WILDEBEEST AND HARTEBEEST 359 



and damaliscus further by the white tail tuft and the white 

 bar across the forehead between the eyes. The body form 

 is more slender than that of the hartebeest and the withers 

 are lower. The Hunter antelope is the sole representative 

 of the genus, which is restricted in range to a small area of 

 park-like or plains country on the north side of the Tana 

 River. It is doubtless a specialized offshoot of damaliscus 

 and not an intermediate connecting link between the harte- 

 beest and the latter. 



Hunter Antelope 



Beatragus hunteri 



Native Name: Galla, herola. 



Damalis hunteri Sclater, 1889, Proc. Zool. Soc, pp. 58 and 372, pi. XLII. 



Range. — North side of the Tana River from the village 

 of Durani up the river as far as Massa at least, that is, from 

 a point seventy miles inland to about one hundred and 

 twenty miles up the river. North of the Tana River it ex- 

 tends parallel to the coast as far as the latitude of Port 

 Durnford. 



Hunter was undoubtedly the first sportsman to meet 

 with the species which was named for him by Sclater. 

 During a sporting trip in 1887 on the lower Tana River he 

 shot the first specimen near the village of Durani, which 

 is some one hundred and fifty miles from the mouth by way 

 of the tortuous river channel but actually only seventy miles 

 in a direct line. He recognized the antelope as new, and 

 carefully preserved, and photographed the first specimen he 

 secured. Farther up the river they were met with in greater 

 numbers as far as Massa, at whith point the hunting party 

 turned back to the coast. Hunter's specimens have for 

 many years remained unique in the British Museum, but 

 recently two others were added by Gilbert Blaine, who ob- 

 tained them on his way down the Tana on the north side 

 near Hunter's original locality. Two other specimens have 

 been examined at the Nairobi Club in British East Africa, 

 which were obtained by Major H. J. Kirkpatrick on the 

 Tana River. Owing to the isolated and restricted nature 

 of its habitat, less than half a score of sportsmen have met 

 with this antelope. 



