The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
_Gazella mohr_, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 231
(1846); =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 5 (1850); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850,
p. 114; =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 59 (1852); =Gerr.= Cat. Bones
Mamm. B. M. p. 233 (1862); =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 158
(1869); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 39 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum.
B. M. p. 108 (1873); =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 548 (in part.);
=Kohl=, Ann. Mus. Wien, i. p. 78 (1886); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p.
342 (1891); =Jent.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.)
p. 168 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 235 (1893).
_Gazella mohrr_, =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 193 (1853).
VERNACULAR NAME:--_Mhorr_, in Morocco (_Bennett_).
Size large, height of a male not fully adult 35½ inches. General
colour dull rufous or rufous-fawn, becoming a deeper and richer
rufous anteriorly. Face, cheeks, and chin whitish or whitish-fawn,
the forehead beneath the horns and an inconspicuous dark cheek-streak
blackish. Neck deep rufous, a conspicuous white spot on its front
surface. No dark or light lateral bands present, nor pygal bands.
White of belly extending rather high up on the sides, the line of white
passing across the outer sides of the forearms on to the chest, where
it contrasts conspicuously with the dark red of the neck. White of rump
much as in _G. soemmerringi_, including the tail, and extending
angularly forwards on each side into the body-colour, but not uniting
with the belly-colour across the outer sides of the thighs. All the
boundary-lines between the rufous and white well defined. Knee-brushes
small. Tail white, a small brownish or fawn-coloured tuft at its
extremity.
Horns of male thick, strongly bent backwards below, recurved upwards
and forwards above.
_Female._ Similar to the male, but horns shorter and thinner.
_Hab._ South-western Morocco.
The last species of the group, and also of the genus _Gazella_, is
the Mhorr, the Moroccan representative of the Dama Gazelle, to which,
as we have already stated, it is very closely allied. Indeed, we have
not inconsiderable doubts as to their real specific distinctness.
Southern Morocco and Senegal approach so nearly together that it is not
likely _prima facie_ that the Gazelles of their deserts would be
specifically different.
The well-known zoologist, Mr. E. T. Bennett, who was Secretary to the
Zoological Society of London in its early days, was the first describer
of the “M’horr” as distinct from _Gazella dama_, and brought
his account of it before a Meeting of that Society on January 8th,
1833. His full memoir on this subject was afterwards published in the
Society’s ‘Transactions,’ where it occupies the first pages of the
first volume of that standard work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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