The book of antelopes, vol. 2 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 2 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
In the meanwhile, however, another explorer of the Nile region had
found his way home and brought with him heads of both sexes of the same
Antelope. This was Consul Petherick, who after fifteen years passed in
these districts[8] returned in 1859, and brought with him a collection
of heads and horns of animals, which were acquired by the British
Museum through Mr. Samuel Stevens, a well-known dealer in objects of
Natural History at that period. Amongst these were good heads of both
sexes of the present Antelope. The late Dr. Gray lost but little
time in preparing descriptions of these striking objects, which were
published in the ‘Annals of Natural History’ for October of that year.
We are indebted to the proprietors of that excellent journal for
allowing us to copy the wood-block (fig. 33), which represents the head
of the male brought home by Petherick. It thus came to pass that Dr.
Gray’s name “_maria_” given in honour of his wife, “who assisted
him in his studies,” takes precedence over Heuglin’s more appropriate
designation “_megaceros_.”
Consul Petherick returned to the White Nile in 1861, on a mission to
meet Speke and Grant on their journey northwards. In the first volume
of his narrative of this second expedition[9] (p. 159) he records
having killed a female of this same Antelope on June 15th, 1862, in the
country of the Kitch negroes on the White Nile, and adds a figure of
the head of the male, which was doubtless taken from the specimen sent
home on the former expedition.
Several of the more recent travellers in the Nile districts appear to
have also met with this Antelope. Marno (‘Reise im Gebiete des blauen
und weissen Nil,’ 1874, p. 387) tells us that he saw a herd near Dabbed
Hanakhi on the Bahr Seraf, in 1872, and that it is not uncommon there,
and is called “_Til_” by the natives. In the course of his second
journey (see ‘Reise in der Aegyptischen Aequatorial-Provinz’) Marno met
with it again in the country of the Kitch negroes on the Bahr-el-Gebel,
amongst the beds of papyrus and ambatch, and gives us a figure of
its head, which, although not very well drawn, is unmistakable.
Schweinfurth in his ’Im Herzen von Afrika,’ p. 68, also claims to have
seen large herds of this Antelope on his voyage up the White Nile in
about 12° 30´ N. lat., but did not bring home any specimens. Hartmann
and von Barnem, as we are kindly informed by Herr Matschie, likewise
met with this species on the White Nile and secured a pair of horns
which are now in the Berlin Museum.
But the only perfect examples of this scarce Antelope yet obtained are
those of Heuglin, of which two (an adult male and young one) are in the
Vienna Museum, and a third (an adult male) at Berlin. Herr Matschie has
most kindly supplied us with full notes on the last-named specimen,
which has also been examined by Sclater.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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