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NOTES ON TRAGELAPHUS SPEKEI SPEKEI AND 



TBAGELAPHVS SPEKEI GRATUS, WITH DESCEIP- 



TION OF A NEW SPECIES. 



By the HON. WALTER ROTHSCHILD. 



DR. SCLATER described Tragelapkus spekei in 1864 from the Victoria Nyanza, 

 where it liad been collected by the famous Captain 8peke, aud in ISSO he de- 

 scribed 'J'rtit/cliijjliuf (/ratits from A fi'mcle skin cibt;iiued in West Africa. Nunierons 

 specimens have since been received from Gaboon. When he was at Tring. Mr. 

 Oscar Neumann told me that during his journeys iu Uganda and Unyoro he had 

 shot many Tragelapkus spekei, and the farther west he went the more they 

 approached in a]ipearance Tragelaphus ffratus, until he at last shot several which 

 he could not witli certainty assign to either form. Therefore I tliink it is pretty clear 

 that we have to deal with two well-defined snbs])ecies only, which cannot be kept as 

 true species as the zones of their distribution overlap aud they run one into the 

 other. 



I am now going to describe as new the 'J'ruyi'laplais of the section under 

 consideration which inhabits both banks of the Zambezi and the swamps of the 

 surrouniling country, which I name 



Tragelaphus selousi sp. uov. 



It differs from Tragelapkus spekei spekei iu its much larger size, being fully as 

 large as Traqelaphus spekei gratus. I have seen a pair of horns measuring 3.5| 

 inches, and from the imperfect skin accompanying them should say the animal 

 was quite as big as Tragelapkus euryceros, for the largest horns of the latter 

 measure only 31| inches, and of T. spekei spekei 17i inches. 



S ad. Bright grey-brown all over, a white band exteuding between the eyes 

 across the nose, a white patch under the eye, a white patch on throat; lower lip and 

 chin white, and also inside of knee and base of ear. Height at shoulder 45 inches; 

 horns up to 3.5i inches, in type 2U inches. 



? ad. (one now living in the Zoological Gardens). Without horns; similar to 

 male, but darker and showing hardly any white on face or throat. 



Ilal). North and south banks of Zambezi, extending north to Lakes Nyassa and 

 Tanganyika. 



The chief reason for my describing this as a species and not as a subspecies of 

 Traydaphiis spekei is that both <? and ? are alike in colour and markings, while 

 thej'emales of T. spekei spekei and T. spekei gratus are very different from their 

 respective males in colour and markings. 



