Part 23

The species of this genus here recognized may be tabulated as follows:—

a. Height at withers of adult male about 30 inches; horns from about 10 to 15 inches, normally with black tips; a white patch present upon the upper end of the throat.

a1. A large white patch at the base of the fore leg on the inner side; inner side of fore leg from knee to fetlock and of hind leg from hock to fetlock white; body striped or spotted with white.

a2. Adult male a rich dark red colour above, and very distinctly marked with many white spots and stripes 121. T. scriptus.

b2. Adult male much duller or darker in colour, spots and stripes less numerous, the latter often absent.

a3. Colour yellowish brown; an upper longitudinal white stripe. 120. T. decula.

b3. Colour darker and richer in adult; no upper white stripe.

a4. White stripes visible in immature and sometimes retained by adult 123. T. roualeyni.

b4. White stripes usually absent in young and always in adult. 122. T. sylvaticus.

b1. Fore leg from base to fetlock on inner side a uniform yellowish brown; hind leg similarly coloured, except for a white patch on front of hock; no stripes or spots on body 124. T. delamerei.

b. Height at withers of adult male over 40 inches; horns 24 inches or more in length, with amber-yellow tips; no white patch at upper end of throat in either sex.

a1. Tail thickly hairy at sides and end; inner sides of legs below knees and hocks fawn-coloured: adult male slate-grey, with mane of long hairs extending along throat, nape, and sides above belly; females and young chestnut, with white stripes 126. T. angasi.

b1. Tail with tuft of hairs only at tip; inner sides of legs below knees and hocks white in front; adult male without mane and, like the female, chestnut with white stripes 125. T. eurycerus.

120. THE DECULA ANTELOPE.

TRAGELAPHUS DECULA (Rüpp.).

Antilope decula, =Rüpp.= Neue Wirb. Abyss. p. 11, pl. iv., ♂ ♀ (1838–1840); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 427 (1845); =Huet=, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 78 (1887).

Calliope decula, =Rüpp.= Verz. Senck. Mus. iii. pt. 2, p. 182 (1839).

Antilope (Tragelaphus) decula, =Gerv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. Suppl. i. p. 266 (1840); =Less.= N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 181 (1842); =Reichenb.= Säug. iii. p. 78 (1845); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 311 (1853).

Tragelaphus decula, =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 166 (1843); =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Akad. Handl. lxv. p. 189 (1846); =id.= Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 141; Reprint, p. 65 (1848); =Wagn.= Schreb. Säug., Suppl. iv. p. 442 (1844), v. p. 443 (1855); =Schinz=, Mon. Antil. p. 26 (1848); =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 145; =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 28 (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 139 (1852); =Heugl.= N. Acta Leop. xxx. p. 20, pl. i. figs. 5 a, b (1863); =id.= Faun. Roth. Meer. p. 16; Fitz. SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 174 (1869); =Heugl.= Reise Weiss. Nil, p. 319 (1869); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 50 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. p. 120 (1873); =Flower=, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 186 (skull char.); =Heugl.= Reise in Nordost-Afr. ii. p. 120 (1877); =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 884 (skull char.); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. P.-Bas, ix.) p. 141 (1889); =id.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. P.-Bas, xi.) p. 173 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 252 (1893); =Ward=, Rec. Big Game, p. 196 (1896), p. 286 (1899); =Pousarg.= Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. pp. 81, 83 (1897).

Tragelaphus scriptus decula, =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1891, p. 388; Trouess. Cat. Mamm. p. 959 (1899).

Tragelaphus bor, =Heugl.= Reise N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 122 (1877).

Vernacular Names:—Husch (Arabic); Dakula, Daggula, Dekula, or Dekuela (Amharic); Ber (Djengish) (Heuglin).

Height at withers of adult male about 26 inches. Prevailing colour a yellowish or sandy brown, becoming darker upon the chest and belly and upon the shoulder and lower portion of the hind-quarters. Edge of upper lip, chin, and inter-ramal area white; a white spot on the cheek below the eye, a white patch at the upper and a second at the lower extremity of the throat. Hairs along spine darker brown and not noticeably tipped with white. A few white spots upon the haunches and a row of them extending along the sides of the body above the belly. Upper half of the body marked in front with a distinct white stripe, which extends longitudinally backwards from the shoulder. Transverse stripes generally entirely absent. Fore leg white on inner side at base and behind knee, also white on inner side of cannon-bone; a brown stripe extending along front of cannon-bone; white pastern-spots large and confluent. Hind limb coloured like the fore limb, but with the hocks white in front, not behind. Tail bushy, white below, with a darker tip. No collar of short hairs round base of neck. Horns short, scarcely 12 inches in length, black-tipped.

Female like male, but smaller, without horns, and with less dark colour upon the upper portions of the limbs and lower parts of body.

A male skull gives the following measurements:—Basal length 8 inches, nose to orbit 4·25, width 3·6.

Hab. Wooded districts of Abyssinia and Upper Nubia.

Like many other characteristic animals of North-eastern Africa, the present Antelope was one of the discoveries of the great explorer and naturalist Rüppell, who first described it in his volume upon new Mammals from Abyssinia which contained the results of his long investigations in that country. Rüppell called this species “decula,” from the Latin transliteration of its Amharic native name, remarking at the same time that this word must not be confounded with “thecula,” which is the Abyssinian name for the Hunting-dog (Lycaon pictus). He remarks that the species belongs to the subgenus Tragelaphus of Blainville, and is closely allied to T. sylvaticus of the Cape, from which it is distinguishable by its smaller size and different colouring. Rüppell obtained a good series of this Antelope, and gives excellent descriptions of the adult male, the adult female, the two-year-old male, and the newly-born calf. He met with it in the bushy valleys of Central Abyssinia, round the lake of Dembea or Tana, where it feeds principally on small leaves of trees, and is said to be specially fond of the ripe fallen fruits of the sycamore fig-tree. The Deculas pair in the month of May in this district, and produce their young ones in October. They are very quick and shy, but are occasionally hunted by the natives with dogs. Their flesh, according to Rüppell, is not particularly palatable.

The only other African explorer that appears to have come across this Antelope in its native wilds is Heuglin, who, however, does not favour us with a very distinct account of his experiences of it. In his memoir on the Antelopes and Buffaloes of North-east Africa, published in 1863, Heuglin states that the range of this species extends over the districts of Upper Nubia bordering on Abyssinia, Galabat, the River Settite, and Takeh. He also gives a figure of the skull of a specimen obtained by him, which he points out differs slightly in the shape of the horns from that figured by Rüppell and in some other particulars. In a subsequent work (‘Reise in Nordost-Afrika’) Heuglin has described what he considered to be possibly a different animal (although closely allied to the Abyssinian T. decula) from the banks of the White Nile, where it is called by the Djengs “Bor,” in Bonga “Towa,” and by the Dgurs “Burah.” This Antelope he met with in pairs amongst the high grass and thick bushes of Bauhinia and Acacia-trees in the above-named districts. In case of its proving different from T. decula he proposed to designate it Tragelaphus bor.