Part 37

By the kind favour of the Zoological Society we are enabled to reproduce here (fig. 115, p. 188) the comparative illustration of the horns of two species of Kudu which accompanies Sclater’s paper on this subject in the Society’s ‘Proceedings.’

Mr. E. Lort Phillips, F.Z.S., appears to have been one of the first English sportsmen who personally met with the Lesser Kudu in Somaliland and realized its difference from the Greater Kudu. This was in the winter of 1884–85, when Mr. Lort Phillips visited that country along with Messrs. James, Aylmer, and Thrupp. In his notes on the Antelopes obtained during this journey (see P. Z. S. 1885, p. 931), Mr. Lort Phillips informs us that the Lesser Kudu was met with on the northern slopes of the high plateau of Northern Somaliland, where it resorts to thick covert, and that it was not usually found far from water. Since that date most, if not all, of the numerous British shooting-parties in Somaliland have succeeded in obtaining heads of this beautiful species.

Capt. Swayne, our leading authority on the Antelopes of Somaliland, writes of the Lesser Kudu as follows:—

“This is, to my mind, quite the most beautiful of all the Somali Antelopes, and the skin is more brilliantly marked and the body more gracefully shaped than that of the Greater Koodoo.

“The Lesser Koodoo is found in thick jungles of the larger kind of thorn-tree, especially where there is an undergrowth of the hig or slender-pointed aloe, which is of a light green colour and grows from four to six feet high. This Antelope may also be found hiding in dense thickets of tamarisk in the river-beds. It is not met with in the open grass plains, and I have never seen one in the cedar-forests on the top of the Gólis. Its favourite haunts used to be along the foot of this range, and I do not think its numbers have been much diminished of late years. By far the best Lesser-Koodoo ground I have ever visited is the thick forest on the banks of the Webbe, near Imé and Karanleh. These Webbe specimens are different from those found under Gólis, as they are smaller, have shorter horns, are still more brilliantly marked, and have hoofs nearly twice as long. The hoofs of a Webbe Lesser Koodoo are, like those of a Webbe Bushbuck, of extraordinary length.

“The Lesser Koodoo likes to be near water, and, living as it does amongst the densest thickets, has its ears wonderfully well developed. It has powerful hind-quarters, and is a strong leaper, the white bushy tail flashing over the aloe-clumps as it takes them in great bounds. They are very cunning, and will stand quite still on the farther side of a thicket listening to the advancing trackers, then a slight rustle is heard as they gallop away. The best way to get a specimen is to follow the fresh tracks of a buck, the sportsman advancing in a direction parallel with that of the tracker, but some fifty yards to one flank and in advance; a snap-shot may then be got as the Koodoo bounds out of the farther side of a thicket, but you may be months in the country before getting a really good buck. They go in herds of about the same number as do the Greater Koodoos. Old bucks are nearly black and the horns become smooth by rubbing against trees; and scars of all sorts remain on the neck, being the result of wild rushes through the jungle and fights with other bucks. The average length of a good buck’s horns is about 25 inches from base to tip. The longest I have shot or seen was between 27 and 28 inches in length in a straight line. The horns are very sharp, but I have never seen a Lesser Koodoo attempt to charge.”

Lt.-Col. H. O. Olivier, R.E., who has lately made a short hunting-tour in Somaliland, sends us the following field-notes on the Lesser Kudu:—

“The Lesser Koodoo is, I consider, a more difficult animal to circumvent than the Larger Koodoo. They are met with in thick scrubby jungle and are extremely wary. I found that when once they had seen us it was almost hopeless to get a shot, as they have a habit of standing in deep shade looking back over a fork of a tree or through the top of a bush along their back track, and one cannot evade their eyesight, however quietly one moves. Moreover, they constantly go off down-wind.

“They seem to be partial to moving in a restricted range, for I found that when following their tracks they always worked round in a circle. They are also very partial to disused zarebas, which they visit for the sake of the grass found there, and the finest animal I ever saw was observed sunning itself in the middle of such a zareba about 9 o’clock in the morning. Naturally I had not my rifle, and my shikari, who had it, did not see the Koodoo, and though I followed it for some six hours I never got a chance at it; but it was a real beauty.

“I was fortunate in twice getting shots at animals before they saw me by coming unexpectedly on them and not tracking them, which latter operation is a weariness to the flesh and exasperating to the temper. I found the Lesser Koodoo at the foot of the Golis Range, and in considerable numbers on the Farfan and Dachato Rivers; also to the west of Hargeisa, and indeed in the Hargeisa jungle itself. They seemed to go in very small parties; I never saw more than two together, and at the time I was in Somaliland, i.e. from May to August, the tracks were always solitary.

“They appear often to fall victims to wild beasts, more often than most Antelopes. I found one killed by a lioness, another by a panther, and a third by wild dogs. Both the last were bucks—in fact I came across many more males than females, but this may have been chance.

“Their coat of slaty grey with irregular stripes harmonizes wonderfully with the foliage, and, as in the case of the Cheetah in India, exactly reproduces the chequered shade of sunshine through leaves.”

