656 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Blesbok 



DAMALISCUS PHILLI^I Harper 



Damaliscus phillipsi Harper, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 52, p. 90, 1939. 

 (Orange Free State.) Hitherto known (erroneously) as Damaliscus albi- 

 frons (Burchell, 1824). 



FIGS.: Harris, 1840, pi. 21; Gray, Gleanings Knowsley Menagerie, pi. 22, fig. 1, 

 1850; Millais, 1895, pi. facing p. 234, fig. on p. 235; Sclater and Thomas, 

 1895, vol. 1, pi. 9, p. 82, fig. 11; Bryden, 1899, pi. 5, fig. 5; W. L. Sclater, 

 1900, vol. 1, p. 142, fig. 42; Lydekker, 1908, pi. 5, fig. 5; Selous, 1914, pi. 22; 

 Maydon, 1932, pi. 108; Ward, 1935, p. 69, fig.; Pocock, 1937, p. 666, fig. 



The Blesbok, while extinct in the wild state, is preserved on a num- 

 ber of farms in Orange Free State and the Transvaal as well as in 

 the Somerville Reserve in the former state. 



This species is very similar to the Bontebok, but is of a generally 

 lighter color and lacks the prominent white rump-patch of the latter; 

 also the cream-colored face blaze is generally separated from the 

 buffy -white median stripe on forehead and crown by a narrow chest- 

 nut band between the eyes. Rest of head and neck mainly chestnut; 

 median dorsal area Rood's brown, changing on sides to Vandyke 

 brown; triangular rump-patch auburn to Sayal brown, with a nar- 

 row posterior border of white; tail mostly black; chest with more 

 or less chestnut; rest of under parts white; legs mainly sepia; horns 

 blackish, the basal two-thirds with 13 more or less complete rings. 

 Male type: head and body, 1,480 mm.; tail, 260; height at shoulder, 

 1,020. (Harper, 1939, pp. 90-91.) Record length of horns, 18| inches 

 (Ward, 1935, p. 67). 



In days long past the Blesbok "was an inhabitant of the plains to 

 the south of the Orange River in the eastern part of the Cape Colony, 

 and of all the open country to the north of that river in the ter- 

 ritories now known as the Orange River Colony, the Transvaal and 

 Bechuanaland" (Selous, 1914, p. 84) . Selous continues (pp. 86-87) : 



[The Blesbok,] once undoubtedly the most numerous of all African ante- 

 lopes, has long been exterminated over the greater portion of its original 

 range, and some twenty years ago had come very near to complete extinc- 

 tion. At that time, the only blesboks in existence were a few herds preserved 

 by Dutch farmers in the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, and of these 

 a large proportion were destroyed during the continuance of the Boer War. 

 Since that time, however, the surviving blesboks have been carefully pre- 

 served and have multiplied exceedingly, and as they have lately been intro- 

 duced into many enclosed areas in the Orange Free State and Transvaal 

 they are likely to increase in numbers rather than to decrease, and, at any 

 rate, the survival of the species seems assured. . . . 



Despite the great numbers of blesboks which were annually killed, but 

 little diminution was apparent in their legions until after 1865. Subsequently 

 to that date, however, the value of their skins for export to England, coupled 

 with the fact that the Boer colonists were by that time very generally 

 armed with long-range breech-loading rifles, brought about the extermination 



