The book of antelopes, vol. 4 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 4 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
By the kind permission of Lord Derby we now give an exact copy,
slightly reduced in size, put upon the stone by Mr. Smit (Plate
LXXVIII), of Waterhouse Hawkins’s drawing of the “Dacris,” which forms
one of the figures of plate 5 of the second volume of this valuable
series, and is stated to represent an adult female. This figure will be
observed to differ from that of the male (Plate LXXVII.) in its much
lighter and more reddish colouring, and especially in the longer ears
of the Gambian animal.
One of the young specimens brought home by Whitfield is now stuffed in
the Derby Museum at Liverpool. As we learn from the label, it died in
London on its way to Knowsley.
More recently heads of this Antelope have been obtained on the Gambia
by Dr. Percy Rendall, F.Z.S., and by Sir R. B. Llewelyn, the present
Governor. The latter were exhibited by Sclater at a meeting of the
Zoological Society on May 3rd, 1898[8], when attention was called to
the large number of fine Antelopes that occur in the Gambia Colony,
and to the desirableness of procuring further information about them.
According to the notes supplied to us by Sir R. B. Llewelyn, the Roan
Antelope, which is the “_Da Kevoi_” of the Mandingos, is found in
some places in Jara and Kiaung, and is common in Eastern Niammina.
The horns in question are those of a not fully adult animal, measuring
26½ inches along the curvature. They do not present any noticeable
features to distinguish them from those of _Hippotragus equinus
typicus_ of South Africa.
The existence of this Antelope in West Africa has been further
confirmed by Herr Matschie, who has included it in his list of Mammals
of the German Protectorate of Togo, on the Gulf of Guinea, where it
occurs on the uplands of the interior. Herr Matschie kindly informs
us that the Berlin Museum has received from that locality a defective
head and skin without horns from Misa-höhe, transmitted by Herr
Baumann, and two skulls of females from Bismarckburg (_Kling_ and
_Conrad_). In the collection of the British Museum there are
also a scalp and skull of a young male of the Roan Antelope obtained
at Balaga, Beaufort Island, on the Niger, and presented by Capt. A. J.
Richardson.
Lastly, we may add that there is a fine young male Roan Antelope now
living in the Zoological Garden, Antwerp, which is stated to have
been received from Senegal, and, if so, would probably belong to the
subspecies now under consideration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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