Read Ebook: The book of antelopes vol. 2 (of 4) by Sclater Philip Lutley Thomas Oldfield

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Fig. Page

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES.

Horns present only in the male; short, nearly or quite straight, vertical or reclining backwards; ridged basally, smooth terminally.

A. Nose not specially elongated, its tip with a distinct naked muffle. Crown not tufted.

B. Nose elongated, its tip hairy round the nostrils. Crown tufted. 6. MADOQUA.

Type.

Hoofs large, cylindrical, blunt, in shape and position quite different to those of other Antelopes. The animal in life walks upon what is normally the pointed tip of the hoofs, so that the hoof stands up vertically, only its blunted end resting on the ground. Accessory hoofs present. Hairs of coat thick, pithy, somewhat similar in texture to those of the Musk-Deer. Tail a mere stump, scarcely projecting beyond the fur.

Skull peculiarly short and broad, stoutly built. Anteorbital fossae large.

Horns directed nearly vertically; slightly curved forwards; their basal third ringed.

Only one species is known.

OREOTRAGUS SALTATOR .

Height about 20-22 inches. Fur long and of very peculiar texture, each hair being thick, flattened, wavy, and, in fact, quite unlike the hair of any other Antelope, but more similar to that of the Musk-Deer. The general colour is a curious mixture of brown and greenish yellow, each hair being whitish for three-quarters of its length, then brown, and tipped with greenish yellow. Specimens vary very much in the vividness and tone of the yellow, which, especially in old males, is often exceedingly bright, and even verging on orange, particularly along the flanks. Of geographical variation we have as yet failed to find any evidence. Chin white; throat grizzled brownish yellow; belly whitish. Back of ears grey, their edges black. Front and outer sides of limbs like back, inner sides white. Toes just above hoofs black. False hoofs large. Tail short and stumpy, coloured like the body.

Skull short and broad; basal length in an adult male 4.4 inches, greatest breadth 3.15, muzzle to orbit 2.4.

Horns attaining a length of 3 1/2 or 4 inches.

Harris, in his well-known 'Portraits of the Game Animals of South Africa,' gives us a picture of the Klipspringer on the same plate as that of the Mountain Zebra , which in his time was still found in the high mountains of the Cape Colony, and supplies the following particulars:--

"During the pursuit of the Zebra, which was confined to the most steep and elevated parts of this rugged range, I repeatedly fell in with and killed the Klipspringer. Once extremely abundant in the Cape Colony, it is now daily becoming more rare--the venison being deservedly reputed among the first that the country affords, whilst the elastic hair is sought above all other materials for the stuffing of saddles. Long, padded, and standing out vertically from the side, it resembles moss in texture, and constitutes, as in the chamois of the Alps, a natural cushion to protect the animal from the contusions to which its habits must render it constantly liable. No antelope possesses more completely the lively gambolling manners of the young kid--none bound with greater force or precision from rock to rock, or clear the yawning abyss with more fearless activity. Found usually in pairs among the most precipitous rocks, and inaccessible summits, the Klipspringer would appear in Southern Africa to supply the place of the ibex and chamois; and such is the rigidity of its stiff pasterns, and the singular formation of the high cylindrical hoof, that even when at speed there is no track left but by the tips of the toes, whereas every other class of ruminant would leave, under similar circumstances, some traces also of the spurious hoofs. The most trifling obliquity or ruggedness of surface thus affording a secure foothold, the little animal, 'whose house is on the hill-top,' entertains a sense of self-security which oftentimes proves its ruin. Looking down from some craggy pinnacle, as if in derision of the vain efforts of its pursuer, it presents to the rifle the fairest of targets; and tumbled headlong from its elevated perch, pays the penalty of its rashness. Missed, it bounds from ledge to ledge, on which the human eye can mark no footing--balancing at one moment upon the giddy verge of a precipice where barely sufficient space exists for the hoof to rest--at the next casting itself recklessly into the bottomless chasm, and pitching, as if by miracle, upon some projecting peak, where all four feet appear to be gathered into the space of one. Another spring, and, clear of the intervening gulf, it is nimbly scaling yon perpendicular barrier, that resembles the wall of a lofty citadel--and now it is sweeping securely away over the naked and polished tablets of granite which pave the summits of those elevated regions."

Modern authorities on the Mammals of South Africa inform us that the Klipspringer, although not met with in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town, is still fairly common in certain districts of the broken and mountainous interior. In the hills about Kanya and Molopolole and in Bechuanaland, Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington tell us it is plentiful. The same is the case in the Zoutspansberg, Waterberg, and Murchison Ranges, in the Transvaal, and throughout the broken portions of Matabeleland. Mr. Selous speaks of it as being "particularly plentiful in the curious detached stony hills of Matabeleland and Mashonaland." In Natal Mr. W. H. Drummond tells us that he only found the Klipspringer on the Drachensberg Range, and, beyond the limits of the colony, on the precipitous faces of the Bombo Mountains.

