Part 7

Hippotragus rufo-pallidus, =Neumann=, P. Z. S. 1898, p. 850 (German and British East Africa).

Subspecies c. H. e. bakeri.

Hippotragus bakeri, =Heugl.= Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N. Act. Leop. xxx. pl. ii.) p. 16, pl. ii. figs. 6a & b (1863); =Baker=, Nile Tributaries, pp. 475 & 545 (1867); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1868, p. 214, pl. xvi.; =Heugl.= N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 110 (fig. of head) (1877); =Huet=, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 66 (1887); =Flow. & Lyd.= Mamm. p. 343 (1891); =Ward=, Horn Meas. (1) p. 142 (1892); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 246 (1893); =Trouess.= Cat. Mamm. fasc. iv. p. 951 (1898).

Aegoceros bakeri, =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 177 (1869); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 34 (1872).

Antilope leucophæa, =Schweinf.= Herz. von Afrika, i. p. 237 (fig. of head), ii. p. 533 (1874).

Subspecies d. H. e. gambianus.

Aegoceros leucophæus, var.?, “Docoi” or Whitemouth of Mandingoes, =Gray=, Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 103 (1852), whence

Aegoceros koba, =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 35 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 103 (1873).

Hippotragus koba, =Ward=, Horn Meas. (1) p. 142 (1892); =Matsch.= Mittheil. deutsch. Schutz-gebiet, vi. p. 17 (1893); =Pousargues=, Ann. Sci. Nat. (7) iv. p. 131 (1896); =Trouess.= Cat. Mamm. fasc. iv. p. 951 (1898).

Hippotragus equinus, =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1896, p. 983, 1898, p. 350 (Gambia) (Llewelyn).

Vernacular Names:—Roan Antelope of English; Bastard Gemsbok and Bastard Eland of Dutch; Qualata of Northern Bechuanas; Tai-hait-sa of Southern Bechuanas; Ee-taku of Matabilis; Ee- pala-pala chena (White Sable Antelope) of the Makalakas; Impengo eetuba of Masubias; Oo-ka-mooh-wee of Makubas; Kwar of Masaras (Selous); Takayezi of Transvaal Zulus (Rendall); Palance in Angola (Bocage); Kolongo of Kinyamwesi in E. Africa (Böhm fide Matschie); Abu Maaref of Upper Nile Arabs (Heuglin & Baker). Anomm in Dinka; Ommar in Djur; Manja in Bongo; Bisso in Niam-Niam; Wunnunguh in Golo; Omahr in Bellanda; Dahngah in Ssehre (Schweinfurth).

Size very large, an adult male standing 56 inches high at the withers. General colour greyish, browner in the two northern subspecies. Top and sides of face black, contrasting markedly with the white muzzle and lips and with a prominent patch just in front of the eyes. On the lower half of this patch the hairs are elongated into a brush. Behind the eyes a second less conspicuous white patch is present. The black, however, is only developed in the adult, young specimens having the face nearly uniform with the body. Ears very long, narrow, pointed, their tips pencilled with black. Mane well developed, brown, directed backward, except just on the withers, where there is a tendency for it to be whorled. Throat-mane long and prominent. Belly white, its definition laterally rather variable. Limbs brownish fawn, black patches occasionally present on the outer sides of the shoulders and forearms. Tail reaching to the hocks, its brush black.

Skull-dimensions of an adult male (of subspecies H. e. bakeri):—Basal length 16 inches, greatest breadth 6·75, muzzle to orbit 10·3.

Horns stout and strong, cylindrical, heavily ridged, evenly divergent, curved backward; comparatively short for the size of the animal, good specimens being only from 26 to 30 inches in length, and the longest recorded only 33.

Female similar to the male, but the horns more slender, smoother, less heavily ridged, and less strongly curved backward, and neck and body less robust.

Hab. Africa south of the Sahara, except in the Congo wood-region.

It is a well-known and generally accepted fact amongst naturalists that animals which have a wide distribution have also a special tendency to vary, and that if specimens of them from different parts of their ranges are compared, such specimens are usually found not to agree exactly, but to be distinguishable by differential characters more or less evident. When these characters are easily observable and definable their possessors are usually referred to different species, which are supposed to “represent” one another in their respective areas, and are hence often called “representative species.” When the distinguishing characters are slight and less easily recognizable it has recently become the practice, especially among American naturalists, to designate their possessors as “subspecies,” and, in order to indicate this, to add a third “subspecific” name to the ordinary generic and specific terms. This plan we have already adopted in some cases in the present work. But there are many cases in which, either from imperfect evidence or from an insufficient supply of specimens, it is very difficult to decide whether a “local form,” as it may be termed, is better treated of as a species or as a subspecies. And in the present instance we have one of these cases before us. The Roan Antelope is very widely distributed in Africa. From the Cape Colony it extends all up the eastern side of the continent to British East Africa and Sennaar, and is also found on the west coast in Senegal, Togoland, Nigeria, and Angola. Specimens from all these countries present a very general resemblance, and have been considered by most authorities to be identical. On the contrary, other writers have regarded the local forms as distinct, and have separated them under different specific names. We confess that we have not been able (mainly, no doubt, from lack of sufficient specimens to consult) to come to a satisfactory conclusion on this subject; but, for the present, we think it a more prudent course to treat the local forms of this species found in the different districts of Africa as only of subspecific rank, and to class them all under the one specific head as Hippotragus equinus.

