GenusIX. DORCOTRAGUS.

Size very small, smaller than in any Gazelle. Ears large. Tail short. False hoofs minute; horny part of main hoofs short, but the internal pad to the hoof broad and thick; position of limbs in standing almost as inOreotragus. No Gazelline head-markings, but a dark lateral band present on the sides of the body.

Skull broad and short. Nasals short and premaxillæ long, the structure in this region recalling that inMadoqua. Anteorbital region with a very small and shallow lacrymal fossa. Bullæ large and inflated. Premolars 3/3, the anterior very large.

Horns short, straight or faintly curved forwards, not unlike those ofRaphiceros, and quite different from those of any true Gazelle. Female hornless.

Range of the Genus.Restricted to Somaliland.

One species only.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LXXV.Smit del. et lith.Hanhart imp.The Beira.DORCOTRAGUS MEGALOTIS.Published by R. H. Porter.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LXXV.

Smit del. et lith.

Hanhart imp.

The Beira.

DORCOTRAGUS MEGALOTIS.

Published by R. H. Porter.

Behra,Menges, Peterm. Mitth. xxxi. p. 454 (1885) (Hekebo plateau).Beira, Scl. P. Z. S. 1892, pp. 102, 118;Swayne, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 308.Oreotragus megalotis,Menges, Zool. Anz. xvii. p. 131 (1894);Swayne, Seventeen Trips to Somaliland, p. 321 (1895).Dorcotragus megalotis,Noack, Zool. Anz. xvii. p. 202 (1894);Hoyos, Zu den Aulihan, p. 186 (1895);Elliot, Publ. Chicago Mus. Zool. i. p. 135 (1897) (Hargeisa).Vernacular Name:—Beiraof Somalis (Swayne).

Behra,Menges, Peterm. Mitth. xxxi. p. 454 (1885) (Hekebo plateau).

Beira, Scl. P. Z. S. 1892, pp. 102, 118;Swayne, P. Z. S. 1892, p. 308.

Oreotragus megalotis,Menges, Zool. Anz. xvii. p. 131 (1894);Swayne, Seventeen Trips to Somaliland, p. 321 (1895).

Dorcotragus megalotis,Noack, Zool. Anz. xvii. p. 202 (1894);Hoyos, Zu den Aulihan, p. 186 (1895);Elliot, Publ. Chicago Mus. Zool. i. p. 135 (1897) (Hargeisa).

Vernacular Name:—Beiraof Somalis (Swayne).

Size about as in the Steinbok or Grysbok; height at withers 20 inches in an adult male. General colour of neck and back a peculiar purplish grey, very finely grizzled with white, the extreme tips of the hairs being this latter colour. Scarcely a trace of a light lateral band, but a distinct dark one present, brownish, passing quite across the shoulder, and extending behind on to the sides of the rump. Belly not, as is usual, pure white throughout, but only white on the axillæ and groins, the remainder pale yellowish fawn, or even orange-fawn, this colour also extending on to the outer sides of the forearms and thighs; rest of limbs becoming darker fulvous to the hoofs. Head bright fulvous, quite different to the neck; area round eyes white, but no Gazelline facial streaks present. Tail short and rather bushy, coloured like the back, without darker tip.

Measurements of an old male skull:—Basal length 5·35 inches, greatest breadth 3·15, muzzle to orbit 3·2.

Horns ordinarily from 4 to 5 inches in length, the longest in the British Museum collection, one of Capt. Swayne’s, attaining 5½ inches.

Hab.Northern Somaliland; hills along the northern edge of the Haud.

On several occasions during the many years in which Sclater’s excellent correspondent Captain H. G. C. Swayne, R.E., was engaged on his various explorations and expeditions in Somaliland, he wrote about a “small red Antelope” found in the mountains which had the habits of a “Klipspringer,” but, according to native testimony, was of quite a different species. The existence of the same animal had also been recorded as long ago as 1885 under the name “Behra,” by Herr Josef Menges, in an account of his fourth journey in Somaliland, published in Petermann’s ‘Mittheilungen.’ Herr Menges met with the “Behra” on the Hekebo plateau (about 10° S. lat. and 44° 40´ E. long.), and had at one time a young living specimen of it in his possession.

After Herr Menges the “Behra” or “Beira,” as it is now usually called, after its Somali name, seems to have been first actually seen by Lieut. E. J. Swayne, of the Indian Staff Corps, Capt. Swayne’s brother, when he was in the Gadabursi country in the autumn of 1891. He observed two of them among very rugged hills, but failed to get a shot at them. He described them to Capt. Swayne as being “reddish Antelopes, rather larger than the Klipspringer, with small straight horns, which bounded away among the rocks in exactly the same manner as the Klipspringer.”