Mr. Selous did not meet with this Antelope north of the Zambesi, but we have excellent authorities for its existence far beyond that limit. Peters, in his 'Reise nach Mossambique,' has recorded its occurrence on the Caruera Mountains near Tette. Sir John Kirk found it "singly or in pairs near the Kebrabassa Rapids of the Zambesi and on the Murchison Rapids of the Shir?;" and Mr. Whyte has sent us specimens from Mount Milanji, in Nyasaland, where it is found in pairs among rocks and on the higher ridges. It is also met with on Mount Zomba.

On Lake Nyasa Mr. Crawshay tells us that the Klipspringer is known as the "Chinkoma," and is common in rough mountainous country. He praises its venison as "excellent," and says that the skins are much prized by the hill-tribes of Nyasaland, who convert them into bags for carrying bread. Passing further northwards into German East Africa, we find this Antelope recorded as found in various mountainous localities. B?hm met with it on the Venusberg in Ugunda and B?hmer near Mpapwe, while St?hlmann and Emin Pasha obtained specimens at Bussissi on the Victoria Nyanza. Herr Oscar Neumann found the Klipspringer near the top of Mount Gurui in Irangi . Even the extreme summit of this extinct volcano is clothed with a vegetation of alpine flowers and short grass which supplies it with subsistence. In British East Africa, Mr. Jackson informs us, the Klipspringer is met with only in the rocky broken ground on the slopes of the hills and large "earth-boils" between Teita and Turkqueh, where there is no other game to be found.

In the Cape Colony it is said that the Klipspringer, when taken young, is easily tamed and makes a most sagacious pet; but it does not appear to live long in captivity, and Mr. Bryden tells us that they are most difficult and troublesome to rear. We are not aware that specimens of this Antelope have ever been brought alive to Europe.

Our illustration of this species has been taken by Mr. Smit from specimens in the British Museum. It represents an adult male in the foreground and a male and female together in the distance.

Besides two mounted specimens from the Cape, the British Museum contains three skins and skulls of this Antelope from Mounts Milanji and Zomba in Nyasaland , an immature skull from Somaliland , and some skins and skulls from Abyssinia.

Type.

Size largest of the subfamily. Hoofs normal, triangular, pointed, the animal standing, as is usual, on the flattened lower side of the hoof, with the point directed forwards. Accessory hoofs present. A naked glandular patch below each ear, and tufts on the knees, present in all the species. Tail short, generally tufted with black.

Anteorbital fossae of skull very large, their edges sharply ridged above and below. Anteorbital vacuities small. Nasal bones long.

Horns about three-quarters the length of the skull, slanting backwards, slightly or heavily ridged basally, smooth at the tip, but the different species vary considerably in the amount of ridging on the horns.

The members of this genus are remarkably uniform in character, and there are scarcely any characters of importance to distinguish from each other species so widely distant geographically as the Oribis of the Gambia, Abyssinia, Zambesia, and the Cape.

The following are the groups into which they seem best to fall:--

A. Horns comparatively slender and smooth, their basal two inches only slightly ridged.

OUREBIA SCOPARIA .

Size comparatively large. General colour bright sandy rufous, of underside pure sharply-defined white. Chin white. Throat and outer side of limbs like back. Above the anterior corner of each eye a white stripe, ending over the middle of the eye. Crown with or without a brown patch or horseshoe-shaped mark, which is very variable in its development. Auricular gland small, indistinct, scarcely more than half an inch in diameter. Knees with well-marked tufts of longer hairs. Small but distinct false hoofs present both on fore and hind feet. Tail with its tuft about four or five inches in length, its basal third sandy rufous like the back, the remainder thickly tufted, black.

Skull with a long slender muzzle. Supraorbital vacuities present. Premaxillae not reaching the nasals. Anteorbital fossae very large and open, filling up all the space in front of the orbits, their edges sharply ridged above and below.

Horns about four inches in length, slender, evenly tapering, slanting back at an angle of about 45? to the general line of the skull; very slightly curved upwards and forwards; their rings close together, low, rounded, and indistinct, present on the basal halves of the horns only.

Dimensions:--?. Height at withers 24 inches, hind foot 11, ear 3?7.

Skull: basal length 5?8, greatest breadth 2?9, muzzle to orbit 3?65.

