720 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Southern Rhodesia. "Nyala ^ have never been very numerous 

 and very few have been shot since the European occupation. A few 

 are reported to survive in the lower reaches of the Lundi River and 

 in the Zambesi valley near Angwa river. Legally considered as 

 'Royal Game.' " (Game Warden, Wankie Game Reserve, in litt., 

 March, 1937.) 



Northern Rhodesia. Pitman (1934, pp. 23-25) discusses reports 

 of this species in the following localities: the southern extremity of 

 Lake Tanganyika; the vicinity of Fort Hill on the Nyasaland 

 border; and the left bank of the Zambesi somewhere below Victoria 

 Falls. "From the foregoing it will be realised that the evidence to 

 include the nyala in the list of Northern Rhodesia mammals is in- 

 conclusive, though the localities as indicated are worth exhaustive 

 investigation." 



General. "Not only is it a king amongst its congeners [the bush- 

 bucks], by reason of its much greater size, but it is also one of the 

 most beautiful of all the African antelopes" (Selous, 1914, p. 121) . 



The Nyala is accorded complete protection under the London 

 Convention of 1933. 



Mountain Nyala 



TRAGELAPHUS BUXTONI (Lydekker) 



Strepsiceros buxtoni Lydekker, Nature, vol. 84, no. 2135, p. 397, 1910. ("To 

 the west of the Arusi plateau of Gallaland [Ethiopia], in the Sahatu 

 Mountains, and south-east of Lake Zwei, at an estimated height of 

 9000 feet above sea-level.") 



FIGS.: Lydekker, 1911, pi. 16, p. 351, fig. 103; Lydekker and Elaine, 1914, 

 vol. 3, pp. 183-184, figs. 26-27; Sanford and LeGendre, 1930, pp. 163, 166, 

 figs.; Maydon, 1932, pis. 60, 139; Ward, 1935, p. 228, fig. 



This species is known only from some of the higher mountains of 

 southern Ethiopia, and its numbers are limited to a few thousand 

 individuals at most. 



The coat is rather long and coarse, with an incipient fringe on the 

 throat; color brownish fawn, lighter about the eyes and darker on 

 nose and forehead; a short dark brown mane on neck, continued 

 backwards as a brown and white dorsal crest; tail bushy, white 

 beneath; chevron below eyes, two spots on sides of head, lips and 

 chin, a gorget on throat and another on chest, a row of 9 spots on 

 upper sides, a spot on upper part of thigh, and several patches on 

 limbs, white. Height at shoulder about 52 inches. Horns like those 

 of T. angasii, but heavier, obliquely ridged at bases, divergent, with 

 an open spiral, forming about one complete turn and a quarter, with 

 smooth yellow-tipped terminal portion. (Lydekker and Elaine, 1914, 

 vol. 3, pp. 183-184.) Record length of horns on outside curve, 44 

 inches (Ward, 1935, p. 225). 



