Female Beisa.
(From the Garden Guide Z. S. L., 1876.)
Mr. J. Benett Stanford, F.Z.S., a well-known sportsman in Somaliland, tells us a curious story about this Antelope. On one occasion when shooting in that country he killed a female Beisa, and, leaving his men to skin her, went on in pursuit of other game. On his return to the camp, late in the afternoon, he found a young Beisa frolicking about, and was greeted by one of the party with the words “How did you catch it?” It appeared that the men had cut the young animal out from the dead mother, and found it perfectly formed in every respect. This young Antelope lived with the caravan for several months, and was eventually killed by an accident.
The following extract from Capt. Francis B. Pearce’s recently published ‘Rambles in Lion-Land’ will show that, notwithstanding the persecutions of the numerous sportsmen who now visit the Somaliland Protectorate every winter, the Beisa is as yet by no means an extinct animal in the interior of that attractive country:—
“We struck camp after having spent a very successful week on the Tyuli Hills, and turned our faces south en route for the zebra-country. Shortly after leaving camp I saw the largest herd of Oryx I have ever seen. It is a difficult matter to estimate the number of a herd of animals unless one possesses some education in that line, but at the lowest estimate there could not have been less than five hundred head. This enormous herd galloped past us at a distance of a little over two hundred yards. It was a beautiful sight to watch. With glistening coats and horns laid back, they tore past. Both J—— and I were too fascinated to think of firing.”
The Beisa is well known in the Zoological Gardens of Europe, and has bred in captivity on more than one occasion. The first living example of this Antelope (a male) was received by the Zoological Society of London, as a present from Admiral Cumming, in 1874, and a female was presented by the Sultan of Zanzibar in the following year, from which the figure in the Society’s ‘Garden Guide’ for 1876 (see fig. 94, p. 70) was taken. This made a pair of this animal for the Collection, believed at that time to be the only pair in Europe. In 1877 and 1878 other specimens were obtained. On April 12th, 1881, the first calf was born, and in September 1885 a second calf from the same pair. At the present time there are three representatives of this Oryx in the Society’s Collection, and specimens of it may also be seen in many of the Zoological Gardens on the Continent.
A coloured figure of the first Beisa calf born in the Zoological Society’s Gardens will be found in the ‘Proceedings’ for 1881 (plate liv.).
In the British Museum there is an adult mounted female specimen of the Beisa Antelope, from the Red Sea coast, obtained in 1871. There is also the skull of an adult from the River Juba, obtained by Sir John Kirk and presented by him in 1879, besides other skins and skulls from various parts of Somaliland presented by Mr. W. F. Sinclair, Col. A. Paget, and Capt. Swayne.
Our figure of this species (Plate LXXXIV.) was lithographed by Mr. Smit for Sir Victor Brooke many years ago, and was taken, it is believed, from a specimen in the British Museum.
May, 1899.