A better figure of this Antelope than that of Allamand was published by Lichtenstein about the year 1828 in the third part of his 'Darstellung neuer oder wenig bekannter S?ugethiere,' a work which was devoted to the representation of new and little-known mammals of the Berlin Museum. Lichtenstein, who had himself travelled in South Africa, states that he had met with this species in Cafferland, and that it was known to the colonists as the "Bleekbok" or "Pale-buck," from its light colour, and was much valued as a game animal.

In 1861, when Mr. E. L. Layard prepared his Catalogue of the specimens in the collection of the South African Museum at Capetown, the Oribi was already nearly exterminated in the colony. But it still existed, he tells us, near Alexandria and Bedford in Somerset, and in some of the eastern divisions where large grassy plains are found. An "intelligent Kaffir," attached to the Museum, informed Mr. Layard that "the Oribi when slain by the natives belongs to the chief, who presents the fortunate hunter with a young cow in return. The skins of the Oribi are considered in the light of regal ermine and very highly valued."

When, however, we come to the open plains of Natal and Zululand we are assured by Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington, in the 'Sportsman in South Africa,' that the Oribi is even now very common. It also frequents the Transvaal in fair numbers, the Orange Free State, and parts of Matabeleland and Mashonaland. A few specimens are said to have been obtained in Bechuanaland, but it is unknown in the Kalahari Desert, and thence towards the west. The same observers tell us that "in speed the Oribi is very fast, and that it dodges from side to side when it runs in a peculiar manner with a series of leaps and rushes. It frequents the open flats, singly or in pairs, but keeps within reasonable distance of water."

As regards the exact range of the Oribi in Mashonaland, Mr. F. C. Selous, in his 'Hunter's Wanderings,' gives us the following particulars:--"North of the Limpopo, this Antelope is only to be met with in the following districts, viz. in north-eastern Mashunaland from the river Umzweswe to beyond the river Hanyana, in the open valleys which occur between the forest belts near the watershed, but to the north of the Machabe hills; on the exposed open downs nearer the watershed, and lying between the Machabe hills and Intaba Insimbi, I never saw any. On a large flat about fifty miles to the south of the junction of the Umfule and Umniati rivers, I saw a good many Oribi in 1880. Except in this district of the Mashuna country, the only other place south of the Zambesi where this Antelope exists is in the valley of Gazuma, an open boggy flat of only a few hundred acres in extent, which is situated at about thirty miles to the south-west of the Victoria Falls. Then again a few are to be seen on the northern bank of the Chobe, on the open ground bordering the marsh, in the neighbourhood of Linyanti. One never sees more than two or three of these Antelopes together. The horns of the male attain to a length of about 5 inches, and are ringed at the base."

There is a mounted pair of this species in the gallery of the British Museum which formerly belonged to the old "South-African Museum" of Sir Andrew Smith, besides some skins and skulls from the Cape without exact particulars. There is also the skull of an adult male from the Umfili River, Mashonaland, obtained by Mr. F. C. Selous, in the same Collection.

We are not aware that the Oribi has been kept in captivity in the Cape Colony, or ever brought alive to Europe.

OUREBIA HASTATA .

OUREBIA NIGRICAUDATA .

Dimensions of the typical specimen, ?:--Height at withers 21 inches; length of hind foot 10, of ear 3?4.

It was not to be expected that any representative of the Oribi would be found in Congoland or within the great forest-clad region of Western Africa. But when we come to the more open country of Senegal and the Gambia, an allied and nearly similar species appears upon the scene. The first evidence of its existence was given by F. Cuvier in 1829 by the publication of a figure and description of a female specimen under the name of the "Ourebi du S?n?gal," which was brought home alive by M. Perrotet, but died shortly after its arrival at Paris.

Again, some years later, Whitfield, one of the collectors employed by Lord Derby, brought home from the Gambia a living example of an Antelope, which was subsequently figured in 1845 for the 'Knowsley Menagerie' by Waterhouse Hawkins. This figure was referred by Gray, who drew up the letterpress of that splendid work, to the Abyssinian Oribi next described, but there can be little doubt that it really belonged to the Gambian form. Whitfield gave the native name of this Antelope on the Gambia as "Gebari."

Mr. Mosse, who brought the type specimen home himself, supplied Sir Victor with the information that he had procured it in March 1867, when it was only two or three months old, and that it had been caught on the banks of the Gambia about 70 or 80 miles from Bathurst, midway between that town and Macarthey's Island. Mr. Mosse had never met with a second individual.

In 1873 and 1876 the Zoological Society received female specimens of what were believed to be the same Antelope, but they did not live long in the Gardens.

OUREBIA MONTANA .

Skull dimensions :--Basal length 5?65 inches, greatest breadth 2?95, muzzle to orbit 3?44.

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