Part 40

Our illustration of this beautiful Antelope (Plate LXIX.), which shows the horns of the male in various attitudes, was prepared by Mr. Wolf under Sir Victor Brooke’s directions and drawn upon the stone by Mr. Smit. We are not sure as to the specimens from which it was taken.

September, 1898.

101. PETERS’S GAZELLE.

GAZELLA PETERSI, GÜNTH.

Gazella granti, =Peters=, MB. Ak. Berl. 1879, p. 832, pl. v. (skull).

Gazella petersi, =Günth=. Ann. Mag. N. H. (5) xiv. p. 428 (1884); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 238 (1893); =Jackson=, in Badm. Big Game Shooting, i. p. 299 (1894); =A. Neumann=, Elephant-Hunting in E. Africa, pp. 9, 10 (figs., horns, ♂ ♀) (1898).

Gazella grantii var. gelidjiensis, =Noack=, Zool. Gart. xxviii. p. 277 (1887).

VERNACULAR NAME:--Sala (Swahili) (Fischer).

Size large; height at withers about 33 inches. General colour and markings practically identical with those of the last species, Gazella granti, with the exception that the white rump-patch is of much less extent. This patch, which in G. granti is very broad, and projects prominently forward on each side, overhanging the dark pygal band, and passes across above the tail, separating that organ entirely from the dark dorsal colour, is in G. petersi divided above into two portions by an extension of the body-colour which runs down on to and along the top of the tail. Laterally the white is much narrower, and encroaches much less on the body-colour above, scarcely or not at all overhanging the pygal band.

Skull rather smaller than in G. granti, and the nasal opening rather narrower. Basal length in a male 9·3 inches, greatest breadth 4·2, muzzle to orbit 5·4.

Horns similar to those of G. granti, but smaller and more uniformly parallel, never widely divergent above. Horns of female about two-thirds the length of those of the male, slender and comparatively straight.

Hab. Coast-districts of British East Africa, from Mombasa northwards to beyond the Tana.

In a communication made to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin in October 1879 the former Director of the Berlin Museum, the late Dr. Wilhelm Peters, gave an account of the specimens of Mammals collected in East Africa in 1878 by the well-known traveller Dr. G. A. Fischer. Amongst these were the skull and skin of a young male Gazelle obtained at Gelidja, near the mouth of the Osi and Tana Rivers, on June 27th, and stated to be called there by the Swahilis and Wapakomos “Sala.” Peters added to his paper on this subject an excellent lithographic plate of the skull and horns in question, which he referred, without much doubt, to Gazella granti, remarking, however, that the nose-spot was not well defined, and that the horns were straight at the base and not curved.

Skull and horns of Peters’s Gazelle, ♂.

(From one of Mr. Jackson’s specimens in the British Museum.)]

In 1884 Dr. Günther, commenting on Peters’s figure of this supposed Gazella granti, stated that in his opinion it “clearly belonged to a distinct species. It resembled somewhat Gazella thomsoni in the slight degree in which the horns diverge from each other; but their annulated portion was almost straight, and the annuli themselves were much further apart, much fewer in number (about twelve), and lower towards the hinder part of the horn. The base of the bony core showed a bossy swelling, which was different from that of Gazella granti, and entirely absent in Gazella thomsoni.” This species Dr. Günther proposed to call Gazella petersi.

There has, however, been much doubt raised by subsequent authorities as to the validity of this species, and although we have given a separate heading to Gazella petersi we have had considerable hesitation as to whether it ought not to be regarded rather as a local subspecies of G. granti, to which it is closely allied in all essential characters. But since we have as yet seen no specimens absolutely intermediate between the two, so far as the rump-markings are concerned, we have thought it advisable to keep them provisionally separate. At the same time we shall be in no way surprised if such specimens should occur, in which case the two forms will have to be united. As regards the skulls, no constant or tangible difference can be made out, although those of G. petersi can usually be distinguished by their smaller size, narrower nasal opening, and shorter and less divergent horns.

Mr. F. G. Jackson, in ‘Big Game Shooting,’ gives us the following account of this Gazelle and his experiences with it:--

“Gazella petersi (known to the Swahilis also as ‘Sala’) may be a local variety of G. granti rather than a distinct species. It used to be plentiful at Merereni on the British East African coast, and is still found further inland in the Galla country. It is certainly a smaller beast than Gazella granti from Kilimanjaro and Machakos, but in other respects is almost identical, excepting in the shape and size of the horns, which I have never known to exceed 22 inches in length measured along the curve. The horns are also straighter, and have not nearly such a pronounced backward curve as those of G. granti, neither do they diverge towards the points so much, being rarely more than seven or eight inches apart at the widest parts. Gazella petersi is found in the small open plains and open scrub.”

In the gallery of the British Museum there is a good mounted specimen of the adult male of this species, also another younger specimen from the “Mainland opposite Zanzibar,” and a third from “Mombasa,” besides two skulls (♂ and ♀) from “South Somaliland,” all presented by Sir John Kirk. These were formerly labelled G. granti, but must be referred to G. petersi if the species are kept separate. There is also in the Museum a fine skin and skull of a male G. petersi from near Mount Pika-pika, about 40 miles from Mombasa, presented by Mr. L. E. Caine. It would appear, therefore, that the range of G. petersi until lately extended all along the coast of British East Africa, though it has now perhaps been nearly shot out in the southern parts.

The British Museum has likewise three skulls of this Gazelle from the Tana River presented by Mr. F. J. Jackson, to whom we are also much indebted for the loan of two other representative heads of this species from Merereni, south of Formosa Bay.

September, 1898.

102. THE BANDED GAZELLE.

GAZELLA NOTATA, THOS.

Gazella grantii notata, =Thos.= Ann. Mag. N. H. (6) xx. p. 479 (1897); =A. Neumann=, Elephant-Hunting in E. Africa, p. 238 (1898).

Only known from a single flat skin, without the head. Fur unusually long and shaggy. Size about as in G. granti, and general body-markings as in that species, but all much intensified. Dark and light lateral bands much longer and broader, the former nearly black and reaching forwards on to the shoulder, and backwards nearly to the white rump-mark; the latter pale buff, and succeeded above by a second dark band, lighter than the main lateral band, but distinctly darker than the centre of the back. This second dark band united with the other behind the posterior end of the light band. Pygal band black and very strongly defined.

Horns said by the discoverer to have been like those of G. granti.

Hab. Western slope of the Loroghi Mountains, British East Africa.