The Book of Antelopes Volume IV (of 4) | A Project Gutenberg eBook

“The Dutchmen, who are generally pretty well at sea as regards the names of wild game, have never quite made up their minds what to call this animal. They consider that he has absolutely no claims to legitimacy on any score, and half the members of that nation whom you meet will christen it either ‘Bastard Eland’ or ‘Bastard Gemsbok,’ both of which are equally ridiculous and inappropriate. Though the animal, when viewed critically, is on the whole imposing and even beautiful, when seen running it looks decidedly clumsy, and wanting in both proportion and elegance; yet the head, when well set up and viewed among other specimens of African fauna, has a striking and pleasing appearance. The fine blending of colours on the face, the white switches of hair over the lachrymal glands standing out over the black of the cheeks, the fine rough neck, and the long queerly-shaped ears, all tend to give the head the wild game look it certainly possesses. The horns themselves, though nothing compared with those of the Waterbuck, Koodoos, and Sable, are beautifully annulated, and look quite in proportion. Ward gives the maximum of males as 33 inches, and females 30½ inches. I would call the attention of the reader, if a naturalist, to the very peculiar shape of the ear, and to the way that the white whisps drop from above the lachrymal sinus, making the hairs stand out slightly as they do in life.

“Of all the larger Antelope, except perhaps the Eland, the Roan is the easiest to kill. If the hunter follows a troop up they will frequently stop and allow several shots to be fired at them; but the hunter must above all things keep them in good view, for once out of sight the Roans know they are likely to be followed up, and it will be found next to impossible to approach them, their sense of sight and smell is so keen, and they so commonly start running long before you have spotted them.”

Another recent authority on the Antelopes of Mashonaland, Mr. J. Ffolliott Darling, F.Z.S., has kindly favoured us with the following notes:—

“Roan Antelopes are rather scarce over most parts of Mashonaland. They run in small troops of from 3 to 6 or 8 in number. They vary greatly in bulk and in size of horn; sometimes a big bull will have a very poor head.

“I once came across a very trusting troop of Roans consisting of a bull and four cows, in the morning soon after sunrise, on an open plain; they allowed my companion to shoot the bull from the road: we put him on a wagon and went on to camp at a stream a few miles further on. During the day the four cows came along and grazed with our oxen within a few hundred yards of where we were camped. When the boy went to bring in the oxen, I went with him and I walked up to within 75 yards of the Roans before they showed any signs of uneasiness; then they looked awhile, kicked their heels in the air, and galloped off a bit and had a little fight in play, came back again and continued playing about there while the oxen were being inspanned.

“On another occasion, in November, I found a cow and calf by themselves in the middle of the day, on an open flat. I sat down on the top of an ant-hill to watch, and presently, after inspecting me carefully at 800 yards distance, the cow lay down on the top of another ant-hill, the better to keep me in view, while the calf played about and nibbled the grass; after half an hour or so the cow got up and they moved off leisurely to the hills.”

Passing to the north of the Zambesi we have already recorded the occurrence of the Roan Antelope on the Manica Plateau in the Barotse country on the testimony of Mr. Selous. Herr Lorenz. in his list of Dr. Holub’s Mammals, also catalogues a male specimen obtained by that traveller in the same district. Further north it was found by Mr. Alfred Sharpe to be abundant near Lake Mweru, and five heads of it were sent home by him in 1895. Mr. Sharpe, on his journey from Lake Nyasa to Mweru in 1892, first met with the Roan Antelope after crossing the Saisi, which flows into Lake Rikwa (see P. Z. S. 1895, p. 723). In the Protectorate of Nyasaland this Antelope would appear to be not so common, and Mr. Crawshay did not include it in his list. But it occurs, according to the late Capt. Sclater, in the Shiré Highlands on the Tochila Plains between Blantyre and Milanji (see P. Z. S. 1895, p. 728), and Major Frank Trollope is stated to have shot specimens on the east coast of Lake Nyasa (Johnston, Br. Centr. Afr. p. 318).

On the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau between the two lakes, according to information supplied to us by Mr. James B. Yule, the Roan is one of the most abundant Antelopes, and is met with in herds of from 20 to 30.

Passing on northwards we now come to German and British Eastern Africa, on specimens from which countries Herr Neumann has lately based his Hippotragus rufo-pallidus. As already stated, we regard this local form, so far as present evidence goes, as at most not more than a subspecies of H. equinus. As regards its alleged variation in colour, it should be recollected that an excellent observer, Mr. Selous, tells us that these Antelopes “differ very much one from another in colour, some being of a strawberry-roan, others of a deep dark grey or brown, and others again so light as to appear almost white at a distance”[5].

