,8^. THE ANTELOPES OF SOMALI-LAND. 261 



I have called this new species after Captain Swayne, who has 

 done so much to increase our knowledge of the fauna of Somali-land, 

 and who has supplied me with the following notes on his discovery 

 of it :— 



" South of the highest ranges of Somali-land, and at a distance 

 of about 100 miles from the coast, are open plains, some four or five 

 thousand feet above sea-level, alternating with broken ground 

 covered with thorn-jungle, with an undergrowth of aloes growing 

 sometimes to a height of six feet. 



" This elevated country, called the ' Hand,' is waterless for 

 three months, from January to March ; it was crossed by Mr. James' 

 party in 1884, when their camels were thirteen days without water. 



" Much of the Hand is bush-covered wilderness or open semi- 

 desert, but some of the higher plains are, at the proper season, in 

 early summer, covered as far as the eye can reach with a beautiful 

 carpet of green grass, like English pasture-land. At this time of the 

 year pools of water may be found, as the rainfall is abundant. 



"This kind of open grass country is called the ' Ban.' Not a 

 bush is to be seen, and some of these plains are thirty or forty miles 

 in extent each way. 



" There is not always much game to be got in the Hand, but a 

 year ago, coming on to ground which had not yet been visited by 

 Europeans, I found one of these plains covered with herds of Harte- 

 beestes, there being perhaps a dozen herds in sight at one time, each 

 herd containing three or four hundred individuals. 



" Hundreds of bulls were scattered singly on the outskirts, and 

 in the spaces between the herds, grazing, fighting, or lying down. 



" The scene I describe was at a distance of over a hundred miles 

 from Berbera, and the game has probably been driven far beyond that 

 point by now." 



In Southern Somali-land, on the northern banks of the great 

 River Tana, which may be taken as the southern boundary of this 

 division of Africa, a still finer and more distinct representative of 

 the Bubaline Antelopes has recently become known to science. This 

 is Hunter's Antelope (Biihalis himteyi), which I first described in 1889,'° 

 and named after its discoverer, Mr. H. C. V. Hunter, F.Z.S. The 

 peculiar form of the long, elevated horns of this species, and the 

 white mark which crosses the forehead and surrounds the eyes, 

 renders this Antelope at once distinguishable amongst its relatives. 

 Mr. Hunter met with it on the grassy plains on the north bank of 

 the River Tana, in herds of from 15 to 25 individuals. It frequents 

 the plains principally, but is also met with in thin, thorny bush. Its 

 native name is "Herota." Mr. Hunter describes it as considerably 

 larger than the Pallah {CEpycevos melavipns), but standing rather lower 

 than Coke's Hartebeest {Btihalis cokei). Though not sloping away at 



10 Proc. Zool. Soc, 1889, pp. 58, 372. 



