Part 18

ADDAX NASO-MACULATUS (Blainv.).

Cerophorus (Gazella) naso-maculata, =De Blainville=, Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, pp. 75 & 78.

Antilope naso-maculata, =Desm.= N. Dict. d’Hist. Nat. (2) ii. p. 188 (1816); =Blainville=, Oken’s Isis, 1819, p. 1095, pl. xii. figs. 4–7; =id.= Journ. Phys. 1819, pls., figs. 4 & 7; Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 456 (1822); =Goldf.= Schr. Säug. v. p. 1242 (1824 or 1818); =Licht.= Abh. Ak. Berl. 1824, p. 215; =Less.= Man. Mamm. p. 374 (1827); =J. B. Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 462 (1829); =Laurill.= Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 617 (1839); =Huet=, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 269 (1887).

Antilope addax, =Cretzschm.= Zool. Atl. Rüpp. Reise, p. 19, pl. vii. (1826); =Licht.= Darst. Säug. pl. ii. (1827); =H. Sm.= Griff. An. K. iv. p. 193, pl., v. p. 328 (1827); =Hempr. & Ehrb.= Symb. Phys. Decas ii. pl. iv. (1828); =J. B. Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 474 (1829); =Oken=, Allg. Naturg. vii. p. 1379 (1838); =Wagn.= Sehr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 486 (1844), v. p. 437 (1855); =Reichenb.= Säug. iii. p. 118, pl. xxxvi. (1845); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 438 (1845); =id.= Mon. Antil. p. 36, pls. xl. & xli. (1848); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 296 (1853); =Schweinf.= Herz von Afrika, ii. p. 534 (1874).

Addax suturosus, =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. p. 178 (1869).

Antilope suturosa, =Otto=, N. Act. Nat. Cur. xii. p. 521, pl. xlviii. (1825); =H. Sm.= Griff. An. K. iv. pl. p. 206 (1827); =Less.= Man. Mamm. p. 382 (1827); =J. B. Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 475 (1829); =Laurill.= Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 620 (1840); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 439 (1845); =id.= Mon. Antil. p. 34, pl. xxxix. (1848).

Antilope mytilopes, =H. Sm.= Griff. An. K. iv. p. 204, pl., v. p. 330 (1827).

Antilope gibbosa, =Savi=, Mem. Sci. Pisa, i. p. 17 (1828); =id.= Oken’s Isis, 1832, p. 502.

Oryx addax, =A. Sm.= S. Afr. Quart. Journ. ii. p. 188 (1834); =Jard.= Nat. Misc. (1) vii. p. 205, pl. xxv. (1842); =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1844, p. 206 (1846), id. Hornsch. Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 157; Reprint, p. 81 (1848).

Oryx naso-maculatus, =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 156 (1843).

Addax naso-maculatus, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (1) xviii. p. 232 (1846); =id.= List Ost. B. M. p. 58 (1847); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850, p. 135; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 17 (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 108 (1852); =Tristram=, Sahara, p. 387 (1860); =Gerrard=, Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 240 (1862); =Heugl.= Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act. Leop. xxx. pt. 2) p. 18 (1863); =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 178 (1869); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 36 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 104 (1873); =Heugl.= N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 113 (1877); =Garrod=, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 4; =Brehm=, Thierl. iii. p. 235 (1880); =Scl.= List Anim. Z. S. (8) p. 139 (1883), (9) p. 154 (1896); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 345 (1891); =Ward=, Horn Meas. (1) p. 150 (1892), (2) p. 191 (1896); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 249 (1893); =Pease=, P. Z. S. 1896, p. 810 (habits and distribution); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1896, p. 984; =Pousargues=, Ann. Sci. Nat. (7) iv. p. 131 (1896); =Johnston=, P. Z. S. 1898, p. 352 (Tunisia); =Trouessart=, Cat. Mamm. fasc. v. p. 955 (1898).

Addax addax, =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 136 (1887); =id.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 167 (1892).

Vernacular Names:—Abu-akasch of Arabs of Senaar and Kordofan (Hempr. & Ehrb.). Anjidohl in Dinka and Djur; Auel in Bongo (Schweinfurth). Akash of Arabs on Upper Nile (Heuglin); Bakra el onash of Arabs of Tunisia (Whitaker); Tamita of Touaregs in S. Algeria (Pease).

