Part 46

Cervicapra clarkei, =Thos.= Ann. Mag. N. H. (6) vii. p. 304 (1891).

Gazelle from Somaliland allied to Lithocranius, =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1891, p. 197.

Ammodorcas clarkei, =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1891, p. 207, pls. xxi. & xxii. (head and skull); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1892, p. 101; =Ward=, Horn Meas. (1) p. 128 (1892), (2) p. 173 (1896); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 240 (1893); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1892, pp. 101 & 118; =Swayne=, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 318 (habits); =id.= Seventeen Trips to Somaliland, p. 310 (1895); =Hoyos=, Zu den Aulihan, p. 181 (1895); =Elliot=, Publ. Chicago Mus., Zool. i. p. 124 (1897).

VERNACULAR NAME:--Dibatag of Somalis (Clarke, Swayne, and others).

Height at withers about 31 inches. General colour of body dark purplish rufous, no dark or light lateral or pygal bands present. Head with handsome sharply-defined Gazelline markings; the central facial band rich fulvous rufous, no darker spot on muzzle; light facial streaks long, sharply defined, and extending to the sides of the muzzle, pure white; areas round eyes and ears also whitish, though not sharply defined, connected with each other and continuous with the white facial streaks. Dark facial streaks present but not prominent. Back of ears dull whitish. Chin and interramia white. Cheeks below white markings, throat, and whole of neck dark purplish rufous, continuous with the back. Belly pure sharply-defined white, but on the chest this colour is broken by two projections running down from the dark throat-colour on each side of the middle line to between the elbows. Limbs, except their inner sides above, coloured like the back, but gradually passing lower down into fulvous instead of rufous. Knee-brushes present but small. Back of hams white, the white not projecting into the dark body-colour. Tail long, well-haired, but not crested, blackish above and below, except just at its base.

Skull-dimensions in an adult male:--Basal length 7·5 inches, greatest breadth 3·7, muzzle to orbit 4·2.

Horns attaining about 11 or 12 inches in length; their basal halves broadly ringed, their long forwardly-directed terminal halves smooth and evidently corresponding to the short smooth recurved tips of ordinary Gazelline horns.

Female. Similar to the male, but without horns.

Hab. Eastern parts of Central Somaliland, restricted to the Dolbahanta and Marehán countries S.E. of Berbera.

We now conclude the long series of Gazelles with three abnormal forms, each constituting a genus of itself, which, curiously enough, are all restricted to N.E. Africa. As regards the first two of them there can be no question, we believe, of their close alliance to the Gazelles, Ammodorcas being, in several respects, intermediate between Gazellla and Lithocranius, and leading on to that most specialized form of the group. About the correct position of the Beira, however, there is considerable doubt, and it is quite possible that a more natural place for it in the Antelopine series may be hereafter discovered.

The Dibatag, or Clarke’s Gazelle, was first met with by the sportsman and naturalist whose name it bears in 1890, during his exploring trip into the Dolbahanta and Marehán country south-east of Berbera. Writing to Thomas about his discovery, Mr. T. W. H. Clarke (of Secheron, Battery Point, Hobart, Tasmania) says (see P. Z. S. 1891, p. 209):--

“I saw this Gazelle for the first time on December 17th, 1890, about three hours from ‘Bairwell,’ or about one day from ‘Buroa Well, Habergerhagi’s country,’ and afterwards on the road all the way into the Marehan district, 8° N., 47° E. I killed a male, and found one of the horns broken off close to the skull, which had apparently been done a year or so ago.

“They are very graceful animals, with a long neck and well-proportioned head and horns; the body is rather slender, but considerably larger than in Gazella spekei, about the size of a female G. walleri. The legs are long and slender; the hoofs are not so triangular as those of G. spekei, and small for the size of the animal. They have small ears and a long upper lip, just like those of G. walleri or a Giraffe. The horns are of the shape of a sickle, and less than 12 inches in length, the longest, out of the eleven males killed, measuring 11 inches. The tail, from what I remember, is about 12 or 13 inches in length, very thin, and thinly covered with black hair about 1 inch long.

“The colour of the body in this Antelope is like that of the neck, of a kind of pink-fawn, but the belly is whitish and the tail black. The face resembles that of G. walleri, only G. walleri has no white in front of the eye.

“When running, or rather jumping, these Gazelles look very peculiar; their long neck and head being thrown back and the tail thrown forward, so that there appears to be only a foot between head and tail. The country they are mostly found in is of low thorn-bush and sandy; they do not seem to like the big bushes, though at times they are found there. In this respect they differ from G. walleri, this species liking many bushes to go and rest in.

