72 THE SELOLS COLLEOTtOiv'. 



MASHONALAND ELAND. 



Taurotragus oryx SELOUSI. 



Oreas canna, >Seloiis, A Hunter's Wanderings in S. Africa, pi. i. tig«. 1 



and 3, 1881. 

 Taurotragus oryx selousi, Lydekker, Ward's Eecordb of Big Game, ed. G, 



p. 328, 1910 ; ed. 7, p. 330, 1914. 



Elands are cliaracterised by their very large size and the 

 presence of horns in both sexes, those of the females longer and 

 more slender than in the males ; horns with a large keel, and in the 

 form of a screw-like spiral. The Mashonaland Eland is closely 

 allied to the t^'pical race, Taurofrogus oryx oryx, distinguished by 

 the presence of a number of light body-stripes, which are well- 

 defined in immature specimens, but tend to become very indistinct 

 in old age. In young and sub-adult specimens a white suborbital 

 streak is present ; in old males this marking disappears, the whole 

 forehead and upper part of nose being covered b}' a dense tuft-like 

 growth of broAvn hair. 



The male head with the best horns is No. 19.7.15.484: — 

 length from point to base 31 1 ; circumference 13 ; spread from tip 

 to tip 12. A considerable amount of variation is found in the 

 spread of the horns of this antelope ; in one specimen (No. 

 19. 7. 15. 439) the tip to tip interval is as much as 20^ inches. 

 The largest female horns (No. 19. 7. 15. 437) measure as follows : — 

 length from point to base 32 ; circumference 8| ; spread from tip 

 to tip 20f . 



Typical locality, Umfuli River, Mashonaland, Southern 

 Rhodesia. Selous *, writing in 1881 on the distribution of the 

 South African Elands, states as follows: — "The Eland is now 

 extinct in the Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange Free State, Gricpia- 

 land West, and the Transvaal, and almost so in all the countries 

 watered by the tributaries of the Limpopo, to the west of the 

 Matabele countr3^ In the Kalahari Desert to the west of Secheli's 

 and Bamangwato it is plentiful, but never now comes as far east- 

 ward as the waggon-road between the two places. North of 

 Bamangwato, along the roads leading to the Lake Ngami, and to 

 the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, there are always a few Elands to 



*= Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 749. 