Capt. Swayne was much excited about this discovery, and promised Sclater to do all he could to procure specimens of the animal. On his last trip to Somaliland he was assured by his Somalis that he would find the “Beira” on Waggar Mountain, near the south-eastern extremity of the Golis range, but he had not time to go there. On leaving Berbera, however, Capt. Swayne exhorted his men to proceed to the mountains themselves and to endeavour to procure some specimens of the Beira, offering them a handsome reward for good heads and skulls of a male and female, and leaving instructions to his agents there to pay the men and to forward the specimens.

Early in 1894 the much-wished-for skins were obtained by the faithful Somalis and forwarded to Sclater by Captain Swayne. We were proceeding to describe and figure them in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings,’ when we found that we had been anticipated by Herr Menges, who had justdescribed the species in the ‘Zoologischer Anzeiger,’ and given it the name “Oreotragus megalotis.” It has, however, certainly but a very remote connection, except as regards its habits, with the Klipspringer (Oreotragus), and Dr. Noack was quite justified in proposing for it the new and appropriate termDorcatragus(δορκας, an Antelope, and τραγος, a Goat), which he did in the same periodical shortly afterwards. Dr. Noack based his article upon two specimens, male and female, which he had then lately received from Herr Menges for examination.

The next traveller in Somaliland to encounter this rare Antelope was, we believe, Capt. P. Z. Cox, who, writing to Dr. Günther from Berbera in April 1895, gave an account of the circumstances under which he obtained a female example of the Beira for the British Museum:—

“I was returning from a short trip in the interior, upon duty and pleasure combined—I was about 50 miles from Berbera; the country I was travelling through was level plain, with occasional flat-topped tablelands, with steep sides rising sheer out of the general level of the surrounding country. I was passing the foot of one of these large plateaux on 29th March, with my Somali Shikari, in search of game, and remarked to him that there was a rare Klipspringer said to be found on these plateaux, and that I thought I would scale the steep side and just see what there was at the top.“Accordingly we toiled up the face of the tableland and reached the top. It was simply a large stretch of perfectly flat ground covered with large, loose, black, burnt-up stones, with an occasional green bush to vary the monotony. The extent of the plateau was about a mile in length by half a mile broad. We had a very tiring tramp over this course, shingle from end to end of it, and just as we reached the further end, where there was a little fringe of green bushes, we espied several Antelope browsing about 300 yards from us. I could not quite make out what they were, and expected them to be some young animals of the Greater Koodoo; but directly my Shikari saw them he said, ‘Do you know what those are, Sir? they are “Bahra”; I have only seen them once before, and no sportsman has ever shot them.’“There was no cover between us and them, and it was impossible to stalk them from where we were, so we made a long detour below the crest of the plateau expecting that we could come up within shot on the other side of the animals; but it was impossible to move without displacing stones and making a noise, and when we emerged above the crest again it was only to see five Antelopes streaming over the plateau in the direction we had just come from. Under such circumstances Klipspringer would have separated and taken to the rocks on the steep sides of the plateau, whereas these animals kept in a herd together and galloped away over the flat just as a herd of Gazelle would do.“I was much disappointed at not getting a shot, but I was sure they would not leave the plateau, and determined to leave no stone unturned to come up with them. We tramped on in the direction they had gone, and after going about half a milecaught sight of them again; but they had seen us first, and were going hard at about 250 yards when we saw them. It would have been a very fluky shot, and I held my hand. I could now distinguish four females and one buck, which appeared to have horns exactly like a Gazelle, between 8 and 10 inches long.“When they were fairly under weigh we got a bush between us and them, and hurried after them as quick as we could. After a few moments, as luck would have it, they all stopped in a bunch and turned round with their heads towards us at about 300 yards. I could not distinguish the buck at the moment, as they were standing among bushes and were not distinct, but I aimed at one which turned partially broadside and fired. The animal fell dead, and the other four streamed away out of sight. On running up I found that it was a female that I had killed, and I am sorry to say that on grallocking her we found an almost mature embryo inside her. I was unable to preserve this as I had no spirit with me, but the fact shows that the animal killed was an adult.“I took careful measurements on the spot, and found the height at shoulder 23 inches; distance from the nose to the root of the tail 33; the tail including 2-inch hair 5½; the length of ears in front 6¼, and their breadth 2¾.”

“Accordingly we toiled up the face of the tableland and reached the top. It was simply a large stretch of perfectly flat ground covered with large, loose, black, burnt-up stones, with an occasional green bush to vary the monotony. The extent of the plateau was about a mile in length by half a mile broad. We had a very tiring tramp over this course, shingle from end to end of it, and just as we reached the further end, where there was a little fringe of green bushes, we espied several Antelope browsing about 300 yards from us. I could not quite make out what they were, and expected them to be some young animals of the Greater Koodoo; but directly my Shikari saw them he said, ‘Do you know what those are, Sir? they are “Bahra”; I have only seen them once before, and no sportsman has ever shot them.’

