ORDER ARTIODACTYLA : EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 691 



It somewhat resembles the Beisa Oryx i-n size and structure; the 

 horns, as the name implies, are curved gently backward; and the 

 general coloring is pale, whitish with a more or less distinct chestnut 

 tinge on the neck, shoulders, under parts, upper portions of the limbs, 

 and the facial mark. The record length of horn, as given by Rowland 

 Ward, is 45f inches on the front curve. 



This is a typical desert species, with a range in the arid districts of 

 northern Africa from the Nile to Senegal. Its flesh is much prized 

 by the Arabs, who dry it and lay it by for future use or sell it in 

 the markets. The hide is used for shields and for sandals, although 

 it is not considered of first-rate quality for these purposes (Hemp- 

 rich and Ehrenberg). 



The range of this species has probably become considerably re- 

 stricted in recent decades, and its numbers have decreased. On the 

 north, according to Cabrera (1932), it evidently existed in south- 

 western Morocco up to a recent date, and possibly may still in the 

 region of the Wadi Nun and Wadi Draa, here reaching approximately 

 its extreme northwestern limit. Thence southward its range ex- 

 tended over Rio de Oro to the desert parts of Senegal. Within his- 

 toric times it seems never to have existed north of the Grand Atlas. 

 During the Middle Ages it was so abundant between the Grand Atlas 

 and Rio de Oro that a local king is said to have sent as a present a 

 thousand shields made of its hide! At that time it was the most 

 characteristic animal of the southern part of Morocco. Probably, 

 according to Cabrera, it may still be found a little farther to the 

 south in the Spanish Sahara. In Tunisia it is said by Arambourg 

 (1929, p. 74) to have persisted in the extreme south up to 1906, 

 where there have been two or three authentic captures in the two 

 decades before 1924 (Lavauden). It is still found in the eastern 

 Sahara, the Fezzan, and the region about Kufra (Senussi country) . 

 Lavauden (1933) suggests that the recent exodus of native peoples 

 from Fezzan toward Chad, fleeing Italian domination, constitutes 

 a new menace to this species, for the invasion of Arabs is always 

 disastrous to the large game of a region. Brocklehurst (1931, p. 101) 

 writes that "at one time the White Oryx was common in Egypt, as 

 it is often depicted in old bas-reliefs and frescoes. It is now found 

 only in Dongola, northern Darfur and Kordofan Provinces." It is 

 now extinct in Egypt but "early in the nineteenth century it appears 

 to have still occurred on the west side of Giza Province and round 

 the Fayum. James Burton appears to have seen a small herd near 

 the Wadi Natron, Lower Egypt, in about the year 1831. . . . From 

 accounts given me, now over thirty years ago, by old Bedawin 

 hunters, the last specimens must have been killed about 1850." 

 (S. S. Flower, 1932.) This accords well with the statement of T. W. 



