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THE ELAND OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



By R. LYDEKKER. 



(Plate I.) 



IN The Field newspaper for 19u6 (vol. cviii. p. 579) I gave a brief description 

 of the head of an eland killed by Lieut.-Colonel J. H. Patterson on the 

 Laikipia plateau, in British East Africa,* for which I proposed the name 

 Taurotragus oryx pattersonianus. This head, forming the subject of Plate I., 

 together with the body-skin, Colonel Patterson subsequently presented to the 

 British Museum (Natural History), the former being now exhibited iu the West 

 Corridor of the building in the Cromwell Road. 



Taking as a basis of comparison the two specimens of the striped eland shot 

 by Mr. F. C. Selous in Mashonaland, and exhibited in the same corridor, under 

 the name of Taurotragus onjx livingstonei, I stated that the eland of British East 

 Africa was distinguished by having " an incomplete white chevrou similar to, 

 although rather smaller than, the one found in the Sudan eland (7'. derbianus 

 gigas), while only a narrow stripe in the middle line of the face, above and 

 between the eyes, is dark brown, the sides of the forehead being rufous. On the 

 lower part of the face there is a larger dark brown area thau iu the ordinary 

 striped eland, although there is a rufous fawn-coloured patch on each side above 

 the nostril." At the time of writing this passage I was uuaware that Mr. Selous f 

 had already recorded the occurrence of an incomplete white chevron in some of 

 the elands from the south of the Zambesi, as exemplified by the two male heads 

 from Mashonaland, figured in Plate I., figs. 1 aud 3, of the first of the two works 

 cited in the footuote. Further details are therefore necessary to demonstrate the 

 distinctness of the British East African race. So far as my present information 

 goes, the races and species (?) of eland may be arranged as follows: — 



1. The Southern race, T. oryx oryx%: Whole body aud limbs pale fawn- 

 coloured, without white stripes on the body, no white chevrou on the forehead, 

 or dark knee-bauds or dorsal stripe ; face of old bulls wholly brown, with a large 

 "bush" of blackish-brown hair on the forehead; in the cows the middle line of 

 the face brown, and the sides paler. 



Although extinct iu Cape Colony (the type locality), this race, according to 

 Mr. Selous, survives in the South Kalahari Desert, and iu East Africa apparently 

 extends about as far north as lat. 23° S. — that is to say, Matabeleland. 



North of lat. 23° S., according to the same observer, certain individuals 

 in a herd show more or less distinct white body-stripes and dark knee-bands, 

 thus passing into — 



2. The Zambesi race, T. onjx livingstonei, of which the type locality is 



* Owing to erroneous information, it was stated that the locality was Portuguese East Africa ; 

 the mistake was cone ted in the next issue of The Field. 



t A Hitnttr'.i Wanderings in Africa, p. Umi (lS'JO), aud iu linden's Great and Small Game of 

 Jfrisa, p. 436 (18.1'J). 



J I prefer the Dame T. oryx tyj)i&M t but thi^ is inadmissible in Kocitaiet. 



