The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
“During the eight days I was in the desert, though unsuccessful
in trapping any, I saw several very fine specimens of Loder’s
Gazelle.”
In August 1896 a fine adult living female of this Gazelle was received
by the Society as a present from Mr. A. R. Birdwood, of Cairo--no
doubt obtained in the same locality as that explored by Mr. Bramley.
Mr. Birdwood wrote subsequently to Sclater concerning this Gazelle as
follows:--
“I am pleased that you have found the Gazelle a real acquisition
to your Gardens. I succeeded in securing you a very fine male
the other day, but it died almost at once from the effects of
the trap used by the Bedouins!
“With regard to the statement that this Gazelle does not drink
water, my theory is that it may be true that water is not always
obtainable where it is, and that in that case it makes shift
with the succulent desert plants that are to be found even
in the most arid, seemingly waterless, and barren plains! Of
these desert plants, I have collected more than sixty varieties
from the limestone hills of Mariout, in the arid stretches
running from Wady Natron to Wady Siwa, and in the still more
unfavourable ground of the dunes that intersect the road running
from Fayoum to the oases of Farafseh and Dakleh. All have the
same characteristic succulence, and one, known to the Bedouins
as ‘broth of the Gazelle’ (which looks more like a bundle of dry
thorns than anything else), is most delightfully aromatic (when
snapped off) as well as succulent! These seeming deserts after a
rain are plains of verdure, but in a few months return to their
primitive wildness.”
So far as we know, besides the original specimens of _G.
leptoceros_ received at Paris in 1884, the female presented to the
Zoological Society by Mr. Birdwood is the only example of this Gazelle
that has reached the Menageries of Europe alive. By the kindness of
the Zoological Society we are able to give a copy of Mr. Smit’s drawing
of the head of this animal.
[Illustration: Fig. 67.
Front view of head of a female Loder’s Gazelle.
(P.Z.S. 1896, p. 781.)]
But the identity of the Egyptian _Gazella leptoceros_ with the
Algerian _G. loderi_ is perhaps not yet exactly certain, although
we have combined the English name of the latter with the scientific
name of the former.
On comparing specimens from Tunis and Algeria with others from Egypt,
the size of the former is slightly greater, the markings are even less
defined than in Egyptian examples, the horns are less closely ringed,
the nasal bones are markedly longer, the nasal opening is both longer
and broader, and the premaxillæ articulate less broadly with the sides
of the nasal bones.
An old male is 26 inches in height at the withers, and the
skull-measurements of the type are:--Basal length 6·75 inches, greatest
breadth 3·35, muzzle to orbit 4.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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