The book of antelopes, vol. 4 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 4 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
“In 1894 the Touaregs raided as far north as the southern
shores—if they can be called shores—of the Chott Djereed. In 1895
we crossed the western end of this Chott, and, so far as we could
judge or learn, the Chott was without water in any part; it had
been an exceptionally dry year, and the country between the
mountains and the Djereed we found absolutely devoid of
inhabitants.
“At El Oued there was in the fort a tame Addax familiarly called
‘_Begra_,’ and this was the only living specimen we saw during our
journey. It was not a very good example, but had rather a fine
pair of horns. It had been presented by some Chambas to the
Commandant.”
From Morocco we have no intelligence of the Addax, although it will be
doubtless found there in the desert south of the Atlas. From Senegal,
likewise, we have little certain to record except the receipt of living
animals of this species on more than one occasion, especially a fine
pair now in the Zoological Garden at Antwerp, where Sclater has lately
examined them. We do not usually quote Rochebrune’s ‘Faune de la
Sénégambie,’ as it is hardly a reliable authority, but we find that he
says that the Addax is “common” in Cayor and Oualo on the right bank
of the River Senegal, and this river is probably its southern limit on
this side of Africa.
The Addax is occasionally, but not very frequently, brought to
Europe alive. In the twelfth volume of the ‘Nova Acta’ of the
Leopoldino-Carolinian Academy (1824) will be found a figure and
description by Dr. A. W. Otto of this Antelope, taken from a fresh
specimen that had died in a menagerie. Otto described it as belonging
to a new species, “_Antilope suturosa_,” but it was manifestly
only an Addax in its darker winter coat.
In 1827 Geoffroy St.-Hilaire and F. Cuvier published a description of
this Antelope in their great work upon Mammals from a male specimen
living in the Jardin des Plantes, received from the then Pasha of
Egypt. Figures are given of this animal (pls. 388, 389) in both its
summer and winter dress, and it is pointed out that in the latter it is
the _Antilope suturosa_ of Otto.
The Zoological Society of London appear to have first received living
examples of the Addax in 1849. In 1861 a fine male was presented to the
Society by Sir John Gaspard Le Marchant, then Governor of Malta. In
1864 one was obtained by purchase, and in 1876 another. At the present
time there are no examples of the Addax in the London Gardens, but
last summer there was, as already stated, a fine pair in the Jardin
Zoologique of Antwerp.
Our illustration of this animal (Plate LXXXVI.) was put upon the stone
by Mr. Smit, some twenty years ago, from a water-colour sketch made for
Sir Victor Brooke by Mr. Wolf. It represents an adult animal in summer
pelage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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