314 ANTELOPES 



LORD DERBY'S ELAND 



{Taiirotragus derbianus) 

 (Plate xii, fig. 2) 



This magnificent eland, of which a bull from the Bahr-el-Ghazal 

 stood 5 feet 8 inches at the shoulder, was first known in this country 

 from Senegambian specimens formerly living in the menagerie at 

 Knowsley, the seat of the Earls of Derby. 



From the typical eland it is distinguishable at a glance by the 



larger and more massive horns, the much broader ears, and the 



blackish neck, as well as by certain details of colouring, of which 



the following are the more important. The forehead of sub-adult 



bulls is wholly chestnut, but later on a " bush " of chocolate hair is 



developed ; there is an incomplete white chevron below the eyes, and 



the rest of the front of the face is blackish brown, with the exception 



of a white patch over each eye, including the eyelid ; the lips are 



white, the sides of the face fawn, with a band of chestnut running from 



between the horn and the ear to the throat, and a white gorget in the 



middle of the lower part of this band. The sides of the fore part of 



the neck are fawn, followed posteriorly on each side by a broad oblique 



blackish band narrowing towards the chest, with a narrow line of white 



near its hind border ; and there is a black stripe along the middle line 



of the neck, and another on the throat. The body-colour varies from 



bright chestnut or rufous brown to cafc-au-lait fawn, and the number 



of vertical white stripes from fifteen or fourteen to about ten. There 



is a dark dorsal stripe, and black garters are developed above the 



knees. The two largest known horns measure, respectively, 40 and 



39!^ inches. 



C\ The range of this species extends from the open country in the 



, interior of Senegambia to the Bahr-el-Ghazal district of the Egyptian 



Sudan and the neighbourhood of Lado. 

 \ . . 



In the typical Senegambian race, represented at present In the 



British Museum only by horns, the body-colour is bright chestnut or 



rufous brown, and there are fourteen or fifteen white stripes. 



The Sudani race {Taurotragus derbianus gigas), which was named 



by Heuglin in 1863 as a distinct species (^Oreas gigas), and of which 



a head of an apparently immature bull is figured by the Hon. Walter 