Height at withers about 38 inches. Colour of head, neck, and body in winter a tolerably uniform brownish grey; in summer the hairy covering of the body between the neck and hind-quarters assumes a richer and redder hue, the head and neck remaining the same throughout the year. Mane on forehead nearly black, and back of head behind horns darkish brown; lips and chin white; a broad white stripe on each side of the face extending from near the middle of the cheek upwards in front of and above the eye, and usually meeting its fellow of the opposite side across the upper portion of the nose, though sometimes the union is interrupted in the middle by the black hairs of the frontal mane. Ears mostly white, sometimes blackish at the base; an ill-defined whitish patch sometimes present behind the eye and a black patch on the lower edge of the cheek close to the neck. Fore legs white, with the exception of a brown patch on the knee, a brown rim round the false hoofs, and a tinge of brown which extends downwards on to their upper portions from the shoulder; a black patch sometimes present between the shoulder and the throat; the dark colour of the back and flanks spreads for a short distance on to the hind-quarters; otherwise the hind-quarters, tail, and hind legs are white, the rump and thighs being a dirtier white than the legs. As in the case of the front legs, however, there is a rim of brown hairs round the false hoofs, and the tail-tuft, when present, is brownish. Belly white. Hairs along middle of neck sometimes reversed.

The horns attain a length of about 28 inches in a straight line and about 36 following the spiral.

Skull and horns as described above. The measurements of a skull are:—Basal length 12 inches, greatest breadth 5·30, muzzle to orbit 8·25.

Female. Like the male, but horns thinner.

Hab. Desert-regions of North Africa from Dongola to Senegal.

The Addax belongs to the same group of desert-haunting Antelopes as the species of Oryx of which we have just treated, and is essentially of the same structure. But it is at once distinguishable by its spiral horns and expanded hoofs, and may properly be referred to another genus, which Rafinesque in 1815 seems to have been the first to call “Addax” adopting the name from Pliny and other early writers. In 1816 De Blainville gave the first scientific description of this Antelope, calling it Antilope naso-maculatus, from the conspicuous white blaze across the nose. Combining this with the generic term above mentioned, we obtain “Addax naso-maculatus” as the correct scientific name of this Antelope.

It should be stated that the description given by Pliny of his “Strepsiceros, quem Addacem Africa appellat” is very short and incomplete, and has been variously interpreted by subsequent writers. But as it was an African animal with twisted horns, and the native Arab name of the present species, according to Hemprich and Ehrenberg, is “Abu Akass” (the father of the twist), it seems highly probable that we have in it the veritable “Addax” of the ancients.

The first naturalist of modern days to obtain specimens of the Addax in its native wilds was Rüppell, who met with it in the deserts of Dongola south of Ambukol, where, he tells us, it lives in small families apart from all other species of Antelopes, and is hunted by the Arabs on horseback in summer time. Rüppell forwarded examples of both sexes of the Addax to Frankfort, where it was described and figured by Cretzschmar in 1826 from Rüppell’s specimens. Cretzschmar identified it as being without doubt the “Addax” of Pliny, and named it Antilope addax, being apparently unaware that it had been previously described by De Blainville from specimens which he had examined in London in the Pantherion of Bullock and in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.

About the same period Hemprich and Ehrenberg had obtained examples of the same Antelope for the Berlin Museum, apparently from nearly the same district. These were first described and figured by Lichtenstein in his ‘Darstellung der Säugethiere,’ and subsequently by Hemprich and Ehrenberg themselves in their ‘Symbolæ Physicæ.’ They tell us that they were obtained about twenty hours’ distant from Ambukol, in the Chor-el-Lebben, where these animals are hunted by the Kubabish Arabs on horseback, in the month of June. Three specimens were sent home, which we suppose are the same that are figured in their plate, and represent, according to their descriptions, an adult female and two young females with straight horns.

Our third great authority on the Mammals of North-east Africa, Th. v. Heuglin, informs us that the Addax extends northwards into the Libyan Desert of Egypt, to the Fayoum and the Oases, and is not rare in the Bayuda Desert. Though he writes as having met with this species himself, he does not give us the exact locality in which he came across it.

Passing westwards, we have no doubt of the occurrence of the Addax in suitable localities all through the Great Sahara, although we have little certain information on the subject, except that a pair of horns, brought back by Denham and Clapperton from their adventurous journey across Central Africa in 1822–24, is in the British Museum.

But the Addax is still to be found in Southern Tunis, whence living examples were formerly brought to England by Louis Fraser and other collectors. In his article on the larger Mammals of Tunisia, published in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1898, Sir Harry Johnston tells us that this fine Antelope “is still a Tunisian animal, although now rarely heard of north of the limits of the real sandy desert.”

The same kind friend and correspondent, writing to Sclater from Tunis in January 1898, says:—

“I have just come back from an interesting journey through the Tunisian Sahara, and back by Tebessa, as you suggested. I penetrated south to 32° nearly. I found that the Addax (though I did not see one) was still fairly abundant in the desert, and I bought several very fine pairs of horns from the Arabs. But the finest pair that I saw was at Meduin (Military headquarters, Tunisian Sahara) in the house of the Commandant. He allowed me to measure and draw it (see the sketch, fig. 95). You will notice that this example has a third twist; the majority of male Addaxes only attain to two or two and a half, though I have a pair in my collection here which verges on the third turn.

“The cow Addax (see the drawing, fig. 96) has much slenderer and much less spiral horns, which have departed far less markedly from the Orygine type.”