We have already spoken of the occurrence of the Lesser Kudu on the Brava Coast in Southern Somaliland, and this species is stated by Mr. Hunter to be one of the commonest Antelopes on the Tana River. The same writer informs us that it is also found in the bush round Taveta, and on the Kikavo River near the Sogonoe Hills, but is seldom met with near Kilimanjaro. As Mr. F. J. Jackson writes (‘Big Game Shooting,’ vol. i. p. 304), the Lesser Kudu is confined, in British East Africa, principally to the belt of dry bush-country which extends from the coast to 100 miles inland. Mr. Jackson continues his remarks with the subjoined interesting notes on this species:—

“I was told by Messrs. Hobley and Bird-Thompson, on their return from a trip up the Tana river in 1891, that many of these Antelopes had fallen victims to the cattle disease (anthrax), and that they found several dead in the bush between the river and the northern boundaries of the Elkambani. These beautiful beasts are bush feeders. They should be sought for in the early morning and again in the evening, in the open bush which usually fringes thick bush, in which they take up their quarters for the day. They are generally found in small parties of two or three does and a buck, though, like the Bushbuck, both single bucks and does are often seen by themselves. At Marereni, in 1886, I witnessed a fight between two bucks. On emerging from the bush, I suddenly came across them, and watched them for about a quarter of an hour as they fought with great fury, in spite of my being to windward of them, and not more than 400 yards off at the time. They fought so furiously, and kept their heads together so long, that I thought they had got their horns locked together, and I attempted to take advantage of them whilst in this position, and ran across the sandy open space intervening between us, but before I got within range they separated and bolted. The jumping powers of the Lesser Kudu are simply marvellous. When I first went to Africa, I kept a record of the length of the strides of the various game-beasts when at full gallop, but unfortunately lost it, and never took the subject up again. I remember, however, measuring the jump of one of these beasts, which struck me at the time as being very wonderful. She had been chased by a hyæna along a narrow footpath in a dense bush. In the middle of a path was a thick green bush about 5 ft. high, round which the path took a turn, and then went straight on again. The Kudu had taken a flying leap over this bush, and the distance between the spoor of her hind feet where she took off and the edge of the bush was 15 ft. The diameter of the bush was 6 ft., and the distance from the edge of the bush on the further side to where she landed—i.e. to the spoor-marks of her hind feet—another 10 ft., in all 31 feet. The hyæna had given up the chase some 30 yards further on, where the Kudu had entered the bush. The note of alarm of this beast is a distinct and loud bark, much resembling that of an ‘old man’ baboon. Lesser Kudu appear to bark only when they scent danger but are unable to see it. As I have said before, many natives will not touch the flesh of this beast, as it causes them great pain in the mouth and gums.”

We have already mentioned the fact that a living pair of the Lesser Kudu was received at the Château Beaujardin, Tours, from Somaliland, by Mons. Cornély in 1884. In April 1886 Mons. Cornély was kind enough, having lost the female of a pair of these Antelopes then in his garden, to part with the solitary male in favour of the Zoological Society of London. This was the first specimen received in England; but in April 1889 a second example, likewise a young male, was presented to the Society’s Collection by Mr. George S. Mackenzie, F.Z.S. In July 1898 a third young male was obtained by purchase. But none of these individuals, we regret to state, can be said to have done well in the Regent’s Park. We are not aware of any specimen of this Antelope having been received in any of the many continental Gardens.

In the British Museum, besides the old stuffed specimen received from the East Indian Museum, which may be considered the real type of Blyth’s species, there is mounted in one of the large glass-cases in the Gallery the young male presented by Mons. Cornély to Sclater and figured in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings,’ as already mentioned. This was subsequently presented by Sclater to the National Collection. In the same glass-case there are also mounted a fine adult male from Somaliland, presented by Mr. R. McD. Hawker, and a female from British East Africa, presented by Mr. Rowland Ward. There are also skins and skulls in the Museum presented by Sir John Kirk, Col. Paget, Capt. Swayne, and other donors.

Our drawing of this beautiful Antelope (Plate XCVII.) was put upon the stone by Mr. Smit from the sketch made for Sir Victor Brooke by Wolf in 1875, of which we have already spoken.

April, 1900.

Genus V. TAUROTRAGUS.

Type. Oreas, =Desm.= Mamm. ii. p. 471 (1822) (nec Hübner, 1806) T. oryx.

Taurotragus, =Wagn.= Schr. Säug., Suppl. v. p. 439 (1855) T. oryx.

Doratoceros, =Lyd.= Field, lxxviii. p. 130 (1891) T. oryx.

Very large, heavily-built, bovine Antelopes, differing from the rest of the Tragelaphinæ in the presence of horns in both sexes. Horns longer than the face, arising well behind the orbits and directed backwards in the plane of the nasal bones, massive (in the male) and furnished with a strong but close spiral twist in the basal half; the anterior crest large, making a complete circuit of the horn and reappearing on its anterior surface near the middle when the horn is unworn, and always at some distance from the tip.

Hair on the forehead longer than on the rest of the head, and forming, in old males, a thick and stiff mat; hair on the nape forming a short mane reversed in the direction of the growth, the parting close to the withers. Throat furnished with a flap of loose skin, or dewlap, which bears a beardlike tuft of hairs.

Tail reaching to the hocks, covered with short hair, but tufted at the tip.

Female. Like the male, but slighter in build; without the thick frontal mat of hair; horns longer, thinner, less strongly crested, and usually much less twisted. Mammæ 4.

Range of the Genus. Africa south of the Sahara, from Senegambia and the White Nile in the north to Cape Colony in the south.

The two species of this genus may be shortly diagnosed as follows:—