In this part of Africa the Roan Antelope appears to have been first observed by Speke, who met with it in swampy ground near Kazeh in Uniamwesi “in considerable numbers,” and sent home a single head. Herr Matschie records it as observed by Böhm in Uganda. Herr Oscar Neumann kindly informs us that during his two years’ journeyings in East Africa he only met with one herd of this Antelope, out of which he shot five specimens, all females. This was on the 24th of September, 1893, on the upper River Bubu, halfway between Irangi and Mount Gurui. “When approached, the herd did not go off at full speed, but trotted away and then broke into a slow canter.” Herr Neumann believes he could have shot more of them if he had not been exhausted by hard running.

Herr Matschie kindly furnishes us with the following additional localities for this Antelope in German East Africa:—Upper Pangani River, south of Kilimanjaro (Kaiser and Schillings); between Lumbwa and Kavirondo (Schillings); and Ufipa in Ukonongo (Hösemann).

In British East Africa, likewise, this Antelope appears to be local and rather rare. Mr. Jackson believes that he saw it on the northern slopes of Mount Elgon (Big Game Shoot, i. p. 292), and, more recently, has recorded that Capt. F. S. Dugmore, R.N.R., shot a male on the Athi Plains in July 1896[6]. Mr. Jackson also writes to us from the Ravine Station on the Uganda Road as follows:—

“In April last, two marches from here, I saw a herd of 7 Antelopes much resembling the Roan. They were about 800 yards off, and I had a good look at them with a powerful telescope before commencing a stalk, which, I regret to say, was unsuccessful through one of them, that I did not notice, seeing me. There were four cows, one bull, and two half-grown calves. In colour they were like an Oryx, and not unlike it in shape, though larger and longer on the leg. The back of the neck was arched, like a Sable, and appeared to carry a short dark zebra-like mane. The ears were very long and tufted, and the horns of both the bull and cows were thick in proportion to their length, the bull’s perhaps 20 inches or more, and curved backwards like a Roan. With the exception of one calf they were all standing under a big tree in the shade, and as they were all broadside on to me I could not make out what the facial markings were like. As the calf stood facing me, its ears stood out almost at right angles to its head, with a slight droop towards the tips. They appeared to me to be not large enough for Roan (I have only seen those in the Natural History Museum), and I believe that they are more likely to be H. bakeri. I feel sure that they are of the same species as that I saw on the northern slopes of Mount Elgon in 1890.” (See P. Z. S. 1897, p. 454.)

Finally, on March 1st last year, Mr. W. E. de Winton at a meeting of the Zoological Society exhibited a head-skin of this Antelope, brought home from Machakos, on the Uganda Road, by Mr. S. L. Hinde, which had been obtained from the Collector at that station.

From the slopes of Mount Elgon we will now proceed further northwards to the swamps of the Bahr el Ghazal and the plains of the Atbara and Blue Nile. Here we find the Roan Antelope, or at all events its nearly allied representative, long ago recognized, and dedicated, as a new species, to the memory of the well-known British sportsman and traveller the late Sir Samuel Baker. Heuglin, who was the author of the name “bakeri,” though well acquainted by report with this species (which he says occurs in herds in the open districts of Galabat and on the Atbara), tells us that he had only once seen it himself, and had derived most of his information on it from Baker, who, in his ‘Albert Nyanza,’ vol. i. p. 340), speaking of the Latooka country on the right bank of the White Nile, between 4° and 5° N. lat., writes as follows:—

“I saw varieties of Antelopes, including the rare and beautiful Maharif; but all were so wild, and the ground so open, that I could not get a shot. This was the more annoying, as the Maharif was an Antelope that I believed to be of a new species. It had often disappointed me; for although I had frequently seen them on the south-west frontier of Abyssinia, I had never been able to procure one, owing to their extreme shyness, and to the fact of their inhabiting open plains, where stalking was impossible. I had frequently examined them with a telescope, and had thus formed an intimate acquaintance with their peculiarities. The Maharif is very similar to the Roan Antelope of South Africa, but is mouse-coloured, with black and white stripes upon the face. The horns are exactly those of the Roan Antelope, very massive and corrugated, bending backwards to the shoulders. The withers are extremely high, which give a peculiarly heavy appearance to the shoulders, much heightened by a large and stiff black mane like that of a hog-maned horse. I have a pair of horns in my possession that I obtained through the assistance of a lion, who killed the Maharif while drinking near my tent; unfortunately the skin was torn to pieces, and the horns and skull were all that remained.”

