Part 39

100. GRANT’S GAZELLE.

GAZELLA GRANTI, BROOKE.

New Antelope, Ugogo, =Speke=, Journ. of Disc. p. 61 (1863).

Antilope soemmerringii?, =Speke=, P. Z. S. 1863, p. 3 (Ugogo).

Gazella granti, =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 601, pl. xli.; =id.= P. Z. S. 1873, p. 550; =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1875, p. 527, pl. lix. (Viv. Soc. Zool.); =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 723 (figs., head); =Scl.= List An. Z. S. (8) p. 142 (1883); =Pagenst.= JB. Mus. Hamb. ii. p. 38 (1884); =Johnston=, Kilimanjaro Exp. p. 394 (1886); =Hunter=, in Willoughby, E. Africa, p. 289 (1889); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 342, fig. 2 (head) (1891); =Ward=, Horn Meas. (1) p. 104 (1892), (2) p. 148 (1896); =True=, P. U. S. Nat. Mus. xv. p. 473 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 236 (1893); =Lugard=, E. Afr. i. p. 534 (1893); =Jackson=, in Badm. Big Game Shooting, i. p. 298 (1894); =id.= P. Z. S. 1897, p. 453; =Matsch.= Säug. Deutsch-Ost-Afr. p. 131 (1895); =Donaldson Smith=, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 868; =A. Neumann=, Elephant-Hunting in E. Africa, pp. 9, 10 (figs., horns, ♂ ♀) (1898).

VERNACULAR NAMES:--Swara (Jackson) and Njéra (Stuhlmann) in Swahili.

Size large; height at withers about 34 inches. Fur close and short. General colour fawn, rather variable in tone. Lateral bands, both light and dark, usually very indistinct, often scarcely perceptible; but, on the other hand, occasionally well developed, especially in young animals. Central facial band richer fawn, approaching rufous; a brownish spot present on the muzzle. Light facial streaks white, sharply defined, running up over the eyes to the horns. Below these the dark facial bands are almost imperceptible, scarcely or not at all darker than the fawn-coloured cheeks and neck. Rump with the white of the hams very broad, extended upwards, and uniting across the base of the tail, so that the latter is quite separated from the dark body-colour; laterally the white penetrates angularly into the body-colour, overhanging the top of the pygal band, which is generally well-defined. Outer sides of limbs fawn, without blacker markings. Knee-brushes present, dark fawn. Tail above white for its basal half; black and crested terminally.

Skull stout and heavy, nasal opening broad. In that of an adult male the basal length is 9·75 inches, greatest breadth 4·4, muzzle to orbit 5·3.

Horns very long, longer and more powerful than in any other Gazelle; evenly but slightly curved backwards below, and gently recurved forwards terminally; sometimes but slightly divergent, but more often, especially in specimens from Kilimanjaro, they spread widely above, approaching each other again at their tips. Their section at base is a long oval, very different from the nearly circular section found in G. soemmerringi.

Female. Similar to the male, but the horns slender, nearly circular in section, more strongly ridged than in the females of most Gazelles; about two-thirds in length of those of the male.

Hab. Eastern Africa, from the district of Lake Rudolph, southwards to Ugogo.

Grant’s Gazelle, which has been appropriately named after one of its discoverers, is pre-eminent, even in this ornamental genus, for its size and elegance, and is, in fact, generally allowed to be one of the most beautiful species of the whole group of Antelopes. Speke and Grant left Zanzibar on the well-known expedition during which the efflux of the Nile from Lake Victoria was discovered, in September 1860. Starting from Bagamoyo on the opposite coast, and passing through Usagara, they arrived about two months later in Ugogo, then under the rule of a native chief called Magomba. It was in December 1860 during their stay at this place, where they were long detained by the drunken chief and his wazir, that Speke first met with the present Antelope. In the ‘Journal’ of his travels Speke tells us that while kept waiting to arrange the amount of his “hongo” he took the time out in the jungles very profitably, “killing a fine buck and doe Antelope of an unknown species.” “These animals,” he continues, “are of much about the same size and shape as the common Indian Antelope, and like them roam about in large herds, the most marked difference between the two being in the shape of their horns, and in their colour, in which in both sexes the Ugogo Antelopes rather resemble the Gazella picticaudata of Tibet, except that the former have dark markings on the face.”

