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 corinna_, =Loche=, Cat. Mamm. Alg. p. 13 (1850); =id.=
Expl. Alg., Mamm. p. 68 (1867) (_nec_ Pall.).
_Gazella kevella_, =Tristram=, Great Sahara, p. 387 (1860);
=Lataste=, Mamm. Barbarie (Act. Soc. Linn. Bord. xxxix.), sep.
cop. p. 172 (1885); =Buxton=, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 363.
VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Edmi_ of Arabs of Algeria (_Pease_); _Edem_
in Tunis (_Whitaker_).
Size comparatively large; height at withers about 26 or 27 inches. Hair
rather long, rough and coarse. General colour dull fawn. Face-markings
distinct; the central facial band brownish fawn, with a black patch on
the top of the nose, in front of which the muzzle is white. Ears long,
pointed, their backs fawn. Dark lateral line and pygal band distinct,
darker than back; light lateral line present, but little defined.
Knee-brushes distinct.
Basal length of skull 7·35 inches, greatest breadth 3·6, muzzle to
orbit 4·45.
Horns rather short in proportion to the size of the animal, thick,
strongly ribbed, very slightly curved backwards, and but little
divergent from each other; the tips slightly curved upwards and
forwards.
_Female._ Similar, but horns shorter, slenderer, and straighter.
_Hab._ Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis.
The “Edmi” or Mountain Gazelle of Algeria, though it has often been
confounded with the Dorcas, and has only been accurately known within
the last few years, is without doubt an absolutely different species
not only in structure, but in habits and mode of life. As Sir Victor
Brooke has pointed out, it is easily distinguished from all its allies
by its larger size, rough coat, dark colour, and long ears.
The first published information that we can certainly refer to this
species is that of Frédéric Cuvier, who figured both sexes in his folio
work on Mammals from specimens living in the Jardin des Plantes at
Paris, but called it only “_le Kevel gris_,” without giving it any
scientific designation.
Some time in 1839 a living female example of this Antelope was
presented to the Zoological Society of London by Mr. W. Willshire, one
of their corresponding members, who had procured it at Mogador. After
its death in May 1840, Mr. Ogilby, who was at that time Secretary of
the Society, and was specially interested in the study of mammals,
brought the specimen before the notice of the Zoological Society at
one of their scientific meetings, and proposed to name the species
“_cuvieri_” after M. Frédéric Cuvier. Ogilby stated that he had
observed examples of the same Gazelle in the Paris Museum, and that M.
Cuvier would have described it had he, Ogilby, not done so. There can
be no question therefore of Ogilby’s animal being the same as Cuvier’s
“Kevel gris,” and that _Gazella cuvieri_ is the earliest certain
name to adopt for it.
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