Part 40

Antilope pygarga, =Pall.= Spic. Zool. fasc. i. p. 10 (1767), fasc. xii. p. 15 (1777); =Erxl.= Syst. R. A. p. 287 (1777); =Zimm.= Geogr. Gesch. ii. p. 119 (1780); =Gatt.= Brev. Zool. i. p. 82 (1780); =Schreb.= Säug. pl. cclxxiii. (1784); =Bodd.= Elench. Anim. p. 143 (1785); =Gmel.= Linn. S. N. i. p. 187 (1788); =Kerr=, Linn. An. K. p. 311 (1792); =Donnd.= Zool. Beytr. p. 628 (1792); =Bechst.= Uebers. vierf. Thiere, i. p. 87, ii. p. 644 (1800); =Shaw=, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, p. 352 (1801); =Turt.= Linn. S. N. i. p. 113 (1802); =Desm.= N. Dict. d’H. N. (1) xxiv. tabl. p. 33 (1804); =G. Cuv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 233 (1804); =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freund. Berl. vi. p. 166 (1814); =G. Fisch.= Zoogn. iii. p. 435 (1814); =Afzel.= N. Act. Upsal. vii. p. 220 (1815); =Desm.= N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 186 (1816); =Goldf.= in Schreb. Säug. v. p. 1187 (1820); =Schinz=, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 388 (1821); =Desm.= Mamm. ii. p. 456 (1822); =Desmoul.= Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. p. 443 (1822); =Burch.= List Quadr. pres. to B. M. p. 5 (1825) (Swellendam); =Less.= Man. Mamm. p. 373 (1827); =Smuts=, Enum. Mamm. Cap. p. 73 (1832); =Waterh.= Cat. Mamm. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 41 (1838); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 412 (1844), v. p. 447 (1855); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 402 (1845).

Capra cervicapra, =Müll.= Naturs. i. p.414 (1773) (nec L.).

Antilope grisea, =Bodd.= Elench. Anim. p. 139 (1785).

Capra scripta, =Thunb.= Resa, ii. p. 50 (1789); Engl. Transl. ii. p. 44 (1793) (nec Antilope scripta, Pall.).

Antilope maculata, =Thunb.= Mém. Ac. Pétersb. iii. p. 315 (1811).

Cerophorus (Gazella) pygarga, =Blainv.= Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.

Cemas pygargus, =Oken=, Lehrb. Naturgesch. iii. pt. 2, p. 738 (1816).

Antilope personata, =Woods=, Zool. Journ. v. p. 2 (1835) (young).

Gazella pygarga, =Harr.= Wild Anim. S. Afr. (fol.) pl. xvii. (animal) (1840); =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 161 (1843).

Damalis pygarga, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 233 (1846); =id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 59 (1847); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850, p. 141; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 21, pl. xx. fig. 3 (young), pl. xxii. figs. 2 & 3 (adult) (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 127 (1852); =Layard=, Cat. S. Afr. Mus. p. 77 (1861); =Gerr.= Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 244 (1862); =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 181 (1869); =Layard=, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 625, footnote (scarcity); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 45, pl. iii. fig. 6 (skull) (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 116 (1873); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 140 (1887); =id.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 171 (1892); =Nicolls & Egl.= Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 32, pl. vii. fig. 27 (head) (1892).

Bubalis pygarga, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844, p. 209 (1846); =id.= ibid. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 159; Reprint, p. 84 (1848); =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 195 (1852); =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 217 (1880); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 69 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 202 (1893).

Alcelaphus pygargus, =Scl.= List Anim. Z. S. (8) p. 150 (1883); =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Ost. Coll. Surg. p. 273 (1884); =Bryden=, Kloof and Karroo, p. 295 (1889); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 335 (1891).

White-faced Antelope, =Penn.= Hist. of Quad. i. p. 82.

VERNACULAR NAME:--Bontebok of Dutch and English colonists.

Height at withers about 40 inches. Ground-colour of body, as seen on the anterior half of the back, rufous fawn. Crown, sides of face and neck, flanks, thighs, and the anterior half of the rump darkened nearly or quite to black, which colour also runs down the limbs to the knee and hock, where it passes as a dark ring right round the limbs. Face with a large strongly contrasted blaze of pure white, which covers the whole breadth of its upper surface on the muzzle, but is much narrower above the eyes, where it runs up to the bases of the horns. In the young the facial blaze is simply brown. Posterior half of rump, base of tail, belly, and lower limbs also white. Terminal half of tail, which reaches just to the hock, black-crested.