“The new Gazelle is to be found one day’s journey from Buroa Wells, at an elevation of 3100 feet, to the Marehan country (800 feet) (general course about S. by E.), and is there more numerous than any other kind of game, excepting G. soemmerringi; but the latter is found only in the open country.

“Several times I observed the new Gazelle and G. walleri feeding together, but I never saw more than eight in a bunch, and on that occasion there was a male G. soemmerringi with them.”

Mr. Clarke’s skulls of this Antelope, which were at the time without head-skins, having been submitted to Thomas for examination by Messrs. Rowland Ward and Co. (to whom Mr. Clarke had sent for preservation his specimens of Antelopes obtained during this expedition), were, on account of the shape of the horns, not unnaturally supposed to belong to a new species of Reedbuck, and named “Cervicapra clarkei”--a mistake which Thomas corrected in his later paper. Very shortly after Mr. Clarke’s specimens had been sent to Europe Capt. Swayne purchased of an Arab in the market at Berbera two pairs of horns of this Antelope with the head-skins attached, and, seeing that they belonged to a new species, sent them to Sclater. Sclater exhibited these specimens at a meeting of the Zoological Society on March 17th, 1891, and pointed out their Gazelline affinities, but finding that they belonged to the same species as that just named by Thomas handed them over to the latter for further examination.

In his paper upon this subject, which was read at the same meeting of the Zoological Society, Thomas took the opportunity of describing the whole series of Mr. Clarke’s Antelopes, which were eight in number. For Clarke’s Gazelle, of which, with the aid of the head-skins and the cleaned skulls, he had no difficulty in recognizing the true affinities, he established the new generic term “Ammodorcas,” and added a full description of this remarkable form, illustrated by two plates, one of which, by the kind permission of the Zoological Society, we are enabled to copy in the present work.

Head of the Dibatag, ♂.

(From P. Z. S. 1891, pl. xxi.)]

As already pointed out, it is evident that in its skull-characters Ammodorcas is intermediate between Gazella and Lithocranius, while in the shape of its horns it is absolutely different from all other Gazelline genera.

Capt. Swayne, who has had the unequalled experience of seventeen visits to Somaliland, writing in 1894, says:--

“I have been singularly unfortunate with this Antelope, never having been in the country where it is found till I went to the Nogal Valley some three years ago. At that time the Jilal, or dry season, was at its height, and all the game was scarce and shy, so I never got a Dibatag till June 1893, when on my return journey from Ogádén, across the waterless plateau, I made a détour of several days to the east on purpose to shoot one for my collection.

“I searched for Dibatag at Tur, a jungle due south of the Toyo grass plains, the distance being some eighty miles from Berbera, and was lucky in getting one good buck and picking up two pairs of horns. Although I saw a good many, all were wild and shy. This is their extreme western limit, and they never by any chance, I believe, come so far south as the Gólis Range. Farther east, towards Buró, they are more plentiful and less shy.

“Dibatag are very difficult to see, their purplish-grey colour matching with the high durr grass in the glades where they are found. The glossy coat, shining, reflects the surrounding colours, making it sometimes almost invisible; and at the best of times its slender body is hard to make out. I have often mistaken female Waller’s Gazelles for Dibatag, and once shot one of the former in mistake for the latter. The habits and gait are much the same, save that the Dibatag trots off with head held up, and the long tail held erect over the back nearly meeting the head, while Waller’s Gazelle trots away with its head down and its short tail screwed round. Like Waller’s Gazelle the Dibatag goes singly or in pairs, or small families up to half a dozen.

“As in the case of Waller’s Gazelle, the Dibatag is enabled by its long neck and rather long upper lip to reach down branches of the mimósa bushes from a considerable height. The shape of head and way of feeding of both Antelopes are Giraffe-like, and I have seen both standing on the hind legs, fore-feet planted against the trunk of a tree, when feeding. I have seen Dibatag feeding both on thorn bushes and on the durr grass. Both Waller’s and Clarke’s Antelopes can live far from water. The country most suitable for Dibatag is jungle of the khansa or umbrella mimósa, alternating with glades of durr grass which grows about six feet high. The females are hornless. The Dibatag is a very graceful Antelope, standing higher than an Indian Blackbuck, but weighing probably a good deal less.”

Another well-known explorer of Somaliland, Mr. G. Percy V. Aylmer, kindly sends us the following field-notes on this species:--