Part 36

Horns not, or little, longer than the head, lyrate, parallel at base, curving outwards above and then abruptly twisted inwards towards each other at the tip, the ends each forming a sharp hook, similar to that found in G. soemmerringi, but even more strongly bent inwards.

Hab. Bogosland, North-east Africa.

Fig. 71. Fig. 72.

Heads of Heuglin’s Gazelle, ♂ & ♀.

(From specimens in B. M.)]

What little we know of this Gazelle is chiefly due to the researches of the late Baron Theodor von Heuglin, an energetic collector and observer of the Mammals and Birds of North-eastern Africa, whose name we have already had frequent occasion to mention in the pages of this work. In the absence of any better designation, we have selected “Heuglin’s Gazelle” as its English name, which is so far applicable that, besides being its first describer, Heuglin is the only naturalist that has recorded observations on it as met with in its native wilds. Heuglin passed several months in the fertile territory of Bogos, north of Abyssinia (now, we believe, included in the Italian colony of “Eritrea”), when attached to the German expedition sent out in search of the much-lamented traveller Dr. Eduard Vogel. He thoroughly explored this country, which is traversed by the River Anseba, and discovered many new birds and mammals, which were subsequently described in his various works. Amongst the mammals was the present species of Gazelle, which he met with only “on the bushy plains round Ain-Saba from 3000 to 5000 feet above the sea-level, in small families of from three to six individuals.” In his original description Heuglin called this Gazelle Antilope melanura, but subsequently altered its specific name to “tilonura,” there having been already an Antilope melanura of Bechstein, which term is, however, a useless synonym of the Oribi (Ourebia scoparia). We have not been able to discover what the term “tilonura” means, but follow the change, which has been adopted by Sir Victor Brooke and other authors.

Little more, we regret to say, can be told of this beautiful species, which is readily distinguishable amongst its congeners by its broad black lateral stripe and lyre-shaped horns with incurved points. Sir Victor Brooke gave a figure of it from a stuffed specimen in his own collection to illustrate his article on the Gazelles in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1873. Our figure (Plate LXVI.), which was prepared by Smit under the direction of Sir Victor Brooke, was probably taken from the same specimen, now in the British Museum, to which it has been presented by Sir Douglas Brooke. It was obtained in Bogosland by Essler about 1872. Four other examples of this Gazelle procured at the same time by the same collector are also in the National Collection. From two of these the accompanying illustrations of the head and horns (figs. 71 & 72, p. 160) have been prepared by Mr. Smit.

May, 1898.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LXVII.

Wolf del. J. Smit lith. Hanhart imp.

The Red-fronted Gazelle.

GAZELLA RUFIFRONS.

Published by R. H Porter]

97. THE RED-FRONTED GAZELLE.

GAZELLA RUFIFRONS, GRAY.

Le Kevel, =F. Cuv.= H. N. Mamm. (fol.) i. livr. 1, pl. 368 (1818); Corine, ii. livr. 36, pl. 369 (1822), and Corine jeune, iv. livr. 72, pl. 370 (1842).

Gazella rufifrons, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. pp. 214 & 231 (1846); =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 5, pl. iv. (1850); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850, p. 115; =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 60 (1852); =id.= Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 39 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 108 (1873); =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 540; =Scl.= List An. Z. S. (8) p. 140 (1883); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 232 (1893); =Ward=, Horn Meas. (2) p. 159 (1896).

Antilope lævipes, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1845, p. 266 (1847); =id.= Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 262; Reprint, p. 82 (1848) (ex Kevel and Corine, F. Cuv., nec Buff.); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Suppl. v. p. 404 (1855).

Gazella lævipes senegalensis, =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. p. 159 (1869).

VERNACULAR NAME:--Seni, on the Gambia (Whitfield fide Gray).

Size medium, form comparatively rather stout. General colour deep sandy rufous, brightening into rich rufous on the forehead and muzzle. Nose-spot blackish. White facial streaks well defined, dark cheek-stripes rufous. Light lateral band broad, sandy buff, about the colour of the shoulders, sharply defined from the colour of the back; dark lateral band narrow, black, sharply defined, very prominent, succeeded below by a narrow edging of sandy. Knee-tufts absent. Tail blackish, except just at the base above, where it is sandy.

Skull of medium build; nasals rather broad and short, broadened behind; nasal opening long and narrow, the upper line of the premaxillæ straighter and less concave than usual. Dimensions of a slightly immature male:--Basal length 7 inches, greatest breadth 3, muzzle to orbit 3·95.

Horns rather short in proportion to the size of the animal, evenly divergent, slightly curved backwards below and forwards above, heavily ringed except for the terminal two or three inches.

Female. Similar to the male, but the horns straight, slender, and less ringed; those of an adult rather less than six inches in length.

Hab. Senegal and Gambia.

The existence of a Gazelle of the group allied to Gazella dorcas in West Africa was first made known to us by the authors of the great folio work called ‘Histoire Naturelle des Mammifères,’ issued at Paris, in which the figures were taken mostly from living specimens. In one of the early livraisons of this publication, in which French names only are primarily used, this species was referred to the “Kevel” of Buffon, and under this name a young male was figured, stated to have been brought to France from Senegal. In a later livraison two young specimens of the same species, also from Senegal, were figured as the “Corine” of Buffon, which was declared to be identical with the “Kevel.” We have, however, already shown (under the head of Gazella dorcas) that both these terms of Buffon are referable to the last-named species, and that neither these terms nor the scientific names founded upon them can be properly used for any other species. Hence it follows that the first scientific name that can be employed for this Gazelle is Gazella rufifrons of Gray, under which term it was curtly described by that author in the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History’ for 1846. Shortly after that period the same species was figured in ‘Gleanings from the Knowsley Menagerie’ by Waterhouse Hawkins, whose well-drawn plate contains portraits of two males, a female, and a young one of the present species.

As the drawings in the ‘Gleanings’ were not in all cases taken from animals living in Lord Derby’s Menagerie, some of them having been prepared from specimens in the British Museum, it is nearly certain that this was the case in the present instance. It will be observed that Gray in his description mentions almost exactly such a series as being in the Museum as is drawn in the ‘Gleanings,’ and it is not probable that a similar set should also have been living at Knowsley at the same time.

All the specimens mentioned by Gray, with one exception, are still in the National Collection, and, as “co-types” of the species, show clearly to what animal the name “rufifrons” should be applied.