348 UNGULATA 



very strongly developed, and rising at an obtuse angle to the plane 

 of the nasals. Skull with large supraorbital pits, large lachrymal 

 fissure, and deep intercornual depression. Hoofs short. Body with 

 white vertical stripes descending from a longitudinal dorsal streak. 

 Two existing species. 



The Kudu (S. kudu, Fig. 143) extends from South Africa to 

 Abyssinia, and is only inferior in size to the Eland. The horns 

 are about 4 feet in length, and form a very open spiral, and 

 there is a fringe of long hair down the front of the neck. The 

 Lesser Kudu (S. imberbis), of Somali-land is a much smaller form, 

 without the fringe of hair on the neck, and with a much smaller 

 axis formed by the spiral of the horns. 



An imperfect skull from the Pliocene of Northern India has 

 been referred to Strepskeros. 



Oreas. 1 — Females horned. Horns twisted on their own axis, 

 with very strong ridges, inclining upwards and outwards in the 

 plane of the nasals. General characters of skull as in preceding 

 genus. Stripes on body, if present, very faintly marked. One 

 existing species. 



The Eland (0. canna) is the largest of all the Antelopes, the 

 males standing nearly 6 feet at the withers. One variety from 

 South Africa is of a uniform pale fawn colour, while the Central 

 African form is of a bright tan colour, marked by a number of thin 

 pale vertical stripes descending from a dark dorsal ridge — these 

 markings fading more or less in the adults. The males have a 

 large dewlap, a tuft of brown hair on the forehead, and a small 

 mane on the neck. The straight black horns of the male are 

 usually about 18 inches long. Elands were formerly extremely 

 abundant in Southern and Eastern Africa, but their destruction 

 has been so relentless that they have totally disappeared from 

 extensive areas, and are daily becoming scarcer. 



Portions of upper jaws from the Pliocene deposits of India appear 

 to indicate the former existence in that area of large Antelopes 

 closely allied to the Eland, but distinguished from the living species 

 by the greater size of the inner accessory column in the upper 

 molars. 



Allied Extinct Types. — Large Antelopes with spirally twisted 

 horns appear to have been common over Southern Europe in Pliocene 

 times, but their exact affinity is in many cases difficult to determine. 

 Of these, Palceoreas, which occurs in the Lower Pliocene of Europe 

 and Algeria, appears to present affinities both to Oreas and 

 Strepsiceros, and may have been the ancestral type from which 

 these two genera are derived ; the upper molars have well-developed 

 accessory columns. 



The so-called Antilope torticornis, of the French Pliocene, 

 1 Desmarest, Mammalogie, p. 471 (1822). 



