From the slopes of Mount Elgon we will now proceed further northwards to the swamps of the Bahr el Ghazal and the plains of the Atbara and Blue Nile. Here we find the Roan Antelope, or at all events its nearly allied representative, long ago recognized, and dedicated, as a new species, to the memory of the well-known British sportsman and traveller the late Sir Samuel Baker. Heuglin, who was the author of the name “bakeri,” though well acquainted by report with this species (which he says occurs in herds in the open districts of Galabat and on the Atbara), tells us that he had only once seen it himself, and had derived most of his information on it from Baker, who, in his ‘Albert Nyanza,’ vol. i. p. 340), speaking of the Latooka country on the right bank of the White Nile, between 4° and 5° N. lat., writes as follows:—
“I saw varieties of Antelopes, including the rare and beautiful Maharif; but all were so wild, and the ground so open, that I could not get a shot. This was the more annoying, as the Maharif was an Antelope that I believed to be of a new species. It had often disappointed me; for although I had frequently seen them on the south-west frontier of Abyssinia, I had never been able to procure one, owing to their extreme shyness, and to the fact of their inhabiting open plains, where stalking was impossible. I had frequently examined them with a telescope, and had thus formed an intimate acquaintance with their peculiarities. The Maharif is very similar to the Roan Antelope of South Africa, but is mouse-coloured, with black and white stripes upon the face. The horns are exactly those of the Roan Antelope, very massive and corrugated, bending backwards to the shoulders. The withers are extremely high, which give a peculiarly heavy appearance to the shoulders, much heightened by a large and stiff black mane like that of a hog-maned horse. I have a pair of horns in my possession that I obtained through the assistance of a lion, who killed the Maharif while drinking near my tent; unfortunately the skin was torn to pieces, and the horns and skull were all that remained.”
The well-known scientific traveller Dr. Schweinfurth also met with this Antelope in several localities in the course of his journeys (1868–71) among the upper affluents of the Bahr el Ghazal, and furnishes us with a long list of the vernacular names by which it is known among the various native tribes of that country. In the first volume of his ’Im Herzen von Afrika’ (p. 237) he gives a good figure of its head, and tells us how, as he was one day deeply engaged in botanizing in the forests of Bongo, a fine full-grown specimen of this stately beast suddenly appeared close to him, and fell a victim to two well-directed shots, to the great joy of the accompanying natives.
Fig. 89
Horns of Baker’s Roan Antelope.
(From P. Z. S. 1868, p. 216.)
Dr. William Junker, who visited the same district of Africa in 1882, also met with this Antelope in Zemio’s territory upon the upper affluents of the Welle, where he tells us (‘Travels in Africa,’ Keane’s translation, iii. p. 144) that his hunter brought in a “Bastard” Chamois (Antilope leucophæa). Of this animal a figure is given which seems decidedly to belong to this species.
In 1868 Sclater gave an account before the Zoological Society of London of a young male Equine Antelope of this form which he had observed in the King of Italy’s Menagerie, and illustrated it by exhibiting a coloured photograph of the animal, which was subsequently reproduced in the Society’s ‘Proceedings.’ The animal had been received from Dr. Ori, the King’s agent at Khartoum, and on its death was deposited in the Royal Zoological Museum of Turin. Sclater’s paper was supplemented by some field-notes on this Antelope contributed by Sir Samuel Baker, who also sent for exhibition the fine pair of horns of the typical specimen described by Heuglin, then in his collection. A figure of them is likewise given in Sclater’s article in the ‘Proceedings,’ which, by the kind permission of the Society, we are enabled to reproduce in these pages (fig. 89, p. 25).
On Nov. 24th, 1878, the Zoological Society of London acquired a young male Equine Antelope from Mr. C. Hagenbeck, who stated that he had received it along with other animals from Upper Nubia. If this statement was correct, which there is no reason to question, this animal was, no doubt, an example of Hippotragus equinus bakeri, although it was never recognized as such. It lived in the Regent’s Park Gardens until February 23rd, 1889.