ADDAX 



303 



mounted head and flat body-skin of an addax killed some two miles 

 to the south-west of Dongola, the month when it was shot being given 

 as February. On this I wrote the following note in the Field news- 

 paper for the same year, vol. cxi. p. 107 : — 



" Although the Dongola specimen was killed in what was practi- 

 cally mid-winter, there is no distinct mane on the fore-quarters, while 

 the hair on the body is short and even lighter in colour than that of a 

 Tunisian specimen in the British Museum in the summer coat. I also 

 notice that there is less white above the eye, and that the horns of the 

 Sudan specimen are rather stouter, and form 

 a slightly less open spiral than in the male 

 from Tunisia. In the Dongola district the 

 winter temperature may be presumed to be 

 considerably higher than that of Tunisia and 

 Algeria, and this would account for the non- 

 development of a thick winter-coat in the 

 Sudan addax, which may now, I think, be 

 regarded as entitled to rank as a separate 

 race. This race must be known by the un- 

 couth title of Addax nasoniaculatus addax, 

 the name Antilope nasoniaculata having been 

 first given to the Tunisian animal, while that 

 of Antilope addax was subsequently applied 

 to its Sudan representative." 



Since this note was written, I have been 

 informed by Mr. A. L. Butler that Dongola 

 addax do grow a longer coat in winter than 

 in summer, although to what extent was not 

 mentioned. 



The three longest pair of addax horns 

 on record measure, respectively, 39x"^, 39-^-, and 39 inches; the second 

 of these being a female specimen. 



In general appearance the addax is a somewhat awkward and 

 ungainly animal, very different from the spruce and trim oryx. Of its 

 habits, in common with those of desert animals generally, very little is 

 known. Sir H. H. Johnston writes that " it does not seem to penetrate 

 the Sudan beyond the true limits of the desert, and at the present day 

 does not extend its range in North Africa into the well-watered forest 

 country outside the Sahara desert. It is still found in the extreme 

 south of Tunis, and in the interior of Tripoli, Algeria, and Morocco ; 

 and specimens are occasional)}' obtained from the districts north of the 



Fig. 63. — An Addax, in summer 

 coat, from Dongola, in the 

 Giza Zoological Gardens, 

 photographed by Capt. S. S. 

 Flower. 