The well-known scientific traveller Dr. Schweinfurth also met with this Antelope in several localities in the course of his journeys (1868–71) among the upper affluents of the Bahr el Ghazal, and furnishes us with a long list of the vernacular names by which it is known among the various native tribes of that country. In the first volume of his ’Im Herzen von Afrika’ (p. 237) he gives a good figure of its head, and tells us how, as he was one day deeply engaged in botanizing in the forests of Bongo, a fine full-grown specimen of this stately beast suddenly appeared close to him, and fell a victim to two well-directed shots, to the great joy of the accompanying natives.

Dr. William Junker, who visited the same district of Africa in 1882, also met with this Antelope in Zemio’s territory upon the upper affluents of the Welle, where he tells us (‘Travels in Africa,’ Keane’s translation, iii. p. 144) that his hunter brought in a “Bastard” Chamois (Antilope leucophæa). Of this animal a figure is given which seems decidedly to belong to this species.

In 1868 Sclater gave an account before the Zoological Society of London of a young male Equine Antelope of this form which he had observed in the King of Italy’s Menagerie, and illustrated it by exhibiting a coloured photograph of the animal, which was subsequently reproduced in the Society’s ‘Proceedings.’ The animal had been received from Dr. Ori, the King’s agent at Khartoum, and on its death was deposited in the Royal Zoological Museum of Turin. Sclater’s paper was supplemented by some field-notes on this Antelope contributed by Sir Samuel Baker, who also sent for exhibition the fine pair of horns of the typical specimen described by Heuglin, then in his collection. A figure of them is likewise given in Sclater’s article in the ‘Proceedings,’ which, by the kind permission of the Society, we are enabled to reproduce in these pages (fig. 89, p. 25).

On Nov. 24th, 1878, the Zoological Society of London acquired a young male Equine Antelope from Mr. C. Hagenbeck, who stated that he had received it along with other animals from Upper Nubia. If this statement was correct, which there is no reason to question, this animal was, no doubt, an example of Hippotragus equinus bakeri, although it was never recognized as such. It lived in the Regent’s Park Gardens until February 23rd, 1889.

There was also, about twenty years ago, an Equine Antelope, obtained from the same source, living in the Zoological Garden at Berlin. Mr. Clarence Bartlett has kindly lent us an excellent water-colour drawing of this specimen taken by the late Stanley Wilson. It represents, no doubt, the same local form of this Antelope. Mr. Hagenbeck informs us that the Berlin specimen was also received by him in one of his consignments from the Egyptian Sudan.

That a representative of the Equine Antelope is likewise found in West Africa on the open country traversed by the Upper Gambia has been known since Whitfield, as recorded by Gray in 1852, brought home specimens of its head and horns. Gray did not then consider these to indicate any difference from the Cape specimen of this species in the British Museum. In a subsequent journey Whitfield also brought home for the Derby Menagerie two, or perhaps three, living examples of this Antelope. These were figured by Waterhouse Hawkins in three water-colour drawings forming part of the two volumes of original sketches by Waterhouse Hawkins and Wolf which are now in the Library at Knowsley, and which, by the kind permission of the present Earl of Derby, were exhibited and described by Sclater at the meeting of the Zoological Society on December 15th, 1896[7]. From the MS. notes written on these three drawings we learn that they were made on board the S.S. ‘African’ on Sept. 11th and 12th, 1848, and represent the adult female and young male of this Antelope—the “Dacris” of Whitfield.

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.

As regards the name to be used for this local form or subspecies of the Roan Antelope a few words are necessary. Gray, in his ‘Catalogue of the Ruminants,’ published in 1872, proposed to call it “koba”—no doubt because of Whitfield’s assurances that it was the “Kob” or “Koba” of the Jolliffs, and, as will be seen by our list of synonyms, several subsequent authors have followed Gray’s lead. But we have already fully discussed the question of this much-vexed name (see Vol. I. p. 60), and have shown that it is hopeless to attempt to refer the “Koba” of Buffon satisfactorily to any of the species with which it has been identified. It follows that the Latin specific term “koba,” founded on Buffon’s name, must also fall to the ground. Under these circumstances we propose to designate the western form of the Roan Antelope Hippotragus equinus gambianus, as being the representative of this species in the Gambia.

