me I could not make out what the facial markings were like. As the calf stood facing me, its ears stood out almost at right angles to its head, with a slight droop towards the tips. They appeared to me to be not large enough for Roan (I have only seen those in the Natural History Museum), and I believe that they are more likely to be H. bakeri. I feel sure that they are of the same species as that I saw on the northern slopes of Mount Elgon in 1890.” (See P. Z. S. 1897, p. 454.)
Finally, on March 1st last year, Mr. W. E. de Winton at a meeting of the Zoological Society exhibited a head-skin of this Antelope, brought home from Machakos, on the Uganda Road, by Mr. S. L. Hinde, which had been obtained from the Collector at that station.