Part 42

At the present time these mighty herds have altogether vanished. So late as 1861 Mr. E. L. Layard wrote that the Blessbok was “still found in considerable herds on the north-eastern border of Colony.” But in 1889 Mr. Bryden (‘Kloof and Karroo’) tells us that this Antelope had become quite extinct within the limits of Capeland. Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington, however, inform us that the Blessbok is still to be found on some farms in the Transvaal, and in one or two spots in the Orange Free State. “Previous to Sir Charles Warren’s Expedition in 1884 they were fairly common on the open flats in Southern Bechuanaland, particularly in the neighbourhood of Groot Choiang, and also in the district of Rhamathlabama, a few miles north of Mafeking. They are now practically extinct there, an occasional troop only straying into that district from the preserved farms in the Transvaal.”

Damaliscus albifrons.]

Of the Blessbok, so far as I know, Lord Derby never procured for the Knowsley Menagerie but a single female, which was figured by Waterhouse Hawkins on the same plate of the ‘Gleanings’ as the Bonteboks. At the sale of the Knowsley Menagerie in August 1851, this animal was purchased by Mr. Westermann for the Zoological Society of Amsterdam. In 1861 the Zoological Society of London received, as a present from Sir George Grey, then Governor of the Cape Colony, a single female of this Antelope along with other valuable animals. A male of the same species was obtained by purchase in 1862 and a female about two years later. These animals throve and bred in the Society’s Gardens, and young ones were born in 1866, 1869, and 1870. But in the absence of fresh importations the whole stock was lost, and no Blessboks have been exhibited in the Society’s Gardens since 1880, when a single specimen was received “on deposit.” In many of the continental gardens also Blessboks were formerly to be seen, but of late years they have become extremely scarce; although we are informed that there are still solitary examples living at Berlin, Antwerp, and Amsterdam, and Mr. Reiche kindly tells us that he imported three females from the Transvaal this summer.

In the National Collection at the British Museum the Blessbok, we regret to say, is even more imperfectly represented than the Bontebok. Besides a mounted female specimen in bad condition there are only a few frontlets of this species, so that additional specimens of this beautiful Antelope, before it becomes quite extinct, would be specially acceptable.

The drawing of this Antelope (Plate IX.) and the woodcut now given (p. 82) were both prepared under Sir Victor Brooke’s directions. The Plate was engraved by Smit from one of Mr. Wolf’s sketches.

January, 1895.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES. PL. X.

Wolf del. Smit lith. Hanhart imp.

The Sassaby.

DAMALISCUS LUNATUS.

Published by R. H. Porter.]

15. THE SASSABY.

DAMALISCUS LUNATUS (BURCH.).

Sasayby, =Daniell=, Afr. Sketch, pl. 18 (1820).

Antilope lunata, =Burchell=, Travels, ii. p. 334 (1824); =id.= List Quadr. pres. to B. M. p. 5 (1825) (Makkwarin R., Orange Free State); =Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 642 (1830); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Supp. iv. p. 471 (1844), v. p. 446 (1855); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 444 (1845); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 298 (1859).

Damalis lunata, =Ham. Sm.= Griff. Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 352, plate (copied from Daniell), v. p. 364 (1827); =Smuts=, Enum. Mamm. Cap. p. 89 (1832); =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 233 (1846); =id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 59 (1847); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850, p. 140; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 21 (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 125 (1852); =Gerr.= Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 244 (1862); =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 180 (1869); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 45 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 115 (1873); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 139 (1887); =id.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 171 (1892); =Nicolls & Egl.= Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 33, pl. vi. fig. 19 (head) (1892).

Acronotus lunatus, =A. Sm.= S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii. p. 222 (1834); =Harr.= Wild An. S. Afr. pl. viii. (1840); =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 157 (1843); =id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 59 (1847).

Bubalus lunatus, =A. Sm.= Ill. Zool. S. Afr. pl. xxxi. (animal) (1841).

Bubalis lunata, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844, p. 209 (1846); =id.= ibid. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 159; Reprint, p. 83 (1848); =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 195 (1853); =Drummond=, Large Game S. Afr. p. 426 (1875); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 66 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 202 (1893); =Selous=, P. Z. S. 1893, p. 1 (hybrid with B. caama).

Alcelaphus lunatus, =Buckley=, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 285 (distribution); =Selous=, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 764; =id.= Hunter’s Wanderings S. Afr. p. 225 (1881); =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Ost. Coll. Surg. p. 273 (1884).

VERNACULAR NAMES:--Bastard Hartebeest of Cape colonists; Sassaybe (Tsess[=e]be) of Bechuanas, now Anglicized into Sassăby by sportsmen generally; Incolomo and Incomazan of Matabili; Inkweko of Masubias; Unchuru of Makubas; Inyundo of Makalakas; Luchu or Lechu of Masaras (Selous); Myunzi of Zulus (Rendall).

Size large; height at withers nearly 4 feet. General colour dark chestnut-rufous; front of face, outer sides of shoulders, and hips black. Chin and end of muzzle paler than cheeks. Belly purplish rufous, the groins and back of horns only white. Limbs with the dark colour of shoulders and hips passing round them just above knees and hocks; below these the legs are all reddish brown. Tail with its tuft reaching to the hock, its base like the back, its crested terminal half black.

Face-hairs reversed up to horns. No glandular suborbital brushes.

Skull-measurements of an adult male:--basal length 14·9 inches, greatest breadth 6·2, muzzle to orbit 10·8.

Horns cylindrical, evenly curved, starting outwards and backwards, gradually turning inwards and backwards. There is also a slight lyration of the horns, so that both points and bases are directed a little upwards, the general lunate curve being thereby disturbed. Good male horns attain a length of 14 or 15 inches, with a basal circumference of 7 or 8.

Hab. S.E. Africa, north of the Orange River up to the Zambesi, and westward to the district of Lake Ngami.

The Sassaby is a fine large Antelope well known to the sportsmen of South-east Africa. Though it certainly belongs to this group, it is rather isolated by the peculiar form of the horns, which somewhat resemble those of the Tora. It nearest allies are no doubt the Blessbok and Bontebok, which, however, it considerably exceeds in stature, being nearly as big as a Hartebeest.

The first discovery of the Sassaby is due to the researches of the celebrated African traveller, Dr. William J. Burchell. On the 10th of July, 1812, when on the Makkwárin River, in what is now the Orange Free State, Burchell’s hunters obtained a single specimen of an Antelope which was at once recognized as “new,” and was subsequently described in the second volume of the author’s ‘Travels’ (published in 1824), as the “Crescent-horned Antelope, Antilope lunata” Burchell states that it seemed to be an extremely scarce animal, as he never met with it again during the whole of his journeyings, the fact being that he had only just entered within the southern boundary of the range of this species. Burchell’s typical specimen, or rather portions of it, viz. the frontlet and horns, is still in the National Collection, to which he presented it.