The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
We now conclude the long series of Gazelles with three abnormal forms,
each constituting a genus of itself, which, curiously enough, are all
restricted to N.E. Africa. As regards the first two of them there can
be no question, we believe, of their close alliance to the Gazelles,
_Ammodorcas_ being, in several respects, intermediate between
_Gazellla_ and _Lithocranius_, and leading on to that most
specialized form of the group. About the correct position of the Beira,
however, there is considerable doubt, and it is quite possible that a
more natural place for it in the Antelopine series may be hereafter
discovered.
The Dibatag, or Clarke’s Gazelle, was first met with by the sportsman
and naturalist whose name it bears in 1890, during his exploring trip
into the Dolbahanta and Marehán country south-east of Berbera. Writing
to Thomas about his discovery, Mr. T. W. H. Clarke (of Secheron,
Battery Point, Hobart, Tasmania) says (see P. Z. S. 1891, p. 209):--
“I saw this Gazelle for the first time on December 17th, 1890,
about three hours from ‘Bairwell,’ or about one day from ‘Buroa
Well, Habergerhagi’s country,’ and afterwards on the road all
the way into the Marehan district, 8° N., 47° E. I killed a
male, and found one of the horns broken off close to the skull,
which had apparently been done a year or so ago.
“They are very graceful animals, with a long neck and
well-proportioned head and horns; the body is rather slender,
but considerably larger than in _Gazella spekei_, about the size
of a female _G. walleri_. The legs are long and slender; the
hoofs are not so triangular as those of _G. spekei_, and small
for the size of the animal. They have small ears and a long
upper lip, just like those of _G. walleri_ or a Giraffe. The
horns are of the shape of a sickle, and less than 12 inches in
length, the longest, out of the eleven males killed, measuring
11 inches. The tail, from what I remember, is about 12 or 13
inches in length, very thin, and thinly covered with black hair
about 1 inch long.
“The colour of the body in this Antelope is like that of the
neck, of a kind of pink-fawn, but the belly is whitish and the
tail black. The face resembles that of _G. walleri_, only
_G. walleri_ has no white in front of the eye.
“When running, or rather jumping, these Gazelles look very
peculiar; their long neck and head being thrown back and the
tail thrown forward, so that there appears to be only a foot
between head and tail. The country they are mostly found in is
of low thorn-bush and sandy; they do not seem to like the big
bushes, though at times they are found there. In this respect
they differ from _G. walleri_, this species liking many bushes
to go and rest in.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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