“The Oryx is found in herds varying in number from six or eight up to thirty or forty. A bull Oryx is often found entirely by himself, and occasionally along with a herd of Gazella granti or other Antelopes. It is perhaps as well to warn sportsmen to approach Oryx, when lying wounded, with caution, as on one occasion my gun-bearer, on going up to cut the throat of an Oryx, received a severe blow on the thigh from the side of one of the wounded beast’s horns. The blow might have been very serious had the Oryx caught him with the point of his horns instead of with the flat.”
Mr. R. B. P. Cator, of the British East African Administrative Service, sends us the following account of his adventures with this Antelope:—
“On the morning of the 20th February, 1898, I fell in with a herd of Oryx on my way down from Machakos to Kibwezi. The herd consisted of some 15 to 20 animals or possibly more. When I first saw them they were feeding near some thickets on the edge of a broad open piece of ground that lay between them and myself, and I was unable to gain cover before I was detected. On seeing me the herd divided and made off in different directions, but, so far as I could judge, the two parts effected a junction before I saw them again. The country hereabout consists of open glades and meadows of all sizes alternating with impenetrable thickets, so being very anxious to secure a specimen of an Oryx, a very uncommon Antelope in this part of the country, I made a long detour, and, by good fortune, again hit off what was, I have not the least doubt, the same herd or a portion of it.
“Without detailing the various attempts that I made to get a good shot it is enough to say that I was fortunate enough to secure two specimens, the one a very fine bull and the other a cow.
“The horns of the bull measure respectively 33½″ and 32″ on the outer curve; circumference of largest horn 7″ and distance from tip to tip 13″: all these measurements exceeding those of the best East African Oryx given in Ward’s book. The horns of the cow are fairly good but much worn and cracked.”
Our figure of this Antelope (Plate LXXXV.) has been prepared by Mr. Smit from the skin and skull of the male specimen obtained on this occasion by Mr. Cator, who kindly placed them at our disposal for this purpose.
The Tufted Beisa extends south of the British Protectorate far into the interior of German East Africa.
Herr Matschie, in his valuable volume on the Mammals of the German Protectorate, includes this Antelope in his list, and gives a figure of it in the text. He tells us that it was met with in Southern Masailand, south-east of Irangi, by Stuhlmann, and in Northern Ugogo, between Mpapwa and Usandawe, by Neumann. This, so far as we know, gives its furthest extension south. We are not aware that the Tufted Beisa has ever been imported alive to Europe.
The typical head of Oryx callotis already mentioned is the only example of this form of Oryx in the collection of the British Museum.
May, 1899.