Grant’s Gazelle, Ugogo.

(From Speke’s ‘Journal of Discovery,’ p. 61.)]

The original woodcut of Speke’s ‘Journal,’ drawn by Wolf, as shown by his initials, we have now the pleasure of reproducing by the kind favour of the publishers of that work. It was no doubt executed under Speke’s direction, and, although not quite satisfactory according to our present knowledge of the animal, gives several views of the shape and size of the horns of Grant’s Gazelle.

Although Speke in his ‘Journal’ writes of the Ugogo Antelope as being undoubtedly new, he was at first evidently by no means certain about this point, as in a letter addressed to Sclater from Kazeh, in February 1861, he referred it doubtfully to Gazella soemmerringi. But in a footnote to this letter (which was published in the ‘Proceedings’ of the Zoological Society for January 1863) Sclater stated his conviction that, so far as could be determined from the rough sketch of the horns which accompanied the letter, the Ugogo Antelope was certainly new, and he added that the late Dr. Gray was of the same opinion.

Heads of Grant’s Gazelle, ♂ & ♀.

(From Mr. Jackson’s specimens.)]

The box containing the specimens of the new Gazelle from Ugogo having been unfortunately lost on its journey to the coast, Sclater was unable to give any account of this animal in his paper on the Mammals collected and observed during the East-African Expedition, in the ‘Proceedings’ of the Zoological Society for 1864. The subject therefore was delayed until 1872, when Sir Victor Brooke, who was at that time busy upon the Antelopes, obtained from Col. Grant and Capt. Speke the careful sketches of the heads and skins of this animal which the travellers had made in their note-books. The examination of these sketches confirmed Brooke in the opinion that the Antelope represented by them was undoubtedly new to science; and consequently on April 16th of that year Sir Victor read a communication to the Zoological Society in which he proposed to name the new Gazelle after Grant, Speke’s name in this group of animals having been already commemorated by the Gazella spekei of Blyth and the Tragelaphus spekei of Sclater. Sir Victor gave as good a description of the new Antelope as he could from the notes before him, especially alluding to the extraordinary development of its horns, which attained dimensions nearly double those of any other Gazelle known to him. Brooke’s paper, which is accompanied by a beautiful coloured figure of the new Antelope, prepared by Wolf from Speke’s sketches, states that Col. Grant, who had supplied him with copious extracts from his note-books, informed him that this species was only met with during their expedition in Western Kinyenye, in Ugogo. The country inhabited by it he described as low-lying sandy plains, dotted over in some places with euphorbias, dwarf acacias, and stunted baobabs. The chief peculiarity of this district, owing doubtless to its comparatively low level, was the great accumulation of salt, which had of course a marked effect on the vegetation. Water at all times of the year was very scarce there, and often entirely absent, the little found being brackish and undrinkable.

In 1875 the Zoological Society received as a present from Sir John Kirk, then British Consul-General at Zanzibar, a living female Grant’s Gazelle, which, however, was unfortunately in very poor condition and died shortly after its arrival in London. The acquisition of this animal was announced by Sclater in a report on the additions to the Society’s Menagerie read on November 2nd of that year, and was accompanied by a figure of it drawn from the stuffed specimen by Mr. Smit. So far as we know, this is the only individual of Grant’s Gazelle that has ever reached Europe alive.

It will be observed that the original place of discovery of Grant’s Gazelle was in what is now German East Africa. In this country, according to Herr Matschie, it has an extensive range over the whole western portion of the colony, extending up to Mpapwa, in which district several sportsmen have met with it, and through Irangi on to Lake Victoria on the borders of British territory. Over this country it has been found in many localities by Fischer, Neumann, and Stuhlmann. Throughout these districts it appears to resort principally, as stated by Grant, to the more open sandy plains, which are thinly covered with euphorbias and other trees, especially where a saline vegetation is prevalent.

