Aigocerus harrisi, Harris, Wild Sports of S. Africa, (ed. 1) pp. 261 & 378 (1839).
Vernacular Names:—Sable Antelope or Harris-buck of English; Zwart Wit Pens of Dutch; Potoquane of Southern Bechuanas; Qualata inchu of Bamangwatos and Makalolos; Umtjiele of Matabilis; Pala-Pala of Makalakas; Impengo of Masubias; Ookwa of Makubas; Sulvpe of Masaras (Selous). Inguarato and Marabulla of Mashoonas (Darling). Mbarapi of Ajawa; Mpala-Mpala of Anyanja, Angonis, and other Nyasa races (Crawshay). Palla-Halla in Swahili (Matschie).
Size rather less than in the Roan Antelope; adult male about 52 inches at the withers. General colour a rich glossy black, at least in adult males, only relieved by the white of the face-markings, of the inner surface of the ear, and of the belly. Centre line of face black, outside which there is a white streak reaching from the bases of the horns to the muzzle, succeeded again on the cheeks by a black band. Lips and region of lower jaw white. Ears of ordinary length, their tips not pencilled. Mane well developed, the hairs directed backward. A throat-mane present. Belly and back of hams sharply defined white. Limbs black, the inner sides of the thighs white. Whole of tail black.
Skull-dimensions of an adult male from Nyasaland:—Basal length 15·7 inches, greatest breadth 6·55, muzzle to orbit 11.
Horns much longer than in H. equinus, compressed laterally, their longitudinal much greater than their transverse diameter, heavily ringed, boldly curved backward. In length they are often 43 or 44 inches long round the front curve, the record being 46 inches.
Female. Similar to the male, but more or less brownish in colour; horns (just as in H. equinus) more slender and smooth, less curved, and rather shorter than in the male.
Hab. Eastern Africa, from the Northern Transvaal to German East Africa.
The distinguished traveller and sportsman Sir William Cornwallis Harris whose works we have so often quoted in these pages, was the discoverer of this Antelope, which was characterized by Gordon-Cuming—the great African hunter—as “one of the loveliest animals which graces this fair creation.” Harris writes in one of his works that “the desire nearest to his heart” from the beginning of his journey had been to “discover something new”; and in the present instance he certainly succeeded. But we will let him tell his story in his own words.
When encamped on the Cashan Mountains in what is now the north-western part of the Transvaal, in 1836, as he writes in his volume on ‘Wild Sports in Southern Africa,’ he achieved his success as follows:—
“My doubled-barrelled rifle having again suffered in a fall with my horse, I took the field on the 13th December with a heavy weapon constructed upon the primitive principle of flint and steel, which, as a pis-aller, I had obtained at the Kuruman.