South of Togo, along the West-African coast down to the Congo and in the great Congo valley itself, we are not aware of the Roan Antelope ever having been met with; nor is it likely to occur there, as the uniform dense forest which covers these districts would be little suited to its habits. But when we proceed further south to Mossamedes and the interior of Angola, where the country becomes drier and more open, the Roan Antelope is again found. Dr. Jentink mentions it in his article on the mammals collected in Mossamedes by Mr. P. J. van der Kellen (Notes Leyd. Mus. ix. p. 173); and Prof. J. V. Barboza du Bocage includes it in his catalogue of the Mammals of Angola, published in 1892, as having been received from Golungo Alto in the interior, where, along with the Sable Antelope, it is known by the native name of “Palanca” or “Malanca” (Jorn. Ac. Sc. Lisboa, 2, ii. p. 26). We presume that the Angolan representative of the Roan Antelope will be found to belong to the typical South-African form Hippotragus equinus typicus.

The specimens of the Roan Antelope in the British Museum consist of a mounted adult male and a young one, and the skeleton of a male, from Mashonaland, presented by Mr. F. C. Selous (exhibited in the gallery); an adult male presented by Sir Andrew Smith, being the specimen figured in his ‘Illustrations,’ as above referred to; a female presented by Lord Derby; and a skin and skull of an adult from Lake Mweru, presented by Mr. Crawshay. There are also several pairs of horns, one of which was received from Dr. Burchell. These specimens all belong to the typical form.

Of the East-African H. equinus rufo-pallidus the British Museum has only the scalp and skull from Machakos (Dr. Hinde) above referred to.

Of H. e. bakeri the British Museum has two skulls (♂ et ♀) from the Atbara, obtained by the collector Essler.

Of the West-African H. e. gambianus the series in the National Collection comprises a pair of frontlets (♂ et ♀) from Gambia (Whitfield) presented by Lord Derby, a scalp and skull from the Upper Gambia presented by Dr. Percy Kendall (above referred to), and the specimen from the Niger presented by Capt. Richardson.

This series, as is evident, is quite insufficient to solve the vexed question as to the amount of distinctness of the four geographical forms or subspecies, which must remain open for future investigators.

Our illustration of the adult male of this Antelope (Plate LXXVII.) was put on the stone by Mr. Smit, about twenty years ago, from a water-colour sketch by Mr. Wolf. It is now impossible to ascertain from what specimen this sketch was taken, but it is conjectured to have been from a skin and skull procured by Mr. Selous in S.E. Africa. At the same time a wood-block of the head (fig. 90, p. 29) was drawn, which shows well the essential differences between the Roan Antelope and the Sable Antelope (see fig. 91, p. 38).

112. THE SABLE ANTELOPE.
HIPPOTRAGUS NIGER (Harr.).
[PLATES LXXIX. & LXXX.]

Aigocerus niger, Harris, P. Z. S. 1838, p. 2 (Jan. 9); id. Tr. Z. S. ii. p. 213, pl. xxxix. (1838); id. Portr. Wild Anim. S. Afr. p. 126, pl. xxiii. (1840); Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 158 (1843); id. Knowsl. Men. p. 17 (1850); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 133; id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 104 (1852); Harris, Wild Sports S. Afr. (ed. 5) pp. 216 & 349, pl. xxii. (1852); Gerrard, Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 240 (1862); Scl. P. Z. S. 1864, p. 103 (Kazeh, Speke); Kirk, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 658 (Zambesia); Fitz. SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 177 (1869); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 35 (1872); id. Hand-1. Rum. B. M. p. 103 (1873); Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 480 (1887); Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 135 (1887); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 166 (1892).

Antilope nigra, Gerv. Dict. Sci. Nat., Suppl. i. p. 265 (1840); Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 618 (1841); Wagn. Schr. Säug., Suppl. iv. p. 484 (1844), v. p. 436 (1855); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 442 (1845); id. Mon. Antil. p. 38, pl. xliii. (1848); Peters, Säug. Mossamb. p. 190 (1852).

Hippotragus niger, Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1844, p. 197 (1846); id. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 148; Reprint, p. 72 (1848); Hengl. Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act. Leop. xxx. pt. 2) p. 16 (1863) (Shilluk Co.); Scl. P. Z. S. 1868, p. 218; Buckley, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 288; Bocage, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 745 (Mossamedes); Brehm, Thierl. iii. p. 227 (1880); Selous, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 756; id. Hunter’s Wanderings, p. 214 (1881); Scl. List Anim. Z. S. (8) p. 139 (1883), (9) p. 158 (1896); Flow. & Gars. Cat. Coll. Surg. ii. p. 263 (1884); Johnston, Kilimanjaro, p. 354; Crawshay, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 660 (Nyasa); Bocage, J. Sci. Lisb. (2) ii. p. 26 (1890) (Mossamedes); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 343 (1891); Ward, Horn Meas. (1) p. 137 (1892), (2) p. 178 (1896); Nicolls & Egl. Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 50 (1892); Thos. P. Z. S. 1893, p. 504 (Zomba); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 245 (1893); Lugard, E. Afr. i. p. 533 (1893); Jackson, in Badm. Big Game Shooting, i. pp. 285 & 293 (1894); Lorenz, Ann. Mus. Wien, ix., Notizen, p. 62 (1894); Rendall, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 362 (Transvaal); Matsch. Säug. DeutschO.-Afr. p. 134 (1895); Scl. P. Z. S. 1896, p. 506 (Zomba); Thos. P. Z. S. 1896, p. 797 (Nyasaland); id. P. Z. S. 1897, p. 939 (Zomba); Troness. Cat. Mamm. fasc. iv. p. 952 (1898).

