Part 33

When Mr. Rothschild separated this southern form of the Sitatunga as Tragelaphus selousi in 1898 (Nov. Zool. vol. v. p. 206), he did not distinctly state the specimen from which he took the description of the adult male, but we presume it to be the above-mentioned specimen from the Barotze District (Coryndon), which he has kindly lent us. For the type of his female, however, Mr. Rothschild expressly designates the female now living in the Zoological Society’s Gardens. We are therefore, no doubt, correct in applying the appropriate specific name “selousi” to the present form.

April, 1900.

129. THE CONGAN SITATUNGA.

LIMNOTRAGUS GRATUS (Sclater).

Antelope from the Cameroons, =Mitchell=, P. Z. S. 1848, p. 88.

Tragelaphus gratus, =Sclater=, P. Z. S. 1880, p. 452, pl. xliv. (♀), 1883, pp. 34, 36, pl. viii. (♂ ♀), 1889, p. 220; =Huet=, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 275, fig. 23 (1887); =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1891, p. 387; =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 347 (1891); =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 156 (1892); =id.= Records Big Game, p. 199 (1896); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 254 (1893); =id.= Royal Nat. Hist. ii. p. 276 (1894); =Scl.= List An. Z. S. 1896, p. 62, fig. 24; =Trouessart=, Cat. Mamm. p. 952 (1898).

Tragelaphus spekii, =Peters=, MB. Ak. Berlin, 1876, p. 484; =Pousarg.= Ann. Sci. Nat. iv. p. 78 (1897).

Vernacular Names:—Kawe and Mburi or Mbuli of natives in the Cameroons; Nkaya and Nkoko on the Congo.

Adult male about 40 inches at the shoulder. Colour a dark rich, nearly chocolate, brown, becoming blacker upon the forehead, nose, throat, belly, and legs. Head with a white patch extending on to the nose from the inner corner of the eye on each side; two white cheek-spots and sometimes a pale patch above the eye; chin and rim of the upper lip white; two white patches on the throat, one at its upper, the other at its lower end. Body with dorsal line white; a row of white spots extending laterally above the belly, about six more or less defined white stripes on the flanks and haunches, and some white spots on the hind-quarters. Fore legs white on the inner side at the base; the fetlocks and pasterns whitish in front: hind limbs white in front of the knee and on the inner side of the cannon-bone down to the fetlocks; fetlocks and pasterns, like those of the fore limbs, whitish.

Horns with not more than two turns.

Female. Smaller than the male; of a rich chestnut-red, darker above than below; white markings on the head and body resembling those of the male in position and distinctness, but the spinal stripe black. Legs whitish on the inner sides below the knees and hocks; the outer sides dark in front down to the fetlock.

The skull of an adult male gives the following measurements:—Basal length 11·5 inches, orbit to muzzle 6·5, greatest width 4·75.

Hab. West Africa, from the Cameroons to the Congo.

The first allusion that we can find to the occurrence of a species of the Sitatunga-group on the West Coast of Africa is in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1848, where it is recorded that the Secretary exhibited, at the meeting on June 13th, the skull and horns of an Antelope closely allied to Antilope euryceros, Ogilby, and read a letter in reference to it received from Capt. William Allen, R.N. Capt. Allen described the appearance of the animal from memory only, but stated that he had himself obtained the specimen at a place called Kokki on the Cameroons River. The pair of horns in question are now in the British Museum, and belong, in all probability, to the present species.

In 1871 Sir Victor Brooke read an excellent paper on Speke’s Antelope and its allies before the Zoological Society of London. The list of specimens of his Tragelaphus spekii given in the ‘Proceedings’ contains examples of all three species of Limnotragus, as we here consider them. The figure (fig. 112, p. 167) of specimen “g” (which we are allowed to reproduce by the kindness of that Society) was taken, we believe, from a West-Coast example, and is therefore referable to L. gratus.

