( 325 ) 



Sesheke, north of the Victoria Falls of the Central Zambesi,* which presents the 

 following characteristics : Body-colour a deeper fawn on the back, marked with 

 eight or nine vertical white stripes, more conspicuous in young than in aged 

 animals, a dark dorsal stripe, and dark brown bauds above the knees, which tend 

 to fade with age ; forehead of old bulls with a dark brown "bash," and typically 

 no white chevron (teste the plate in Livingstone's Sot/t/i Africa). 



This race apparently extends southwards of the Zambesi to Mashonaland, as 

 exemplified by the mounted male and female in the British Museum (Natural 

 History). It is noticeable, however, that the bull now shows no dark knee-bands ; 

 but probably they have faded out. In Mashonaland, as exemplified by the two 

 bulls already referred to as being figured in Mr. Selous's book, an imperfect 

 white chevron may coexist with a dark brown " bush " on the forehead, thus 

 leading on to — ■ 



3. The British East African race, T. oryx pattersonianus, which has the 

 following characteristics (so far as these can be determined from a single specimen): 

 Body pale rufous fawn, marked with three distinct white stripes on the withers, 

 and faint indications of other stripes farther back ; small dark knee-bands and dark 

 dorsal stripe; forehead of adult bulls without a "bush" of long hair, a narrow 

 stripe in the middle line of the forehead above and between the eyes black, the 

 sides of the forehead bright rufous, and an incomplete white chevron below the eyes ; 

 lower part of face dark brown, with a fawn patch on each side above the nostril. 



[Here it may be well to mention that an eland-head from Portuguese East 

 Africa — apparently an adult bull— in the possession of Mr. P. B. Vander Byl, 

 has the face coloured similarly to that of the British East African race, but 

 without the white chevron, although lacking the frontal "bush." I am informed, 

 however, by Capt. Stevenson Hamilton that two }'Oung elands recently caught in 

 Portuguese Africa had the white chevron. It may be added that a few of the bull 

 elands at Woburn Abbey show a chevron, which is, however, bnff instead of white.] 

 From the country between British East Africa and the Bahr-el-Ghazal province 

 of the Sudan no specimens of eland are available ; but it seems quite probable 

 that in this district a race may exist in some degree connecting T. o. pattersonianus 

 with the one provisionally known as — 



4. The Sudan Eland, Taurotragus derbianus gigas, of which a head is figured 

 by Mr. Kothschild in vol. xii. PI. XII. of this journal . The leading characteristics 

 of this head, in addition to the large size of the horns and the broader ears (as 

 contrasted with those of all the races here classed as T. oryx) are the following : 

 Forehead of adult bulls wholly chestnut, and without a "bush"; an incomplete 

 white chevron below. the eyes, and the rest of the front of the face blackish brown, 

 with the exception of a white patch over each eye, including the eyelid ; lips 

 white, sides of face fawn, with a band of chestnut running from between the horn 

 and the ear to the throat, and a white gorget in the middle of the lower part 

 of this band. Sides of fore-part of neck fawn, followed posteriorly on each side 

 by a broad oblique blackish band narrowing towards the chest, with a narrow 

 line of white near its hind border; a black stripe along the middle line of the 

 neck and another on the throat. Body-striping unknown. 



* In his original description of Taurotragus liviiigstonei (Prnr. Zool. Soc. London, 18G4, p. 104), 

 Dr. Sclater refers first to elands from Usagara, German East Africa, and then to others obtained by 

 Sir J. Kirk just north of the Zambesi. I consider it, however, admissible to take as the type of this form 

 the elands obtained by Livingstone at Sesheke, as has already been done by Mr. Selous. 