“There was no cover between us and them, and it was impossible to stalk them from where we were, so we made a long detour below the crest of the plateau expecting that we could come up within shot on the other side of the animals; but it was impossible to move without displacing stones and making a noise, and when we emerged above the crest again it was only to see five Antelopes streaming over the plateau in the direction we had just come from. Under such circumstances Klipspringer would have separated and taken to the rocks on the steep sides of the plateau, whereas these animals kept in a herd together and galloped away over the flat just as a herd of Gazelle would do.

“I was much disappointed at not getting a shot, but I was sure they would not leave the plateau, and determined to leave no stone unturned to come up with them. We tramped on in the direction they had gone, and after going about half a milecaught sight of them again; but they had seen us first, and were going hard at about 250 yards when we saw them. It would have been a very fluky shot, and I held my hand. I could now distinguish four females and one buck, which appeared to have horns exactly like a Gazelle, between 8 and 10 inches long.

“When they were fairly under weigh we got a bush between us and them, and hurried after them as quick as we could. After a few moments, as luck would have it, they all stopped in a bunch and turned round with their heads towards us at about 300 yards. I could not distinguish the buck at the moment, as they were standing among bushes and were not distinct, but I aimed at one which turned partially broadside and fired. The animal fell dead, and the other four streamed away out of sight. On running up I found that it was a female that I had killed, and I am sorry to say that on grallocking her we found an almost mature embryo inside her. I was unable to preserve this as I had no spirit with me, but the fact shows that the animal killed was an adult.

“I took careful measurements on the spot, and found the height at shoulder 23 inches; distance from the nose to the root of the tail 33; the tail including 2-inch hair 5½; the length of ears in front 6¼, and their breadth 2¾.”

Sir Edmund Loder has kindly favoured us with the following field-notes on the Beira:—

“Mr. Percy Aylmer heard of this Antelope on the stony foot-hills in Gubau (N. of Hargaisa), and saw it on one of the isolated foot-hills to the south of Gau Libah. Mr. A. E. Pease and I found it on another detached hill about 20 miles west of this. This particular hill was extremely rough and rugged, covered with loose boulders, making walking and silent stalking extremely difficult. This hill was also frequented by Gumbouri (Wild Asses,Equus somalicus), which, from their large size, were easily seen. The case was, however, very different with the ‘Baira,’ which, at a comparative short distance, seemed to melt out of sight immediately they stopped moving, and indeed when they were in motion it was rather the moving black shadow cast by a tropical sun that caught the eye than the animal itself. They were observed by us in bands of seven, three, and three. In the two lots of three which I saw there was what I take to be one adult male with each. The only record of height that I can lay my hand on at this moment is that of an adult female, which measured at the shoulder 2 feet 2 inches; probably the male would be an inch higher.“The whole colour of this Gazelle is very beautiful in its tints of buff, purple, fawn, and grey and white; but what struck us most was their ears and hoofs. The ears, besides being very large and ornamental, are remarkable for the distinct rayed marking on the inside. The hoofs are well worth a special drawing, as they differ from those of any other Antelope with which I am acquainted. They are very much hollowed out, as is very noticeable in the track which they leave. The foot of the stuffed specimen in the Natural History Museum is filled up with some black substance which does not seem to me to be natural.”

“The whole colour of this Gazelle is very beautiful in its tints of buff, purple, fawn, and grey and white; but what struck us most was their ears and hoofs. The ears, besides being very large and ornamental, are remarkable for the distinct rayed marking on the inside. The hoofs are well worth a special drawing, as they differ from those of any other Antelope with which I am acquainted. They are very much hollowed out, as is very noticeable in the track which they leave. The foot of the stuffed specimen in the Natural History Museum is filled up with some black substance which does not seem to me to be natural.”

The accompanying view of the head is enlarged from a photograph of this Antelope kindly sent to us by Sir Edmund Loder.

Fig. 87.Front view of the head of the Beira.

Fig. 87.

Front view of the head of the Beira.

During Mr. D. G. Elliot’s East-African expedition of 1896, Mr. Akeley, one of his party, obtained two examples of this Antelope on Nasr Hablod Mountain, near Hargeisa, in nearly the same district as that just described by Sir Edmund Loder. These specimens are now in the Field-Columbian Museum at Chicago.

The British Museum contains a mounted specimen of an adult male of the Beira (from which our figure, Plate LXXV., has been prepared by Mr. Smit) and a skin of a female of the same species purchased of Herr Menges, besides the two skins obtained by the Somalis for Capt. Swayne, as above mentioned, which have been presented to the Museum by Sclater. It contains also a skin and complete skeleton of a female of this Antelope presented by Capt. P. Z. Cox, as described above.

