Beatrix Oryx 205 



tint is whitish, the legs, save for a white ring round each fetlock, are brown, 

 and there is a brown patch on the forehead, and a larger patch of the same 

 colour on each cheek which meets its fellow beneath the throat. The 

 tail-tuft is also brown, but darker than the other markings. 



As in other members of the group, horns are present in both sexes. 

 These are of the same straight lance-like form as in the beisa and gems- 

 buck, but much smaller, the maximum recorded length being 26f inches, 

 as shown by a specimen in the Paris Museum. 



This oryx appears to be confined to the districts bordering the Persian 

 Gulf and Arabia, but its exact distribution in the latter country has yet to 

 be worked out. It is, however, known to occur in the Nejd district, in 

 Oman, and doubtless in the great desert east of the latter place. Some 

 specimens were exhibited in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of 

 London between the years 1872 and 1892; but the British Museum is 

 very poorly off" tor examples, the species being not yet represented among 

 the series exhibited to the public. 



The only skin of a wild-killed animal in that collection is one from 

 Oman presented in 1894 by Lieut. -Col. Jayakar, and mentioned by Mr. 

 O. Thomas in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for that year (p. 451). 

 In mentioning that skin Mr. Thomas remarks that "this wild-killed 

 specimen of the beautiful Beatrix gemsbuck is of much value, as the 

 specimens we have hitherto had have been brought alive to England, and 

 their fur appears to have been altered in character by the great difference 

 in the climate. . . . The present specimen has an exceedingly short close 

 coat quite different from that of the other specimens." Possibly, as Mr. 

 Thomas himself suggests, this difference may be due in part to the season 

 of the year in which the animals were killed. 



The species was named by Dr. Gray on the evidence of a male speci- 

 men presented to the Zoological Society in 1857 by Captain John 

 Sheperd, of the India House, which was one of a pair shipped from 



