Tragelaphus obscurus, Trouess. Cat. Mamm. pt. iv. p. 958 (1898).
Harnessed Antelope, Penn. Hist. Quadr. (1) p. 71 (1781), (3) p. 81 (1793).
Subspecies b. Tragelaphus scriptus ornatus.
“A new Antelope,” J. Chapman, Travels &c. vol. i. pp. 229–230 (1868).
Bushbuck from the Chobe River, Selous, Hunter’s Wanderings, p. 208, & p. 285, pl.; id. P. Z. S. 1881, p. 753.
Tragelaphus scriptus ornatus, Pocock, Ann. & Mag. N. H., Jan. 1900.
Vernacular Names:—Guib of Negroes of Senegal (Adanson); Zaloufe or Oualof of the Gambia (Whitfield); Red Deer of the Liberians (Büttikofer); Thamma by the Batawana and Tugwumgo by the Bazèyè of the Upper Zambesi (Chapman).
Male adult. Height about 28 inches. General colour a rich dark red, passing in places into black. Head fawn-colour, with an ashy-black band extending from between the eyes to the muzzle; upper lip white at the sides; chin and inter-ramal area white; two white spots on each cheek, the lower fusing with the white of the inter-ramal area; a small white stripe running inwards from the eye, sometimes but not always present; whitish patch at base of ear; ear ashy black behind, a dark spot near the outer edge in front. Neck greyish fawn above, clouded with black towards the shoulders. Throat with two, upper and lower, white patches; area between the patches a dusky yellowish grey. Body a rich dark red at the sides, passing into black below, marked with about half-a-dozen transverse white stripes; a few white spots on the shoulders, and a large, though variable, number of white spots on the haunches; a white line, sometimes broken up into a series of spots, running longitudinally along the lower portion of the sides above the belly between the shoulder and the hind-quarters, and an upper longitudinal white stripe, sometimes long, sometimes short, running backwards from the shoulder. Tail red, with white edges and usually a black tip. Belly and chest blackish. Outer side of fore and hind legs blackish above the knees and hocks, reddish fawn below; inner sides white at the bases close up to body; a broad black band above the knee and hock; back and inner sides of the knee and front and inner side of hock white, whence a white stripe extends downwards along the inner side and anterior edge of the cannon-bone to the fetlock; fetlocks and pasterns blackish; pasterns with a large white patch in front.
Hairs on body longish. At the base of the neck there is a more or less well-defined collar of short hair passing inferiorly above the lower white neck-band. Along the back from the shoulders to the root of the tail extends a crest or mane of long hairs, black over the withers, tipped with white on the rest of the back. Horns as in preceding species.
The skull of an adult male gives the following measurements:—Basal length 8·25 inches, nose to orbit 4·75, width 3·5, horn 9·5.