Aegoceros niger, var. kirkii, Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 35 (1872) (Zambesia).

Ozanna nigra, Brehm, Thierl. iii. p. 227 (1880).

Aigocerus harrisi, Harris, Wild Sports of S. Africa, (ed. 1) pp. 261 & 378 (1839).

Vernacular Names:—Sable Antelope or Harris-buck of English; Zwart Wit Pens of Dutch; Potoquane of Southern Bechuanas; Qualata inchu of Bamangwatos and Makalolos; Umtjiele of Matabilis; Pala-Pala of Makalakas; Impengo of Masubias; Ookwa of Makubas; Sulvpe of Masaras (Selous). Inguarato and Marabulla of Mashoonas (Darling). Mbarapi of Ajawa; Mpala-Mpala of Anyanja, Angonis, and other Nyasa races (Crawshay). Palla-Halla in Swahili (Matschie).

Size rather less than in the Roan Antelope; adult male about 52 inches at the withers. General colour a rich glossy black, at least in adult males, only relieved by the white of the face-markings, of the inner surface of the ear, and of the belly. Centre line of face black, outside which there is a white streak reaching from the bases of the horns to the muzzle, succeeded again on the cheeks by a black band. Lips and region of lower jaw white. Ears of ordinary length, their tips not pencilled. Mane well developed, the hairs directed backward. A throat-mane present. Belly and back of hams sharply defined white. Limbs black, the inner sides of the thighs white. Whole of tail black.

Skull-dimensions of an adult male from Nyasaland:—Basal length 15·7 inches, greatest breadth 6·55, muzzle to orbit 11.

Horns much longer than in H. equinus, compressed laterally, their longitudinal much greater than their transverse diameter, heavily ringed, boldly curved backward. In length they are often 43 or 44 inches long round the front curve, the record being 46 inches.

Female. Similar to the male, but more or less brownish in colour; horns (just as in H. equinus) more slender and smooth, less curved, and rather shorter than in the male.

Hab. Eastern Africa, from the Northern Transvaal to German East Africa.

The distinguished traveller and sportsman Sir William Cornwallis Harris whose works we have so often quoted in these pages, was the discoverer of this Antelope, which was characterized by Gordon-Cuming—the great African hunter—as “one of the loveliest animals which graces this fair creation.” Harris writes in one of his works that “the desire nearest to his heart” from the beginning of his journey had been to “discover something new”; and in the present instance he certainly succeeded. But we will let him tell his story in his own words.

When encamped on the Cashan Mountains in what is now the north-western part of the Transvaal, in 1836, as he writes in his volume on ‘Wild Sports in Southern Africa,’ he achieved his success as follows:—

“My doubled-barrelled rifle having again suffered in a fall with my horse, I took the field on the 13th December with a heavy weapon constructed upon the primitive principle of flint and steel, which, as a pis-aller, I had obtained at the Kuruman.

“Our party were in full pursuit of a wounded elephant, when a herd of unusually dark-looking antelopes attracted observation in an adjacent valley. Reconnoitring them through a pocket-telescope from the acclivity on which we stood, I at once exclaimed that they were new; and having announced my intention of pursuing them, if requisite, to the world’s end, I dashed down the slope, followed by the derision of the Hottentots, for my unsportsman-like attention to an ‘ugly buck,’ one specimen of which, however, I assured them I would rather possess than all the elephants in Africa! In an instant I was in the middle of the herd, which was then crossing the valley—nine chestnut-coloured does leading, and two magnificent coal-black bucks—all with scimitar-shaped horns—bringing up the rear. Hastily dismounting, I was delighted to observe them stand for a few seconds within fifty yards, and stare at me with amazement. In vain was it, however, that I pulled the trigger of my rifle; three several times the heavy machinery of the lock descended with alarming vehemence, but no report followed the concussion; and the herd having in the meantime ascended a steep hill, I fairly rode my horse to a standstill in the attempt to overtake them. Cursing my hard fortune as I dashed the hateful weapon to the ground, I hastened to the camp to repair my rifle; armed with which, and mounted on a fresh steed, I returned with my companion to the spot, where, having taken up the footmarks, we followed them, with unwearied perseverance, among the hills, during the whole of that and the following day, without attaining even a glimpse of the objects of our quest. At noon of the third day, however, peeping cautiously over a bank, our laudable assiduity was rewarded by the gratifying sight of the two bucks grazing by themselves, unconscious of our approach, in a stony valley.

