ORDER ARTIODACTYLA : EVEN -TOED UNGULATES 649 



information on shoulder height and horn length; but reference may 

 be made to these measurements in A. c. selbornei. 



In view of the uncertainty concerning the limits of the original 

 range of the present subspecies, we may provisionally restrict it to 

 the Southeast Veldt District of Bowen (1933, pp. 256, 260). "The 

 range originally extended from the Cape Town district as far north 

 as the Limpopo on the eastern side of the continent" (Lydekker and 

 Elaine, 1914, vol. 2, p. 27). 



According to Sclater and Thomas (1894, vol. 1, pp. 35-37), at the 

 close of the eighteenth century "the Hartebeest was very abundant 

 all over the Cape Colony, and was found in large troops even in the 

 immediate vicinity of Cape Town. 



"In 1811 . . . the Hartebeest appears to have become already 

 much less abundant." By 1876 it had become one of the rarest 

 animals in the Cape Colony. 



"In Natal the hartebeest is now very rare, and is only to be 

 seen here and there on certain farms, where it is carefully protected" 

 (Bryden, 1899, p. 152) . 



It "once inhabited Basutoland, although it is doubtful if any sur- 

 vive to-day in that locality" (Haagner, 1920, p. 159) . 



"Not long ago there used to be six or seven hundred of these ani- 

 mals in the Natal Midlands" (E. Warren, in Shortridge, 1934, vol. 

 2, p. 453) . 



"Cape Hartebeest was formerly abundant in the midlands of 

 Natal, but the farmers have now destroyed them all, with the excep- 

 tion of a small herd of about 25 on a farm owned by Messrs. Moe 

 Bros., who do everything possible to protect them against the blood - 

 lust of neighbouring farmers and the savage attacks of dogs owned 

 by the natives" (corresponding member of the International Office, 

 Brussels, in litt., January 24, 1933) . "A few Cape Hartebeest also 

 survive in the Giant's Castle Reserve on the slopes of the Drakens- 

 berg in Natal" (E. L. Gill, in litt., December 13, 1932) . 



According to G. C. Shortridge (in litt., February 9, 1938) , the Moe 

 farm was to be divided up and sold in the near future, and that event 

 would mean the extermination of its historic herd of Hartebeest, 

 then numbering under 100 head. "If only the Union Government 

 can be induced to do something about these hartebeest, every one 

 of the remaining game animals of the Union of S. Africa will be 

 receiving some measure of protection in one or other of the Reserves." 



