ROAN, SABLE, AND ORYX 333 



fact, some of the Nile specimens have the ears less tufted 

 than average specimens of the other races. The horns 

 average larger, however, in the Nile race. The record given 

 by Ward is 2,7 /i inches for bakeri, while that of langheldi is, 

 according to the same authority, only 29^ inches. An 

 average length, however, for the Nile race is 21 inches. 

 The longest horned female skull in the collection measures 

 23^ inches. Specimens of the Nile race, shot by Colonel 

 Roosevelt and Kermit, have been examined from Nimule, 

 Rejaf, and Gondokoro. The sexes are very similar in size. 

 An adult male from Nimule measured in the flesh: head and 

 body along curve of the back, 83 inches; tail, 25 inches; hind 

 foot, 24>^ inches; ear, I2>^ inches. The length of the skull 

 of a large male is 17^^ inches. 



Roosevelt Sable 



Egoceros niger Toosevelti 



Native Name: Swahili, pda-hala. 



Ozanna roosevelti Heller, 1910, Smith. Misc. Coll., vol. 56, pt. 4, p. i. 



Range. — From the Shimba Hills near Mombasa south- 

 ward along the coast to the Kigani River opposite Zanzibar 

 Island. 



The sable is the most magnificent and stately of all the 

 antelopes, its only possible rival being the greater koodoo. 

 In East Africa until recently it has been known to but very 

 few sportsmen. It has, however, long been known on the 

 evidence of native skins to occur on the coast opposite Zan- 

 zibar Island, but it is only recently that sportsmen have shot 

 specimens. Sir John Willoughby was the first sportsman 

 to report the species from British East Africa. He met 

 with a herd in 1886 west of Maji ya Chumvi, but failed to 

 secure any. Both Jackson and Percival have also met with 

 herds near Maji ya Chumvi, but all the specimens which 

 sportsmen have secured within the past three years have 

 been shot in the Shimba Hills southwest of Mombasa a 

 score of miles. The race was described from three speci- 

 mens shot in the Shimba Hills by Kermit Roosevelt in 1909. 

 The name kirki^ given by Gray in 1872 to rufous individuals 

 of the sable recorded by Sir John Kirk from the Zambesi, 

 has been by some naturalists confused with the East African 



