EAST AFRICAN MAMMALS IN NATIONAL MUSEUM. 115 
GAZELLA SPEKEI Blyth. 
1863. G[azella] spekei Buyru, Cat. Mamm. Mus. Asiatic Soc., p. 172. (Somali- 
land; type in Calcutta Museum.) 
Specimen.—One, as follows: 
BritisH SoMALILAND: Somaliland Plateau, 1 skull (Swayne). 
Received from Dr. P. L. Sclater. 
GAZELLA THOMSONII THOMSONI Giinther. 
1884. Gazella thomsonti GinrHER, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5, vol. 14, 
p. 427. December. (Kilimanjaro district, British East Africa;! co- 
types in British Museum.) 
1892. Gazella thomsonii True, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 15, p. 473. October 26. 
1914. Gazella thomsoni thomsoni RoosevetT AND Hetter, Life-Hist. African 
Game Anim., vol. 2, p. 601. 
1914. Eudorcas thomsoni thomsoni, var. arushae ZuKowsky, Archiv f. Nat., 
80 Jahrg., Abt. A, Heft 1, p. 77. (South of Mount Meru, Arusha, Ger- 
man East Africa; coll. Dr. A. Berger.) 
1914. Eudorcas thomsoni bergerinae ZuKowsky, Archiv f. Nat., 80 Jahrg., Abt. A, 
Heft 1, p. 80. (South of Mount Meru, German East Africa; coll. Dr. A. 
Berger.) 
Specimen.—One, as follows: 
British East Arrica: Taveta, 1 (Abbott). 
Skin mounted and on exhibition; skull in the study series. 
With an intimate knowledge of the country inhabited by Gazella 
thomsonii, and after a study of the large series of specimens of this 
gazelle contained in the United States National Museum collections, 
supplemented by an examination of the material preserved in most 
of the European museums, Mr. Heller recognized only two races of 
the species as worthy of name.? These were the typical subspecies 
of the Kilimanjaro region and the northern and western form de- 
scribed by Doctor Lénnberg as Gazella thomsoni nasalis. 
The restricted distribution of the species would lead one to expect 
few valid geographical races. Nevertheless so many as 22 forms 
have been named. These have, in the main, been based on slight 
variations in the horns and skulls as shown by a very limited number 
of individuals. After careful study of our excellent series of 105 
specimens, of which no less than 79 are from a single restricted 
region—the Loita Plains, west of the Southern Guaso Nyiro River— 
it is quite impossible for one to believe that many of these named 
forms represent valid subspecies—that is, such ceographical races as 
are usually recognized by most systematic vertebrate zoologists in 
‘No specific locality in original description; see Lénnberg, Sjéstedt’s Kilimandjaro-Meru Exped., 
Mamm., p. 45, 1908; Hollister, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 56, No. 2, p. 6, 1910; Knottnerus-Meyer, 
Sitz.-ber. Ges. nat. Freunde Berlin, 1910, pp. 106, 121, March, 1910; Roosevelt and Heller, Life-Hist. 
African Game Anim., vol. 2, p. 601, 1914; Lénnberg, Novit. Zool., vol. 21, p. 158, February, 1914; Lydekker, 
Cat. Ungulate Mamm. Brit. Mus., vol. 3, p. 84, 1914; Zukowsky, Archiv f. Nat., 80 Jahr., Abt. A, p. 102, 
1914; Schwarz, Erg. Zweiten Deutsch. Zentral-Afrika-Exped. 1910-11, vol. 1, p. 1000, June, 1920. 
2 Roosevelt and Heller, Life-Histories African Game Animals, vol. 2, pp. 599-608. 1914. 
