ORDER ARTIODACTYLA I EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 689 



Erg of any great extent. Owing to the hilly nature of the dunes and the 

 noiseless walking on the sand, the Reem is easily stalked, and generally 

 killed with shot by the Arabs, who have no idea of sportsmanlike shooting: 

 they often catch the young (with or without the help of dogs), then make 

 it squeak, and kill the mother when coming to the help of her young. In 

 this way, and by waiting patiently for days and nights in ambush, these and 

 other Gazelles are decimated, and they will soon be rare or disappear from 

 all the more or less frequented districts of the northern Sahara. 



It is rare in Iguidi and in the ergs of the Azdjers region, and it is 

 known to exist in the Erg Edeyen, on the Algero-Libyan frontier. 

 The heads and horns were found formerly in great abundance, but 

 now much less commonly, in the markets of Biskra, Touggourt, and 

 Ouargla. Very few naturalists have been able to observe this gazelle 

 in the wild, to kill it, or even to see it in the flesh. (Lavauden, 1926, 

 p. 21.) 



The species is found only in the Ergs [sand-dune regions] of the 

 northern half of the Sahara, from the Saoura to Egypt. It is not 

 really common except in the Erg occidental and the Erg oriental of 

 the Algero-Tunisian Sahara. In years of great drought it leaves the 

 dunes and wanders northward, seeking food. Thus, in 1927, some of 

 the animals, coming from the Erg occidental, proceeded as far as the 

 Saharan Atlas, and some were killed not far from Ain-Sefra in a de- 

 plorable physiological condition. (Heim de Balsac, 1936, pp. 177, 

 236, map 14.) 



Mhorr Gazelle. Gazelle Mohor (Fr.). Gacela mob or (Sp.) 



GAZELLA DAM A MHORR (Bennett) 



Antilope Mhorr Bennett, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1833, p. 2, 1833. ("Brought 

 from the territories of the Sheikh of Wednoon (twelve days' journey 

 inland [from Mogador, Morocco])" (Bennett, 18336, p. 3); this is in- 

 terpreted by Cabrera (1932, p. 352) as, roughly, the region of the upper 

 Nun, between the Anti-Atlas and the basin of the Draa.) 



FIGS.: Bennett, 18336, pi. 1; Sclater and Thomas, 1898, vol. 3, pi. 72; Bryden, 

 1899, pi. 10, fig. 5; Lavauden, 1926, pi. 2, fig. 1. 



Very little is known of this rare subspecies or of the distance to 

 which it extends into the Sahara from its type locality in south- 

 western Morocco. Toward the south it presumably inter grades with 

 G. d. dama (Pallas) , and toward the southeast with G. d. damergou- 

 ensis Rothschild. 



Upper parts, including neck, deep fulvous ; head pale rufous ; area 

 about eyes and muzzle white; blackish patches between eye and 

 mouth and between the ears; color of upper parts extending as a 

 narrowing stripe down the outer side of the legs to the hoofs ; remain- 

 ing surface of legs, under parts, rump, and a patch on front of neck, 

 white; tail white, terminal tuft mixed fulvous and black. Horns 

 23 