Hairs of face reversed upwards to horns. No glandular suborbital brushes.

Skull narrow and lightly built, its measurements about as in the next species.

Horns somewhat like those of D. korrigum and its allies, but their bases more compressed and twisted inwards towards each other in front; above they curve evenly backwards and outwards, their terminal five or six inches again gently recurved upwards. Their ridges are 15 or 16 in number, very prominent in front, less so on the sides and behind; their substance is quite black. In length they attain 15 or 16 inches, with a basal circumference of about 6.

Hab. Cape Colony, south of Vaal River (now nearly extinct).

The “Bontebok,” or “Pied Goat,” of the Dutch colonists of the Cape, was amongst the earliest Antelopes known to science. In his first essay on the genus Antilope, published in 1766, Pallas described it as Antilope dorcas, having confounded it with the Dorcas of Ælian. But in his second essay upon the same group, issued in the following year, he selected for it the very appropriate name pygarga, by which it has been generally known ever since. The Bontebok and Blessbok together constitute a distinct section of the present genus, readily known from their congeners by their smaller stature and conspicuous white faces.

Lichtenstein, in his celebrated memoir on the genus Antilope, published at Berlin in 1814, made Antilope pygarga the tenth species of the genus, and gave original particulars of it from specimens which he had himself obtained during his visit to South Africa. He states, however, that this animal is the Blessbok, and not the Bontebok, of the Cape; and there can be no doubt that both these names have been applied to it, though the former term is now by general consent restricted to the next following species, Damaliscus albifrons. For example, Smuts, in his ‘Enumeratio Mammalium Capensium,’ gives both “Bontebok” and “Blessbok” as the colonial names of the present species. In fact these animals were never correctly discriminated till Harris gave figures and descriptions of them in his ‘Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa,’ published in 1840.

Harris tells us that in his time the Bontebok was “common” in the interior of the Cape Colony, and was also found in one valley near Cape Agulhas. On the plains lying south of the Vaal River he visited the headquarters of the Bontebok, where “thousands upon thousands were seen and numbers were daily slain.” They were frequently seen congregated on the salt-flats, near the stagnant pools of brackish water, licking up the crystallized efflorescence.

Thirty years later a very different tale was told of the Bontebok, which by that date had become nearly extinct except in one isolated spot. Mr. E. L. Layard (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 625) gives the following account of this animal at that period:--“The Bontebok is very nearly exterminated, and, but for the fostering care of Messrs. Breda and Van der Byl, would be quite so in a couple of years.

“They are now confined to one spot in the extreme south of the continent of South Africa, to a portion of the country called the ‘Strand Veldt.’ It is an extensive flat, bordered by the sea on the south-west, south, and south-east, and by a range of undulating country or low hills rising to the Caledon Ranges and Zwart Bergen on the northern side. It is, in fact, the nearest plateau to the L’Agulhas Bank, and is called ‘Cape L’Agulhas.’ The whole of this country belongs chiefly to the families of Breda and Van der Byl; and they preserve the animals as much as they can. A Government permit is also required to shoot them, which must be visa’d by the magistrate at Bredasdorp, the name of the village on this range of land.

“They are, however, poached and destroyed by one or two small holders, who have patches of land surrounded by the large properties, and who refuse all offers of purchase, and plant corn on purpose to tempt the animals into it, and then at night shoot them. They roam in herds of about eight or ten, or twenty; but sometimes fine old bucks are found solitary. They are usually shot from a cart, which they will suffer to approach them, or from horseback. If wounded and approached they will charge desperately; and I have heard of a Hottentot being killed by them thus.”

Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington in their ‘Sportsman in South Africa,’ which contains the most recent account of the Antelopes of the Colony, tell us that the Bontebok can no longer “be considered as a part of the wild game of the country,” as it now exists only on Van der Byl’s farm (as mentioned by Mr. Layard) and has become totally extinct elsewhere.

Mr. H. A. Bryden, a well-known authority upon the game of the Cape, tells us the same story. One of the last resorts of this Antelope was the Bontebok Flats, to the north of the present Queenstown district, where a few of these Antelopes existed up to 1851. It appears certain, however, that except in the farm above mentioned, where a few have been carefully preserved for many years, the Bontebok is, at the present time, an extinct animal.

The Bontebok was amongst the many splendid Antelopes that were to be seen in the celebrated Knowsley Menagerie, and which bred in that establishment. The young is figured in one of Waterhouse Hawkins’s large plates in the ‘Gleanings,’ and the adult pair in another plate along with the Blessbok.