THE GAZELLES AND THEIR ALLIES 601 



Key to the Races of thomsoni 



Snout without a darker patch near the tip; the dark stripe through 

 the eye dark reddish, not blackish; dark pygal stripe 

 narrow; horns parallel in direction with the tips close 

 together thomsoni 



Snout marked by a large black patch near the tip; the diagonal 

 stripe through the eye blackish; pygal stripe wide 

 and distinctly blackish; horns wider-spread at the tips 



nasalis 



Kilimanjaro Thomson Gazelle 



Gazella tho7nsoni thomsoni 



Gazella thomsoni Giinther, 1884, Ann. y Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. XIV, p. 427, 

 fig. of horns. 



Range. — From the Kilimanjaro region southward 

 through the Rift Valley to Irangi in German East Africa. 



The Thomson gazelle bears the name of a noted explorer 

 of British East Africa, Joseph Thomson. Thomson ar- 

 rived at Mombasa in 1883 and journeyed inland by way of 

 Kilimanjaro and the Masai highlands as far as Lake Baringo. 

 During his travels he met frequently with this gazelle and 

 brought back with him to England several pairs of the 

 horns. No exact locality was attached to these spec- 

 imens, nor was any mention made in his account of the 

 journey in "Through Masailand," as to where the spec- 

 imens were shot or regarding the occurrence of gazelles on 

 his route. The horns were figured and described by Doctor 

 Giinther as those of a new gazelle which he dedicated to 

 Thomson, but no exact locality was given the specimens 

 collected by him. In the absence of a definite locality 

 the typical race has been assigned to the Kilimanjaro 

 region, where Thomson spent considerable time in exploring 

 the south, east, and north slopes of the great mountain. 

 Willoughby, Hunter, and Abbott, a few years later, shot 

 specimens on the plains flanking Kilimanjaro on the south- 

 east. The first complete specimens of the gazelle received 

 at the British Museum were sent by Jackson, and upon one 

 of these was based the colored figure in the "Book of 

 Antelopes." 



