There was also, about twenty years ago, an Equine Antelope, obtained from the same source, living in the Zoological Garden at Berlin. Mr. Clarence Bartlett has kindly lent us an excellent water-colour drawing of this specimen taken by the late Stanley Wilson. It represents, no doubt, the same local form of this Antelope. Mr. Hagenbeck informs us that the Berlin specimen was also received by him in one of his consignments from the Egyptian Sudan.
That a representative of the Equine Antelope is likewise found in West Africa on the open country traversed by the Upper Gambia has been known since Whitfield, as recorded by Gray in 1852, brought home specimens of its head and horns. Gray did not then consider these to indicate any difference from the Cape specimen of this species in the British Museum. In a subsequent journey Whitfield also brought home for the Derby Menagerie two, or perhaps three, living examples of this Antelope. These were figured by Waterhouse Hawkins in three water-colour drawings forming part of the two volumes of original sketches by Waterhouse Hawkins and Wolf which are now in the Library at Knowsley, and which, by the kind permission of the present Earl of Derby, were exhibited and described by Sclater at the meeting of the Zoological Society on December 15th, 1896[7]. From the MS. notes written on these three drawings we learn that they were made on board the S.S. ‘African’ on Sept. 11th and 12th, 1848, and represent the adult female and young male of this Antelope—the “Dacris” of Whitfield.
By the kind permission of Lord Derby we now give an exact copy, slightly reduced in size, put upon the stone by Mr. Smit (Plate LXXVIII), of Waterhouse Hawkins’s drawing of the “Dacris,” which forms one of the figures of plate 5 of the second volume of this valuable series, and is stated to represent an adult female. This figure will be observed to differ from that of the male (Plate LXXVII.) in its much lighter and more reddish colouring, and especially in the longer ears of the Gambian animal.
One of the young specimens brought home by Whitfield is now stuffed in the Derby Museum at Liverpool. As we learn from the label, it died in London on its way to Knowsley.
More recently heads of this Antelope have been obtained on the Gambia by Dr. Percy Rendall, F.Z.S., and by Sir R. B. Llewelyn, the present Governor. The latter were exhibited by Sclater at a meeting of the Zoological Society on May 3rd, 1898[8], when attention was called to the large number of fine Antelopes that occur in the Gambia Colony, and to the desirableness of procuring further information about them. According to the notes supplied to us by Sir R. B. Llewelyn, the Roan Antelope, which is the “Da Kevoi” of the Mandingos, is found in some places in Jara and Kiaung, and is common in Eastern Niammina.
The horns in question are those of a not fully adult animal, measuring 26½ inches along the curvature. They do not present any noticeable features to distinguish them from those of Hippotragus equinus typicus of South Africa.
The existence of this Antelope in West Africa has been further confirmed by Herr Matschie, who has included it in his list of Mammals of the German Protectorate of Togo, on the Gulf of Guinea, where it occurs on the uplands of the interior. Herr Matschie kindly informs us that the Berlin Museum has received from that locality a defective head and skin without horns from Misa-höhe, transmitted by Herr Baumann, and two skulls of females from Bismarckburg (Kling and Conrad). In the collection of the British Museum there are also a scalp and skull of a young male of the Roan Antelope obtained at Balaga, Beaufort Island, on the Niger, and presented by Capt. A. J. Richardson.
Lastly, we may add that there is a fine young male Roan Antelope now living in the Zoological Garden, Antwerp, which is stated to have been received from Senegal, and, if so, would probably belong to the subspecies now under consideration.
As regards the name to be used for this local form or subspecies of the Roan Antelope a few words are necessary. Gray, in his ‘Catalogue of the Ruminants,’ published in 1872, proposed to call it “koba”—no doubt because of Whitfield’s assurances that it was the “Kob” or “Koba” of the Jolliffs, and, as will be seen by our list of synonyms, several subsequent authors have followed Gray’s lead. But we have already fully discussed the question of this much-vexed name (see Vol. I. p. 60), and have shown that it is hopeless to attempt to refer the “Koba” of Buffon satisfactorily to any of the species with which it has been identified. It follows that the Latin specific term “koba,” founded on Buffon’s name, must also fall to the ground. Under these circumstances we propose to designate the western form of the Roan Antelope Hippotragus equinus gambianus, as being the representative of this species in the Gambia.
South of Togo, along the West-African coast down to the Congo and in the great Congo valley itself, we are not aware of the Roan Antelope ever having been met with; nor is it likely to occur there, as the uniform dense forest which covers these districts would be little suited to its habits. But when we proceed further south to Mossamedes and the interior of Angola, where the country becomes drier and more open, the Roan Antelope is again found. Dr. Jentink mentions it in his article on the mammals collected in Mossamedes by Mr. P. J. van der Kellen (Notes Leyd. Mus. ix. p. 173); and Prof. J. V. Barboza du Bocage includes it in his catalogue of the Mammals of Angola, published in 1892, as having been received from Golungo Alto in the interior, where, along with the Sable Antelope, it is known by the native name of “Palanca” or “Malanca” (Jorn. Ac. Sc. Lisboa, 2, ii. p. 26). We presume that the Angolan representative of the Roan Antelope will be found to belong to the typical South-African form Hippotragus equinus typicus.