September,1898.

FOOTNOTES:[1]This species, although mentioned last in Pallas’s List, may be taken as the type of the genus, because the term “Antilope” is clearly based on Ray’s and Buffon’s name for the Black-buck (The Antelope;l’Antilope), quoted and identified by Pallas, and only used up to this date for this particular species. The ordinary justification for the same course, based on de Blainville’s revision of 1816, is, as in so many other cases, invalidated by the earlier work of Lichtenstein, by whom the Black-buck was placed among the “Gazellæ,” and not among the “Antilopæ genuinæ.”[2]Saiga prisca, Nehring, N. Jahrb. f. Min., Geol. u. Pal. ii. p. 131 (1891).[3]This species may be taken as the type ofGazella, as being the only one which is common to Lichtenstein’s original genus and to Blainville’s “Gazella” of 1816. The latter author is ordinarily quoted as the original founder of the name, and his list includes the best known species—G. dorcas. But Lichtenstein’s genus, two years earlier in date, does not containG. dorcasat all, and the only way in which the nameGazellacan be properly retained for this group is by regardingG. subgutturosaas its type.[4]Przewalski’s ‘Mongolia,’ Morgan’s Translation, ii. pp. 208et seqq.[5]Owing to the Plate having been drawn from winter skins, in which the ears are thickly covered with hair, this character is not properly shown in the figures.[6]See List Vert. An. Z. S. 1883, p. 141.[7]See P. Z. S. 1892, p. 711.[8]See P. Z. S. 1895, p. 400.[9]See P. Z. S. 1874, p. 494.[10]See Burton’s “Narrative of a Trip to Harar,” Journ. R. G. S. xxv. p. 136 (1855).[11]See Cat. of Mamm. in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. Part II., by W. L. Sclater (1891), p. 158.[12]See Mr. F. L. James’s “Journey through the Somali to the Webbe Shebeyly,” Proc. R. G. S. vii. p. 625 (1885).[13]‘Seventeen Trips through Somaliland.’ London, Rowland Ward, 1895.[14]See underGazella marica, above, p. 95.[15]‘The Rise of our East-African Empire,’ i. p. 535.[16]MisprintedLitocraniusin the original description. The name is based on the solid stony character of the cranium (λιθος =lapis).

[1]This species, although mentioned last in Pallas’s List, may be taken as the type of the genus, because the term “Antilope” is clearly based on Ray’s and Buffon’s name for the Black-buck (The Antelope;l’Antilope), quoted and identified by Pallas, and only used up to this date for this particular species. The ordinary justification for the same course, based on de Blainville’s revision of 1816, is, as in so many other cases, invalidated by the earlier work of Lichtenstein, by whom the Black-buck was placed among the “Gazellæ,” and not among the “Antilopæ genuinæ.”

[2]Saiga prisca, Nehring, N. Jahrb. f. Min., Geol. u. Pal. ii. p. 131 (1891).

[3]This species may be taken as the type ofGazella, as being the only one which is common to Lichtenstein’s original genus and to Blainville’s “Gazella” of 1816. The latter author is ordinarily quoted as the original founder of the name, and his list includes the best known species—G. dorcas. But Lichtenstein’s genus, two years earlier in date, does not containG. dorcasat all, and the only way in which the nameGazellacan be properly retained for this group is by regardingG. subgutturosaas its type.

[4]Przewalski’s ‘Mongolia,’ Morgan’s Translation, ii. pp. 208et seqq.

[5]Owing to the Plate having been drawn from winter skins, in which the ears are thickly covered with hair, this character is not properly shown in the figures.

[6]See List Vert. An. Z. S. 1883, p. 141.

[7]See P. Z. S. 1892, p. 711.

[8]See P. Z. S. 1895, p. 400.

[9]See P. Z. S. 1874, p. 494.

[10]See Burton’s “Narrative of a Trip to Harar,” Journ. R. G. S. xxv. p. 136 (1855).

[11]See Cat. of Mamm. in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. Part II., by W. L. Sclater (1891), p. 158.

[12]See Mr. F. L. James’s “Journey through the Somali to the Webbe Shebeyly,” Proc. R. G. S. vii. p. 625 (1885).

[13]‘Seventeen Trips through Somaliland.’ London, Rowland Ward, 1895.

[14]See underGazella marica, above, p. 95.

[15]‘The Rise of our East-African Empire,’ i. p. 535.

[16]MisprintedLitocraniusin the original description. The name is based on the solid stony character of the cranium (λιθος =lapis).

Transcriber’s Notes:1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected silently.2. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been retained as in the original.3. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the original.

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