The book of antelopes, vol. 4 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 4 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
Lord Derby obtained his first female Leucoryx in 1837, but it was not
until the retirement of Mr. Cross from the Surrey Zoological Gardens
and the consequent dispersal of that collection, some six or seven
years afterwards, that he succeeded in acquiring a male. Owing to the
age of the female at that time, although she bred twice with the male
she failed to rear her offspring, and died in 1846, being then, as
Lord Derby believed, the only female of this species in England. When
the Derby Menagerie was dispersed in August 1851, the pair of Leucoryx
Antelopes were among the animals selected by the Zoological Society
of London, in virtue of Lord Derby’s bequest to them, and became the
foundation of a stock which flourished for many years in the Regent’s
Park Gardens. Young ones were bred of this pair or of their descendants
in 1852, 1853, 1860, and 1864. Fresh examples of the Leucoryx were
obtained by the Society in 1870 and 1880, and in 1881 a fine female was
brought home and presented to the Menagerie by the late Mr. John M.
Cook, F.Z.S.
This Antelope has not done so well in the Regent’s Park of late
years, but there is still one example of it living in the Menagerie,
obtained last year, and it is hoped that a breeding pair may soon be
re-established. An excellent figure of the adults of both sexes of
the Leucoryx Antelope, drawn by Wolf from the Zoological Society’s
specimens, was published in the first volume of Wolf and Sclater’s
‘Zoological Sketches.’ In the second volume of the same work a young
one, likewise drawn by the same skilful artist, is represented on plate
xix. The calf in question was born in 1851, and was about six months
old when Mr. Wolfs water-colour drawing (from which fig. 93, p. 49, has
been taken) was prepared.
Lord Derby’s stock of the Leucoryx is said to have been received from
Nubia, while others in the Zoological Society’s Gardens came from
Senegal.
We have not been able to recognize any difference between animals from
these two countries, although they have been separated as distinct
local forms (_nubica_ and _senegalensis_) by Wagner, and more
recently by Herr Matschie as different species.
There are at present no complete specimens of this Antelope in the
British Museum, and skins of it fit for mounting both from Dongola and
from Senegal are much required, in order that a strict comparison of
examples from these widely distant localities may be made. The series
now in the National Collection consists only of a mounted skeleton
formerly in the Zoological Society’s Museum, a skin and skull of a
young one from Sennaar, and some skulls and horns.
Our Plate of this Antelope (Plate LXXXI.), which represents both sexes,
was drawn on stone by Mr. Smit from a sketch prepared by Mr. Wolf,
and probably represents the same animals as the plate in ‘Zoological
Sketches’ above referred to.
_May,_ 1899.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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