Part 36

Damalis hunteri, =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1889, p. 58 (woodcut of head), and p. 372, pl. xlii. (animal) (Tana R.); =Hunter=, in Willoughby’s E. Africa, p. 290, pl. iv. fig. 6 (head) (1889).

Alcelaphus hunteri, =Lyd.= Field, lxxvii. p. 858, fig. (head) (1891).

Alcelaphus (Damalis) hunteri, =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 336 (1891).

Bubalis hunteri, =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 70, fig. (head) (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 200, fig. 40 (head) (1893).

VERNACULAR NAME:--Herola of Gallas (Hunter).

Size medium, form more delicate and graceful than in most of the other species. Facial hairs wholly reversed upwards from the muzzle to the horns.

Colour uniform rufous, with no darker markings anywhere, on face, chin, or limbs, and the caudal crest even, black in every other species, is here wholly white. On the face, however, there is a well-defined white line passing from one eye to the other across the forehead. Lower part of rump not markedly lighter than upper.

Skull slender and lightly built. Basal length 12·9 inches, greatest breadth 5·2, muzzle to orbit 9·1.

Horns quite different from those of any other species; at their base they start upwards, then curve down and out, then diverge and slant backwards, and finally they curve evenly forwards, so that their terminal halves point directly upwards. In general form, therefore, they present a slight resemblance to those of the Pallah, a very different animal in all other respects. Good male horns attain a length of 20 to 25 inches (largest recorded 26¼ inches) measured round the curve, but female horns are in this species but little inferior to male.

Hab. Southern Somaliland, north bank of River Tana.

Head of Damaliscus hunteri.

(P. Z. S. 1889, p. 373.)]

We take this species of Damaliscus first in the present work because it is clearly divergent from the typical members of the genus, as seen in the Blessbok and Bontebok, and approaches in some respects the genus Bubalis. It is, however, as already pointed out, quite different from all the other species of both these genera in the shape of its horns, and is also unique in exhibiting the curious white line between the eyes across the forehead, which renders it easily recognizable.

Skull and horns of Damaliscus hunteri, ♂ ad.

(P. Z. S. 1889, p. 374.)]

Skull and horns of Damaliscus hunteri, ♀ ad.

(P. Z. S. 1889, p. 375.)]

Hunter’s Antelope has been called after its discoverer Mr. H. C. V. Hunter, F.Z.S., who met with it under the following circumstances:--

In the year after Sir Robert Harvey’s celebrated sporting-expedition to Kilimanjaro (in 1886–87), of which Sir John Willoughby has given us the history in his well-known volume on ‘East Africa and its Big Game,’ Sir Robert returned to Mombasa in company with Mr. Greenfield and Mr. Hunter, and, after another visit to the “Hunter’s Paradise of Taveta,” near Kilimanjaro, made a second trip, in quest of sport, up the valley of the River Tana, which forms the northern boundary of the dominions of the Imperial British East-African Company. Of this excursion Sir Robert prepared a short account, which has been printed as an appendix to the above-mentioned work. The party arrived at the mouth of the Tana in September, and proceeded up the river in boats to Golbanto, where they were hospitably received at the mission-station on the river. Leaving Golbanto on September 28th they reached, about ten days later, a village called Durani, some 150 miles from the mouth of the river. Here on the north bank Mr. Hunter, on October 16th, shot the first specimen of the Antelope which now bears his name, and immediately proceeded to take the photograph of its head, from which the accompanying engraving (fig. 7 a, p. 54) was taken. Other examples of this species were subsequently procured by Mr. Hunter and Mr. Greenfield. These include two heads (male and female) which are now in Sclater’s custody, and on which he established the species, and the mounted specimen which is now in the gallery of the British Museum. We are not aware that besides the examples procured on this occasion any other specimens of this rare and interesting Antelope have ever been brought to Europe.

The female Hunter’s Antelope differs from the male in its rather smaller size and in its longer and more slender horns, as shown in the accompanying woodcuts (figs. 7 b and 7 c) kindly lent to us by the Zoological Society of London.

Mr. Hunter’s field notes on this Antelope (as supplied by him to Sclater) are as follows:--

“We first met with this Antelope about 150 miles up the Tana River. It is only found for certain on the north bank of the river. It frequents the grassy plains principally, but I have also often seen it in thin thorny bush. It is generally met with in herds of from 15 to 25 individuals.

“At the time of the year when I came across them (October and November) I saw several young ones in the herds. The banks of the Tana River are fringed with a thin belt of forest, then the ground rises slightly and one sees extensive plains dotted here and there with large patches of bush, composed principally of euphorbias and aloes. The Lesser Koodoo (Strepsiceros imberbis) lives principally in these patches, and feeds outside of them in the early mornings and evenings. When I first saw the new Antelope I was stalking two examples of Gazella walleri, and though I saw the Hunter’s Antelope in the distance I mistook them for Impálas, which, however, are not found on the Tana on either bank.

“It was only when I fired at the Gazelles, and the Hunter’s Antelopes (a pair of young males) ran away, that I noticed that they were something new to me. They ran with rather a heavy gallop, like a Hartebeest. I then had a very long track after them, and managed to kill the young male which I first sent you.

“We did not come across these Antelopes again for some days, but then met with them in large numbers and got several specimens. They seemed to me to have more vitality than any other Antelope I have ever killed. This species certainly does not extend down to the coast, but we saw them as far as the furthest point we reached (about 250 miles) up the river, at a place called Mussa. Their Galla name is ‘Herola,’ not ‘Haranta’ as given in your original description.”

May, 1894.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. VII.

Wolf del. Smit lith. Hanhart imp.