The Roan Antelope received its specific name as long ago as 1804, when a short description of it was published by Desmarest in the twenty-fourth volume of the first edition of the ‘Dictionnaire d’Histoire Naturelle,’ taken from a specimen in the Paris Museum. Desmarest designated it by the French name “Antilope Osanne,” but added Geoffrey’s MS. scientific name “Antilope equina” which must, therefore, be attributed to the former author, as having first published it. Desmarest states that the exact locality of this specimen was unknown, but we think it may be safely assumed to have been from the Cape. Desmarest’s description is not very accurate, but Desmoulins, who wrote the article “Antilope” in the subsequently issued ‘Dictionnaire Classique d’Histoire Naturelle,’ added a figure of the head of Geoffrey’s type, which seems to prove that it could have been of no other than the present species.

The first European explorer in South Africa to meet with the Roan Antelope in its native wilds appears to have been Samuel Daniell, who visited the Cape about the commencement of the present century under the patronage of Lieut.-General Francis Dundas, at that time Acting Governor. In his ‘African Scenery and Animals’ (of which the original folio series was issued in parts in 1804 and the following years) Daniell figured what was, there is little doubt, an example of this Antelope under the name of “The Tackhaitse” (no. 24), and informs us, in the accompanying letterpress, that he met with two of these animals near Latakoo (or Kuruman) in Bechuanaland, where “they are usually found grazing on the edge of the Karroo Plains near the foot of the hills in small herds of five or six.” Upon Daniell’s “Tackhaitse” Schinz founded his Capra œthiopica, Goldfuss his Capra barbata, and Fischer his Antilope truteri; but all these names are happily subsequent in date to the specific term usually adopted for this Antelope, and need not concern us further.

After Daniell the next traveller to meet with the Roan Antelope appears to have been Dr. Burchell, who was at the Cape from 1811 to 1815. In his ‘List of Quadrupeds presented to the British Museum,’ as part of the results of this memorable expedition, Burchell records a male of Antilope equina, “shot at the Little Klibbolikhónni Fountain in the Transgariepine” (now Orange Free State) in December 1812. In Hamilton Smith’s fourth volume of the Mammals of Griffith’s ‘Animal Kingdom’ a full description is given of this specimen (of which a pair of horns now alone remains in the National Collection), accompanied by a good uncoloured figure of it drawn by Thomas Landseer.

Sir Andrew Smith, whose journeys in the Cape districts took place from 1834 to 1836, published a coloured figure of this Antelope in 1840, in his ‘Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa,’ and gives us the following account of its distribution in those days:—

“The range of this species is very wide, and specimens have been found wherever Southern Africa has been explored. Not very many years ago the animal was frequently seen within the northern boundary of the Cape Colony, and if we are to credit the statements of the aborigines there was a time when it occurred much more to the southward than even the locality alluded to, and from which it has now in a great measure, if not completely, disappeared. It is an animal which congregates, and commonly from six to twelve individuals are found associated together. Herds of this description are generally met in districts abounding with small hills or hilly ridges, and to such elevations they appear to resort in preference to the plains. The number of herds in any given tract is comparatively small, so that the animal, though generally diffused, is, nevertheless, nowhere abundant. Its pace is a gallop, which, in appearance, is of a heavy character, but its progress is amazingly rapid. It is an animal extremely vigilant, and always appears to be in fear of enemies; hence it comes seldom within the range of the hunter’s gun.”

