256 NATURAL SCIENCE. ,,,^.h 



bereft of Antelopes, except some of the smaller and more ordinary 

 species. It is consequently to the East Coast that the pursuer of 

 large game would in these days rather betake himself. 



On the East Coast of Africa, nearly under the Equator, at the base 

 ofsnowy Kilima-njaro, there is a well-known "paradise for sportsmen," 

 the praises of which have been sung by Sir John Willoughby.' 

 Here Giraffes, Elephants, Rhinoceroses, Hippopotamuses, and 

 some 16 kinds of Antelopes, amongst which are the Eland, the 

 Koodoo, the Waterbuck, and others of the largest and finest sorts, 

 may still be met with in a state of nature, though it is doubtful how 

 long they will withstand the advance of the " sporting Saxon." But 

 it is not to Taveta and the dominions of the Imperial British East 

 African Company that I now wish to invite special attention. 

 Further north, on the East Coast, and even of easier access to the 

 European Naturalist, what Mr. James calls the " Unknown Horn of 

 Africa " projects into the Indian Ocean. Here, as our sporting 

 friends have lately shown us, a still more remarkable assemblage of 

 Antelopes prevails than is found even round Taveta. Of the 12 

 Antelopes to be met with within reach of the port of Berbera, four 

 belong to recently discovered species, and two of these are so different 

 in essential characters from their nearest allies that it has been 

 found necessary to institute new genera for their reception. It is on 

 these remarkable forms that we wish to say a few words on the 

 present occasion. 



Amongst the newly-discovered Antelopes of Somali-land the 

 most remarkable is certainly the " Gerenouk," or Waller's Gazelle 

 (Lithocranins mailer i). This singular form was first described by the 

 late Sir Victor Brooke, in 1878,^ from some skulls belonging to Mr. 

 Gerald Waller, and obtained by that gentleman on the coast of 

 Eastern Africa. Sir Victor described and figured this very peculiar 

 cranium, which differs from that of all other Gazelles in the great 

 backward prolongation of the occiput. Sir Victor likewise pointed 

 out that the skull is much more depressed, that the facial axis forms 

 a more obtuse angle with the cranial axis, and that the rami of the 

 lower jaw are more slender in this than in any other Gazelle. While, 

 however, he did not remove the species from the genus Gazella, he 

 expressed mucli doubt as to " whether it should not constitute the 

 type of a new sub-genus." 



In 1884, I first obtained two fiat skins of Waller's Gazelle 

 among a series of specimens from Somali-land, sent to me by Mr. 

 C. Hagenbeck, of Hamburg. At the same time, Mr. F. L. James 

 was kind enough to favour me with the loan of a mounted head of 

 the same Antelope from a specimen which he had shot in Northern 

 Somali-land. It was not without much difficulty that I was enabled 



1 " East Africa and its Big Game." London : Longmans, 1889. 

 ••^ Froc. Zool. Soc, 1878, p. 929. 



