The book of antelopes, vol. 1 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 1 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
Horns bracket-shaped, the median portion of each in nearly the same
straight line as that of its fellow; terminal portion very short. In
length good male horns attain to about 18 inches.
_Hab._ Interior of Northern Somaliland and Shoa.
Although this fine Hartebeest was pursued and slain by several
energetic hunters before Captain Swayne met with it in Somaliland, it
is to the last-named distinguished explorer that we are indebted for
our first perfect specimens and for an account of its range and habits,
and it is therefore appropriately named after him.
The first evidence received of the occurrence of a Hartebeest in
Somaliland was a flat native skin contained in a collection brought
home by Herr Menges along with a lot of living animals imported for
Mr. Hagenbeck, of Hamburg. In some notes on these skins (P. Z. S.
1884, p. 539) Sclater referred the specimen in question to _B.
caama_. Again, Mr. E. Lort Phillips, F.Z.S., who was one of Mr.
James’s party in Somaliland in the winter of 1885, shot a single young
male Hartebeest near the northern boundary of the high plateau south
of Berbera in April of that year (see P. Z. S. 1885, p. 932), but
unfortunately lost the skull which he had preserved, and did not meet
with the species again.
The next record of this Hartebeest is from a different locality. The
Italian naturalist Dr. Traversi in 1886 transmitted to Florence a
Hartebeest’s head which, in his list of Traversi’s collection, Dr.
Giglioli referred to _B. caama_. After examining the specimen
in the Museum of Florence, and receiving a drawing of it from Dr.
Giglioli, Sclater (see P. Z. S. 1892, p. 258) was able to assure
himself that it was in all probability the same as _B. swaynei_ of
Somaliland.
In his “Field-notes” on the Antelopes of Somaliland (P. Z. S. 1892,
p. 303) Captain Swayne furnishes us with an excellent account of this
animal, which we now reproduce:--
“South of the highest ranges of Somaliland, and at a distance of about
100 miles from the coast, are open plains some four or five thousand
feet above the sea-level, alternating with broken ground covered with
thorn-jungle, with an undergrowth of aloes growing sometimes to a
height of six feet.
“This elevated country, called the ‘Haud,’ is waterless for three
months, from January to March; it was crossed by Mr. James’s party in
1884, when their camels were thirteen days without water.
“Much of the Haud is bush-covered wilderness or open semi-desert, but
some of the higher plains are, at the proper season, in early summer,
covered, far as the eye can reach, with a beautiful carpet of green
grass, like English pasture-land. At this time of the year pools of
water may be found, as the rainfall is abundant.
“This kind of open grass country is called the ‘Ban.’ Not a bush is to
be seen, and some of these plains are thirty or forty miles each way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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