This does not appear to be the case as regards the typical T. scriptus; and although the entire absence of the upper white band in the form from the Chobé suggests the possibility of identity between it and the form from the Congo, we know nothing of the characters of the females and young of the latter to justify us in assigning the name phaleratus to the subspecies first figured and described by Mr. Selous. The animal for which we propose to adopt Mr. Pocock’s name T. scriptus ornatus may be described as follows:—
Male adult. General characters as in T. scriptus. Height at withers of adult male about 28 inches. Colour dark red, with as many as seven or eight transverse white stripes, about six white spots on the shoulders, and as many as twenty on the hind-quarters, and a line of white spots passing longitudinally above the belly. Belly, chest, and limbs on outer side down to knees and hocks blackish. Face deep greyish fawn, with very faint white eye-spots. A dorsal crest of long white hairs extending from the shoulder to the root of the tail.
Young male. Pale reddish yellow, with spots and stripes much more faintly marked.
Female. Smaller than male, chestnut in colour, marked with only three or four faint white stripes and with fewer spots than in the other sex; belly reddish yellow, paler than the sides of the body; outer side of limbs chestnut above and below the knees and hocks.
Young female. Lighter red and less spotted than adult.
At the end of our list of synonyms of the typical form of this Antelope it will be observed that we have added, with a mark of doubt, Tragelaphus gratus of Rochebrune’s ‘Faune de la Sénégambie,’ upon which Dr. Trouessart has based his Tragelaphus obscurus. All that can be said of Rochebrune’s figure is that, if correctly drawn, it cannot have been taken from Limnotragus gratus, which is at once recognizable by its elongated hoofs, and that it is more likely to have been based on an example of the present species. But we have already on more than one occasion alluded to the untrustworthiness of Dr. Rochebrune’s work, and think it hardly worth while to discuss the subject further.
The Harnessed Antelope is frequently brought alive to Europe from the ports on the West Coast of Africa and does nicely in captivity. It was well represented in the great Knowsley Menagerie, where it frequently bred. In May 1845, as we learn from the ‘Gleanings,’ there was at Knowsley a herd of two males and four females, of which three were then expected to produce young. Both sexes were figured by Waterhouse Hawkins on the 28th plate of that work. Several specimens of it were sold at the dispersal of the Knowsley Menagerie in 1851.
The Zoological Society of London has exhibited specimens of this handsome Antelope ever since its gardens were instituted, but it does not appear to have bred there. Dr. Percy Rendall, F.Z.S., brought home a fine male from the Gambia in 1890, and in the following year a pair was presented to the Society by Sir R. B. Llewelyn, K.C.M.G., the Governor of that Colony. In Mr. Smit’s illustration of this species (Plate LXXXIX.) the figures of the male and female were taken from the Zoological Society’s specimens; the young one in the front was drawn from a specimen from Fantee, in the British Museum.
November, 1899.
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XC.