“Having disposed our forces, after a moment’s consultation, so as to intercept the game from a tangled labyrinth of ravines, the attack was made. The hind leg of the handsomer of the two was dangling in an instant, and in another he was sprawling on the earth. Quickly recovering himself, however, he led me more than a mile over the sharp stones ere he was brought to bay, when, twice charging gallantly, he was at length overthrown and slain.

“It were vain to attempt a description of the sensations I experienced when thus, after three days of toilsome tacking and feverish anxiety, unalleviated by any incident that could inspire the smallest hope of ultimate success, I at length found myself in actual possession of so brilliant an addition to the riches of natural history. The prize evidently belonged to the Aigocerine group, and was equal in stature to a large galloway. The horns, which were flat, and upwards of three feet in length, swept gracefully over the back in the form of a crescent. A bushy black mane extended from the lively chestnut-coloured ears to the middle of the back; the tail was long and tufted; and the glossy jet-black hue of the greater portion of the body contrasted beautifully with a snow-white face and belly. We thought we could never have looked at or admired it sufficiently; my companion observing, after a long pause, ‘that the Sable Antelope would doubtless become the admiration of the world,’ A drawing and description having been completed on the spot, the skin was carefully removed and conveyed upon a pack-horse in triumph to the camp; and it may possibly interest those of my readers, who shall have followed me during the last three days, to learn that I succeeded, with infinite difficulty, in bringing this unique and interesting specimen of African zoology, in a state of high preservation, to Cape Town, where, in October last, it was elegantly set up by Monsieur Verreaux, the French naturalist, and obligingly taken to England by my well-known friend Captain Alexander, 42nd Royal Highlanders, and is now in the British Museum.”

On January 9th, 1838, Harris exhibited his mounted specimen of the Sable Antelope at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, and proposed for it the apposite scientific name “niger.” The same specimen was subsequently figured in the second volume of the Society’s ‘Transactions.’

Writing in 1881 Mr. Selous gave the following account of the distribution of the Sable Antelope at that period:—

“At the present a few Sable Antelopes are still to be found in south-western. Matabele Land, in the neighbourhood of the Ramokwebani, Shashani, and Samookwe rivers (tributaries of the Shashe). Along the waggon-road leading from Tati to the Zambesi it may be met with here and there, but is decidedly scarce. All along the Chobe river, as far as I have been, I have met with this Antelope, though sparingly. In the Mābābe country, and on the road leading from there to Bamangwato, I neither saw a Sable Antelope nor the spoor of one, and do not think its range extends so far to the west. In the broken country to the south of the Victoria Falls, in the neighbourhood of the Pendamatenka and Daka rivers, it is not uncommon, but its true home is the higher portions of the Mashuna country, to the north-east of the Matabele country. There it is the commonest Antelope, and may still be met with in herds of over fifty individuals, the usual number being from ten to twenty. However large the herd, I have never seen more than one full-grown bull with it, though there may be several half-grown ones; whilst in a large herd of any other kind of Antelopes two or more full-grown males are nearly always to be seen. On the Manica plateau, north of the Zambesi, Sable Antelopes are also to be met with. The longest pair of male Sable Antelope’s horns I have seen measured 45 inches over the curve, the longest pair of female 33 inches. In the Mashuna country and along the Chobe the average length of the horns of these animals is greater than in south-western Matabele Land.”

In his admirable work entitled ‘A Breath from the Veldt’ Mr. John Millais has devoted many pages and sketches to the illustration of this splendid creature, which he evidently places as the finest of all the Antelopes of South Africa. He describes it as follows:—

