A skull offers the following measurements:—Basal length 13 inches, muzzle to orbit 9, greatest width 5·75.
Female similar to the male, but horns thinner.
Hab. Interior of North Africa from Dongola to Senegal.
Whatever the Oryx of Aristotle, Pliny, and other ancient writers may have been (which has been a subject of much discussion), there can be little doubt that the Oryx of Oppian, commemorated in his celebrated poem on the Chase, was based on an Antelope of this group. In the Latin translation of Oppian’s work it is described as a beast much dreaded by its fellow creatures:—
“In densis etiam sævissima bestia sylvis
Trux stabulatur Oryx, odium commune ferarum
Præcipuusque timor. Cornu gerit acre, colorem
Lactis habet verni: facies est candida, solæ
In vultu malæ picea caligine nigrant:
Turgescit duplex crassa pinguedine dorsum.