In the eastern districts of British East Africa, Grant’s Gazelle appears to be not less prevalent in similar spots. Mr. Hunter, in his Appendix to Willoughby’s ‘East Africa,’ tells us that during his expedition in 1888 it was found to be common everywhere in the open plains near Kilimanjaro, one male being generally accompanied by from 10 to 15 females. It was at that time most common in the direction of Useri. The longest pair of horns obtained by the party measured 30 inches in length, but 27 inches were considered to constitute a big head. The best female’s head obtained measured 17 inches along the inside curve. Dr. Abbott, during his expedition to Kilimanjaro, as recorded by Mr. True, obtained a good series of specimens of this Antelope, which are now in the United States National Museum. Capt. F. D. Lugard, in his volumes on ‘The Rise of our East-African Empire,’ writes of Grant’s Gazelle as being “a model of symmetry,” while “its large and massive horns are most beautiful in their curve and are carried most gracefully.” He continues as follows:--

“Grant’s Gazelle is always found on the open plains and in rocky ground far from water, and never near forest. Both sexes are horned; the female carries thin but long horns (up to 17 inches in length), the points, as is the case in all horned female Antelopes, turning inwards, the curve being more or less lyre-shaped. I have weighed a male and found it weigh 115 lbs. without the stomach; female 65 lbs. The horns of the male measure up to 30 inches and are about 7 inches in circumference at the base. They are annulated, black in colour, and bend backwards and then forwards at the tip. Anything above 25 inches would be a ‘good head.’”

Another excellent authority on the Antelopes of British East Africa, Mr. F. J. Jackson, in a recent article on the subject, writes as follows:--

“Grant’s Gazelle ranges north into Turkwel and the Sak country, but is not found on the Mau plateau. At Njemps and Baringo, and in Turkwel, this Gazelle is considerably smaller than those found further south at Naivasha and on the Athi plains. At Njemps I shot the largest buck out of a herd of thirty, in which there were three or four other bucks. It was an old beast, in good condition, but only weighed 135 lbs. with horns 20 inches. To show the differences in size I append some measurements for comparison:--

+-----------------------+---------------+----------------------+---------------+ | | | |G. granti, ♂.| | |G. granti, ♂.|G. granti, ♂ (two). |Gil-Gil River, | | | Njemps | Gil-Gil River, Lake | Lake Naivasha | | | (21.9.96). | Naivasha (2.1.96). | (4.4.96). | |-----------------------+---------------+-----------+----------+---------------+ | | ft. in. | ft. in. | ft. in. | ft. in. | | | | | | | |Total length | 5 3 | 5 8 | 5 7 | 5 7 | |Height at shoulder | 2 11 | 3 1½ | 3 2½ | 3 0½ | |Depth of chest | 1 1½ | 1 3 | 1 4 | 1 3 | |Circumference of chest | 2 9 | 3 1 | 3 3 | 3 1 | | „ haunch| 3 0 | | | 3 5 | | „ loins | 2 3 | 2 9 | 2 10 | 2 7½ | | „ throat| 1 6 | 1 8 | 1 8 | 1 6 | | „ neck | 1 8 | 2 0½ | 2 1 | 1 10½ | |Tail | 10½ | 11 | 10 | 10 | |Horns | 20 | 28¼ | 27 | 24 | |Weight | 135 lbs. | 158 lbs.| 167 lbs.| 166 lbs.” | +-----------------------+---------------+-----------+----------+---------------+

Dr. Donaldson Smith has recorded the existence of this Gazelle “in great numbers” all along his route homewards from Lake Rudolph on the northern bank of the Tana. But these animals may possibly have belonged to the next species Gazella petersi. Dr. Donaldson Smith also met with Grant’s Gazelle in the Boran country “a little west of 39° W.L.,” and found it “extending as far north as 6° N.L.” Mr. Cavendish likewise obtained examples of this Gazelle during his recent expedition to Rudolphia.

There is a good mounted specimen of an adult male of this Antelope in the Gallery of the British Museum, obtained by Mr. F. J. Jackson in the Kilimanjaro district of British East Africa and presented by him. Mr. Jackson has also given the Museum a fine skull of an adult male from the same locality, and has placed at the service of the Museum three other mounted heads of this Antelope. The National Collection also contains skulls of an adult pair of Grant’s Gazelle from Kilimanjaro presented by Mr. W. Carlisle Fraser, and several skulls and skins of different ages from Machakos, collected and presented by Mr. S. L. Hinde. Besides these some skulls and skins obtained during the Cavendish expedition to Lake Rudolph, and presented by Mr. H. S. H. Cavendish and Mr. H. Andrew, have lately been added to the series.