The book of antelopes, vol. 4 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 4 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
It should be stated that the description given by Pliny of his
“_Strepsiceros, quem Addacem Africa appellat_” is very short and
incomplete, and has been variously interpreted by subsequent writers.
But as it was an African animal with twisted horns, and the native Arab
name of the present species, according to Hemprich and Ehrenberg, is
“_Abu Akass_” (the father of the twist), it seems highly probable
that we have in it the veritable “_Addax_” of the ancients.
The first naturalist of modern days to obtain specimens of the Addax
in its native wilds was Rüppell, who met with it in the deserts of
Dongola south of Ambukol, where, he tells us, it lives in small
families apart from all other species of Antelopes, and is hunted by
the Arabs on horseback in summer time. Rüppell forwarded examples
of both sexes of the Addax to Frankfort, where it was described and
figured by Cretzschmar in 1826 from Rüppell’s specimens. Cretzschmar
identified it as being without doubt the “_Addax_” of Pliny, and
named it _Antilope addax_, being apparently unaware that it had
been previously described by De Blainville from specimens which he had
examined in London in the Pantherion of Bullock and in the Museum of
the Royal College of Surgeons.
About the same period Hemprich and Ehrenberg had obtained examples of
the same Antelope for the Berlin Museum, apparently from nearly the
same district. These were first described and figured by Lichtenstein
in his ‘Darstellung der Säugethiere,’ and subsequently by Hemprich and
Ehrenberg themselves in their ‘Symbolæ Physicæ.’ They tell us that
they were obtained about twenty hours’ distant from Ambukol, in the
Chor-el-Lebben, where these animals are hunted by the Kubabish Arabs on
horseback, in the month of June. Three specimens were sent home, which
we suppose are the same that are figured in their plate, and represent,
according to their descriptions, an adult female and two young females
with straight horns.
Our third great authority on the Mammals of North-east Africa, Th.
v. Heuglin, informs us that the Addax extends northwards into the
Libyan Desert of Egypt, to the Fayoum and the Oases, and is not rare
in the Bayuda Desert. Though he writes as having met with this species
himself, he does not give us the exact locality in which he came across
it.
Passing westwards, we have no doubt of the occurrence of the Addax in
suitable localities all through the Great Sahara, although we have
little certain information on the subject, except that a pair of horns,
brought back by Denham and Clapperton from their adventurous journey
across Central Africa in 1822–24, is in the British Museum.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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