In 1880 Mr. Sclater received from Mr. R. W. Rolleston, of Liverpool, a flat skin of the very remarkable red female of this species, said to have been received from Gaboon. This was exhibited and described at the meeting of the Zoological Society on June 15th of that year, and a new species—Tragelaphus gratus—was founded upon it. Sclater’s original description was accompanied by a beautiful figure of the animal prepared by Joseph Wolf, and put upon the stone by Smit. Soon after this date Sclater was able to acquire some further information concerning this interesting Antelope. On visiting the Menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris in the autumn of the same year, his attention was called to a pair of Antelopes lately received from the Jardin d’Acclimatation, which he at once recognized as being the male and female of his Tragelaphus gratus. On returning to England, Sclater sent the typical skin of Tragelaphus gratus to Paris for comparison, and convinced M. Milne-Edwards of its identity with the living pair. Visiting the Jardin des Plantes again in 1881, Sclater had the pleasure of inspecting for the second time this fine pair of Antelopes, which were then accompanied by a young female, born in the previous December. Mr. Keulemans, being at that time in Paris, was employed to execute a water-colour drawing of these Antelopes, which was subsequently published in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ along with further notes on the same subject. M. Milne-Edwards informed Mr. Sclater that the female of the pair had been received from the Jardin d’Acclimatation in March 1876, and the male in November 1879, and that both were believed to have come from Gaboon. The female had brought forth her young one on December 4th, 1880, after a period of gestation of 7 months and 24 days. A young male had likewise been born of the same mother in December 1881, but had not lived long.

Besides those of Paris, several other Gardens in continental Europe have of late years obtained specimens of Limnotragus gratus, which, singularly enough, when we consider its habits in a state of nature, appears to thrive in captivity and to breed with facility. There are at present small herds of this species in the Zoological Gardens of Hamburg and Amsterdam. Dr. Kerbert, the Director of the last-named Garden, has kindly sent us for this work a list of the nine individuals bred in that establishment from 1891 to 1896, which is here subjoined:—

Female covered. Young born. Sex. Period of gestation. ---------------------------------------------------------- days. 1. 18.4.91 26.12.91 ♂ 252 2. 31.7.91 28.3.92 ♂ 240 3. 26.5.92 5.2.93 ♀ 255 4. 3.7.92 17.3.93 ♂ 257 5. 21.6.93 4.3.94 ♂ 256 6. 22.6.93 7.3.94 ♂ 258 7. 9.7.94 15.3.95 ♂ 249 8. 30.8.94 6.5.95 ♀ 249 9. 25.5.95 24.1.96 ♀ 245

Dr. Kerbert observes that the colour of the young males and females when born is exactly like that of the mother, but that the sexes are easily distinguishable by the white hairs in the middle of the black stripe over the back in the males.

The Zoological Society of London have not as yet been so successful in the treatment of this Antelope. They received their first female in 1885, but lost it. A male purchased in 1894 bred with the female L. selousi, as already mentioned, and produced two hybrids. A young female bred at Amsterdam, and received in September 1898, was lost shortly after its arrival.

In our illustration of this species (Plate XCV.) the male has been drawn by Mr. Smit from the adult specimen above mentioned, now in the Zoological Society’s Gardens. The female, in the background, was drawn from the typical skin (now in the British Museum) upon which Sclater founded the species in 1880.

The National Collection likewise contains a skin of an adult male (with horns) of this Antelope, obtained by Mr. du Chaillu in Gaboon, and a stuffed adult male from the same country obtained by purchase. From this last specimen the drawing of the head (fig. 113, p. 169) was taken by Mr. Smit in 1883. It has been kindly lent us for this work by the Zoological Society of London.

April, 1900.

Genus IV. STREPSICEROS.

Type. Strepsiceros, Hamilton Smith, Griff. An. K. v. p. 365 (1827) S. capensis.

Calliope, Ogilby, P. Z. S. 1836, p. 138 S. capensis.

Large-sized Antelopes resembling Tragelaphus and Limnotragus in that the horns are spirally twisted and present only in the male; but differing from these two genera in that the horns are rounded behind at the base, with a scarcely appreciable external ridge, and form from two and a half to three complete turns with a more open spiral curvature. Further differing from Limnotragus, but resembling Tragelaphus, in the structure of the feet, which are adapted for progression on hard ground. Tail thickly hairy at the sides as in Limnotragus and in most of the species of Tragelaphus.

Range of the Genus. Eastern and Southern Africa from Abyssinia and Somaliland to Cape Colony, extending in Western Africa as far north as the Congo region.