The well-known sportsman and naturalist Sir William Cornwallis Harris, whose expedition through the interior of the Colony up to the Tropic of Capricorn took place in 1836 and 1837, writes in his usual charming style of this favourite object of the hunter’s pursuit:—

“Not less from its singular beauty than from its extreme rarity, there were few game animals in the whole African catalogue that I more eagerly sought for than the Roan Antelope—my hankering after its gay spoils being moreover greatly increased by the difficulties that I at first experienced in obtaining possession of them. According to indications given by my kind friend Dr. Smith, in whose cabinet I had seen this noble and imposing Antelope, it was on an elevated tract of rocky table-land forming a terrace on the mountains between Daniel’s Kuil and Kramer’s Fontein, that I first disturbed a herd whilst wandering alone in search of them along the ‘rigging’ of the hills. The thin covering of earth supported only a scant and faded vegetation, together with a few scrubby trees and bushes which grew from the fissures of the rock. Surmounted by a pair of jagged ibex-looking horns, the magpie-head of a sturdy old hull, protruded above a thin copse of brushwood through which I was riding, was not to be mistaken. I sprang from my horse, and as the whole bloom-coloured herd arose to make its rush, sent a bullet spinning betwixt the ribs of their gallant leader. But, although tantalized by an occasional glimpse of his silvery form, I followed the bloody trail over hill and through dale for eleven long hours, desisting only when the sun had gone down and daylight would serve me no longer, I was finally doomed to disappointment through lack of assistance. Not another specimen was seen until we had reached the Limpopo, the elevated tracts lying between which river and the Likwa divide the principal waters of Southern Africa, and form the peculiar habitat of this species. Even there it invariably resides in limited families, which seldom contain more than one old bull—a dozen or more of the younger males usually herding by themselves. Equal in stature to the largest Arab horse, the whole structure—remarkably powerful and muscular—is especially adapted for traversing the rugged regions that it frequents. Not less vigilant than active, its wary troops were ever most difficult to approach—the bare mountains crowned with wooded terraces that form the stronghold upon which, when disturbed, they invariably sought an asylum, proving alike impracticable to the sportsman, whether equipped in pedestrian or in equestrian order; and some time had elapsed before I accidentally ascertained the species to be so utterly destitute of foot—that if detected in the open glades, or among the slightly wooded downs, to which morning and evening they resort, the bulls especially may be ridden down upon an inferior horse in a quarter of a mile! For this singular fact I was the less prepared, from having previously ascertained the speed and bottom of the true Gemsbok—an animal which is scarcely less heavily built—to be unrivalled among the larger Antelopes.”

The Roan Antelope appears never to have existed south of the Orange River, and in more recent days, we fear, has retired much further into the interior than the localities specified by Andrew Smith and Cornwallis Harris. Messrs. Nicolls and Eglinton, in their ‘Sportsman in South Africa,’ tell us that it is “now very rarely found on the upper and lower banks of the Botletle River about the Mababé Flats, Great Makari-kari Salt-pans, and Chobe districts, while in the less frequented portions of Matabeleland it is still fairly common, and although once numerous in Mashonaland, is now only to be found there in the low country towards the east coast.” Mr. Selous also states that it is “tolerably plentiful” in parts of Mashonaland, and that he found a good many in the Manica country, north of the Zambesi. Mr. W. L. Sclater informs us that on the western side of South Africa it is still to be found in plenty in Damaraland and Ovampoland.

In the Transvaal, Dr. Percy Rendall, writing in 1895, states that a few of these fine animals were still to be found on the Oliphants River. Herr Reiche, of Alfeld, informs us that, in his yearly importations of animals from the Transvaal since 1887, he has received no less than eight living examples of this Antelope, which have been disposed of to various Continental Gardens. These, however, may have been obtained in the adjoining Portuguese border-country to the north of that Republic. But Mr. Kirby, in his ‘Haunts of Wild Game,’ tells us that, “although very rare,” the Roan Antelope is still to be found in the north-eastern parts of the Transvaal. “There are a few on the high stony ridges across the Mehlamhali and about Maripi’s Berg and the Oliphants River, but nowhere in large numbers.” In 1891 he shot two fine bulls on the Nuanetsi, but they were wanderers.

It was across the Limpopo within the borders of Mashonaland that Mr. John Millais came across this beautiful Antelope in 1893. Its head forms one of the subjects of the cover of his enchanting volume ‘A Breath from the Veldt,’ the pages of which contain several excellent sketches of this splendid animal and much information on its habits. It was near Eland’s Fontein, between the Rivers Bubye and Nuanetsi, that Mr. Millais obtained his first specimen of the Roan Antelope, of which he writes as follows:—

“On the Veldt the Roan has a fine and noble appearance, though it does look a bit ‘front heavy,’ It carries its head very finely, but not with the grace and the nobility of the Sable. In many respects it resembles its handsomer cousin. Its habits are much the same, being found alike in open or enclosed country, though on the whole it evinces a greater predilection for the great plains with scattered bush, while the Sable is fond of climbing about the low rocky hills, or in bush at the base of kopjies. The Roan Antelope is also a much more regular drinker than the Sable, which can go for long periods without requiring water. A troop of the former, if undisturbed, come every evening to about the same spot on some favourite sluit of standing water, while the latter drink irregularly and nearly always about daybreak.