“In general appearance and sporting qualities the Sable Antelope (Hippotragus niger) yields the palm to none of its kind. There is about the whole animal that indescribable charm that is so intensely African and associated with the wild life. Its strong individuality must ever stand out in the minds of those who have been so fortunate as to see and shoot it, and it is certainly one of the chief objects of interest in the splendid fauna of that country. Apart from its satin-like hide, sweeping horns, erect mane, and great strength, the Sable Antelope presents an appearance of fearlessness and nobility that is very striking, to say the least of it. Though the Koodoo surpasses his rival in elegance and general appearance when dead, he is but a skulker, and makes but a poor show beside the Sable on the Veldt. I would say, if such a comparison be allowable, the two hold their own like the rival beauties of a London drawing-room. The fair beauty sits quietly in a corner, charming her immediate circle with her graceful shyness and beauty, and people take sly glances at her from the other end of the room, while pretending to devote their attention to someone else. What a contrast with her black-eyed rival, who flaunts into the room as if she owned the entire show, and commands the attention of all eyes by her flashy and striking beauty! The one attracts attention slowly, the other commands it at once. Roughly speaking, the height of this grand Antelope at the shoulder is about 4½ feet, but he looks much taller, owing to his great shoulders and unusually thick neck, ornamented with its erect crest of hair. The tail is long, and has a good wisp of hair at the end, which, like the tails of the Roan Antelope and the Waterbuck, swings from side to side as the animal gallops away. Like the Koodoo, the horns of the Sable are its chief glory, and the noble manner in which the head is carried by the buck when on the move is a splendid thing to see. Unlike all Deer, and nearly all Antelope, the Sable when running arches the neck instead or raising the chin; this gives the animal its nice picture-booky look, and I could hardly imagine a finer subject for an animal painter than a herd of these grand beasts on the move, if their heads and necks be properly drawn.”

Mr. F. V. Kirby, F.Z.S., in his ‘Haunts of Wild Game,’ also devotes a whole chapter to an account of his rencontres with this Antelope, which he found “by no means rare” in his favourite hunting-grounds in the Lydenburg district of the Transvaal, and gives several excellent illustrations of its noble form.

Lastly, Mr. J. Ffolliott Darling, F.Z.S., has kindly favoured us with the following field-notes on this Antelope as lately observed by him in Mashonaland and Matabeleland:—

“These Antelopes, of which the Mashona names are Inguarāti and Marabālla, were much more numerous before the incursion of the Pioneers in 1890, but even now, in most out-of-the-way places, they are abundant, especially on the higher parts of the plateau, which is from 3000 to 5000 feet high. As late as 1896 I have seen troops of these bucks lying out on the open flats at midday, far from any cover, but, as a rule, when much disturbed and hunted, they seek concealment in the bush for their daily sleep. They usually go in troops of from 5 to 12 or 15, the largest herd I ever counted consisting of 22 individuals; I often heard of troops of 50 or 60, but when an opportunity offered of counting them they invariably resolved themselves into a score or so. Occasionally one comes across a bull keeping altogether by himself, and in such cases I always found him very wary and almost impossible to approach within shot. Whatever may be the reason for his going alone, it is evidently the same cause that has also made him very suspicious and cautious. I have known a lone bull haunt a certain spot for months, and have seen him frequently, but never in company. Sometimes 3 or 4 bulls will be found together, but usually herds are mixed—young and old, male and female, run together; a troop of 10 will consist of one big bull, 3 or 4 younger males, and the remainder cows or young ones. The old bulls don’t seem to wish to drive away the younger males, as Deer do.

“One day, as I was quietly meandering through the bush in Mashonaland, a troop of 10 or 12 Sable came trotting by. About half had gone past me without suspicion, when a cow took the alarm, and, stopping suddenly, looked in my direction. She could not exactly make out the enemy, but after a few seconds she stamped her foot two or three times and snorted, as if to warn the others to keep quiet. They all stopped, gazing about, but finally cantered off without having satisfied their curiosity.

“These Antelopes fight very well with their long curved horns, and strike sideways very quickly. A dog that is unwise enough to run up behind and try to lay hold of one has little chance of escaping impalement. A bull won’t run very far from a dog, but will stop to fight him, and if the dog keeps out of his reach and stays running round and barking at him the hunter can easily get up for a shot.

“When taken young, Sables get very tame and bold, and will push open the door and demolish a loaf of bread or any other eatables that may be handy. A young bull used to frequent the laager at Salisbury during the Mashonaland rebellion in 1896; he was very friendly with white folks, but—unlike some of the stay-at-home philanthropists—knew the difference between white and black men very well, and if a ‘black brother’ took any liberties with him he was promptly knocked down.

“The Sable calves are mostly born in November and December (spring and early summer), but I have shot cows heavy with young at the same time that others had good-sized calves.”

