Part 27

“Frontal bone between the base of the horns and orbit convex, the same part being remarkably flat in other species.” (Brooke, MS.)

Facial length 17½ inches, muzzle to orbit 13, breadth of forehead 4·4.

Horns curved as in the Bubal, but longer and heavier, their length round the curves amounting to over 20 inches.

Hab. Gambia, Lower Niger district, and interior of Cameroons.

There can be no doubt of the existence of a Bubal allied to B. buselaphus in several districts on the West Coast of Africa. But there are no perfect specimens of this Antelope at present available for comparison, and its distinctness from its northern representative may still be a matter of some uncertainty, although we have good reason to believe that the two species will ultimately prove to be specifically different.

The well-known naturalist Edward Blyth, for many years Curator of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and a good authority on the larger Mammals, was the first writer to call attention to the existence of this Antelope. In a communication made to the Zoological Society in 1869, Blyth states that he had examined a “perfect skin” of what he at once recognized as a “distinct though closely allied species,” differing from B. buselaphus “in being fully as large as a Hartebeest, and in having black markings in front of all four feet above the hoofs.” Blyth’s opinion was that some mounted specimens which he saw in the Museums of Leyden and Amsterdam referred to B. buselaphus belonged strictly to this new form. He also exhibited on the same occasion a pair of frontlets belonging to Ward, of Vere Street, as referable to what he proposed to designate Boselaphus major. These frontlets, which were subsequently figured in the Society’s ‘Proceedings,’ are now in the British Museum.

Fig. 1 b.

Horns of Bubalis major.

(Gambia, Carter, 1891.)]

Whether the “variety 1” of the Bubal, established by Gray in 1850 upon a skin without horns or hoofs, said to have been brought by Fraser from Tunis, really belonged to this species, must ever remain doubtful. This skin is no longer to be found, and if it were really referable to B. major it was probably brought by Fraser from West Africa and not from Tunis, where the typical B. buselaphus is found. Gray’s inaccuracy as regards localities is notorious, and Fraser visited both parts of Africa. Under these circumstances we may altogether neglect the name “tunisianus” bestowed on this “variety” in 1852, as being highly doubtful as well as inapplicable.

Fig. 1 d.

Horns and skull of Bubalis major.

c. Front view; d. Side view. (Brooke.)]

It is probable that the horns from the Cameroons, referred by Herr Matschie to “B. lelwel, Heuglin,” and those from Togoland, referred by the same author to B. major, also belong to this species, which would appear to inhabit suitable districts in Western Africa from Senegal to the Cameroons.

A pair of horns of this Antelope was amongst the specimens obtained by Dr. Percy Kendall from the Gambia in 1890. Another very fine pair was brought by Sir Gilbert Carter from the Gambia in 1891, from which the accompanying drawings (figs. 1 a and 1 b, p. 12) have been taken. These horns are in Sclater’s possession.

The two other figures (figs. 1 c and 1 d, p. 13) were prepared by Sir Victor Brooke, probably from horns in his collection.

Besides Blyth’s frontlets already mentioned, there are a pair of horns of the Bubal in the British Museum obtained by Mr. E. Bower on the Lower Niger in 1892, and several other specimens of horns without exact localities. Sclater has also examined, casually, a mounted specimen in the Senckenbergian Museum at Frankfort-a/M., labelled Bubalis mauritanica, which is probably of this species. According to his notes it is “nearly uniform brown; forehead ferruginous; black round the feet.”

May, 1894.

3. THE TORA.

BUBALIS TORA (GRAY).

Buselaphus bubalis, =Heugl.= Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act. Leopold. Carol. xxx. pt. ii.) p. 21 (1863) (nec Pall.).

Tétel (Antilope bubalis), =Baker=, Nile Tributaries, p. 179 (1867).

Alcelaphus tora, =Gray=, Nature, viii. p. 364; =id.= Ann. Mag. N. H. (4) xii. p. 341 (1873); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. p. 172, pl. xli. (skull and horns) (1873); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1873, pp. 729 and 762 (Settite R.), 1875, p. 529; =Rütimeyer=, Rind. Tert.-Epoch. p. 47, pl. v. figs. 7 & 8 (1877); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 139 (1887); =Lyd.= Field, lxxvii. p. 858 (1891); =Jent.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 171 (1892).

Acronotus bubalis, =Heugl.= Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 122 (1877).

Bubalis bubalis, =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 217, pl. (animal) (1880).

Bubalis tora, =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 59, fig. (head) (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 198 (1893).

VERNACULAR NAMES:--Tora in Amhar, Abyssinia; Tori in Tigre; Guragua or Quaraqua in Belen; Tétel of Arabs in Sennaar (Heuglin).

Size large, height at withers about 48 inches; hairs of face directed as in B. buselaphus. Colour uniform pale fulvous, decidedly paler than in other species, and, with the exception of the usual black chin and tail-tuft, entirely without black markings. Lower part of rump behind decidedly lighter than the dorsal surface.