690 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



black, basal two-thirds well ringed; curving backwards, outwards, 

 and abruptly forwards; length along front curve, 12 inches. Height 

 at shoulder, 30 inches. (Bennett, 18336, pp. 4-5.) 



The range is given by Cabrera (1932, p. 352) as "the extreme 

 south of Morocco, in the hammadas [stony deserts] of the Saharan 

 district." According to Lavauden (1926, pp. 22, 24), the range 

 extends southward to Rio de Oro, but the form of Ahnet and Muydir, 

 southern Algeria, is not mhorr. 



"The M'horr is regarded in the kingdom of Marocco as an exceed- 

 ingly rare animal, and Mr. Willshire states that the one earliest 

 obtained by him was the first individual of the race which had been 

 seen in Mogadore. It is highly esteemed, according to Mr. Drum- 

 mond Hay, on account of its producing the bezoars, so precious in 

 oriental medicine, and which are known in Marocco as the Baid-al- 

 Mhorr, or Eggs of the M'horr." (Bennett, 18336, p. 8.) 



The species as a whole has not been able to resist the advent of 

 man. It has disappeared from all the places where man has im- 

 planted himself, and has sought refuge farther and farther in the 

 desert. The progressive formation of the Sahara has created for 

 this species, through isolation, a veritable sanctuary. (Lavauden, 

 1926, p. 26.) 



Information on the status of the animal is very uncertain, since 

 the region it inhabits is very little frequented. Specimens are very 

 scarce in museums. (Cabrera, 1932, p. 354.) 



[Other subspecies of Gazella dama are: G. d. dama (Pallas), of 

 Senegal; G. d. darner gouensis Rothschild, of the Air region and pre- 

 sumably most of the rest of the central Sahara; and G. d. ruficollis 

 (H. Smith), of Dongola, Kordofan, and Darfur. These have main- 

 tained a much more satisfactory status than G. d. mhorr. In fact, 

 the form occurring in the western and central Sahara, from Tagant 

 to Chad, is said to be the commonest gazelle of that region (Joleaud, 

 1929, p. 449).] 



Scimitar Oryx; White Oryx 



AEGORYX ALGAZEL (Oken) 



Clemas] algazel Oken, Lehrbuch d. Naturgesch., vol. 3, pt. 2, p. 741, 1816. 



(Upper Egypt, and other localities.) 

 SYNONYMS: Antilope dammah Cretzschmar (1826); A[ntilope] tao Hamilton 



Smith (1827). 

 FIGS.: Jour. Soc. Pres. Fauna Emp., n. s., pt. 20, frontisp., 1933; Brocklehurst, 



1931, col. pi. opp. p. 6; Maydon, 1932, pi. 24; Leister, 1938, p. 88, fig. 



The Scimitar Oryx is often called the White Oryx, but this name 

 is better reserved for the Arabian White Oryx, or Leucoryx. 