Passing northwards of the Zambesi we find the Sable Antelope recorded by Peters, in his ‘Reise nach Mossambique,’ as met with in the Portuguese dominions west of Tette, and on the woody plains of Sena. In Nyasaland Mr. Crawshay tells us it is not by any means evenly distributed, but appears to be plentiful in some places. In the Shiré Highlands, as Sir Harry Johnston writes, the Sable is one of the commonest Antelopes, frequenting the wooded hills rather than the low-lying plains, and we have seen many heads obtained by Mr. Sharpe, the late Capt. Sclater, and others from this district.

Sir Harry Johnston believes that the Sable Antelope is also found on the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau; but it has not, so far as we are aware, been obtained there by Mr. Sharpe, Mr. Crawshay, Mr. Yule, and others who have traversed that district. It, however, certainly occurs again further north in the coast-district of German East Africa. Herr Oscar Neumann informs us that during his journey through German and British East Africa he never saw a specimen of H. niger alive, but only the skin of one that had been killed near Tanga on the coast. His opinion is that the species is not now to be met with anywhere in the interior of German East Africa, but that there are still some herds of it left on the coast opposite Zanzibar, near Tanga and Pangani. In this district it was formerly hunted by Sir John Kirk, in whose collection there is a head of the Sable Antelope, which has been examined by Sclater. The specimen, as Sir John kindly informs us, was obtained about twelve miles inland, somewhat to the north of the River Wami, in the winter of 1884–5.

Whether the Sable Antelope occurs much further north than this seems to be by no means certain. Sir Harry Johnston has enumerated it among the Antelopes of the Kilimanjaro district (Kilimanjaro Exp. p. 354). Sir John Willoughby had a shot at what “he believed was a herd of ‘Sable Antelopes’” on his journey from Mombasa into the interior in 1886 (East Africa, pp. 46, 47), but did not secure a specimen. Mr. Jackson and Mr. Gedge “saw a herd of about ten or twelve near Gulu Gulu in November 1888,” but Mr. Jackson admits that no European has yet bagged a Sable Antelope in British East Africa.

There is also no good authority for the occurrence of the Sable Antelope still further north on the White Nile, although it is included in Heuglin’s List of N.E. African Mammals as being met with in the Shilluk country on the authority of v. Pruyssenaer. We may therefore, for the present, draw the northern limit of the Sable Antelope on the east side of Africa at somewhere about the 5th degree N. lat. On the western side of Africa the Sable Antelope, which Mr. Selous has already shown to occur on the Manica Plateau in Barotseland, appears to extend thence into Southern Angola, where, according to Prof. Barboza du Bocage, Welwitsch obtained it in Mossamedes[9].

Many living specimens of the Sable Antelope have been brought to Europe of late years. The first example, a male, reached our Zoological Society’s Gardens in 1861, and a second male in 1873. In 1895 a fine young pair were purchased of Mr. C. Reiche, of Alfeld, along with the young female Giraffe which arrived in February of that year. They have done well and are still thriving, but have not yet bred.

At the Zoological Gardens of Hamburg they have been more fortunate with this species, a fine calf having been born there on the 1st of May, 1894. Of this interesting animal we are able to give an illustration (Plate LXXX.) through the kindness of the Director, Dr. Bolau, who has sent Sclater an excellent water-colour drawing of the mother and young, executed by the well-known German zoological artist Leutemann, when the young one was rather more than a fortnight old. Other Continental gardens have also now, or have lately had, living representatives of this beautiful species. In the Cologne Gardens, as Dr. Wunderlich kindly informs us, this Antelope has bred twice—in April 1896, when the period of gestation was observed to be 272 days, and in March 1898, when it was reckoned at 281 days.

Our illustration of the male of this Antelope (Plate LXXIX.) was put on the stone by Mr. Smit, under the direction of the late Sir Victor Brooke, about twenty years ago, from a water-colour sketch prepared by Mr. Wolf, but we have not been able to ascertain from what specimen it was taken. Mr. Smit at the same time prepared a wood-block of the head (fig. 91, p. 38), which he believes was taken from a specimen lent to Sir Victor by Mr. Selous.

Besides Harris’s original type specimen to which we have already called attention, there are mounted examples of both sexes of this Antelope and a mounted skeleton in the British Museum received from Mr. Selous, who procured them in Mashonaland. There are also in the National Collection a skin of an adult female from Caffreland (Wahlberg), three skins from Nyasaland presented by Sir Harry Johnston, and a skin from Lake Mweru presented by Mr. Alfred Sharpe, besides several skulls and pairs of horns from different localities.

112. THE SABLE ANTELOPE. HIPPOTRAGUS NIGER (Harr.). [PLATES LXXIX. & LXXX.]

112. THE SABLE ANTELOPE.
HIPPOTRAGUS NIGER (Harr.).
[PLATES LXXIX. & LXXX.]