726 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



in the bamboo forest of Bambunda, about 50 miles northeast of 

 Sedhu. The natives were in the habit of annually burning the under- 

 growth of the forest and the high grass of the plains, and at that 

 time holding a "battue," in which game animals, including Elands, 

 were. killed in large numbers. "Thus I obtained one specimen; the 

 others I purchased at Macarthy's Island, Gambia." 



"Sir Robert [Llewelyn] stated that the Derbian Eland . . . was 

 rare in the colony [Gambia], though occasionally found in Niam- 

 mina in the dry season, but was said to be met with in large 

 quantities on the upper river" (P. L. Sclater, 1898, p. 349) . 



"This splendid eland ... is almost completely unknown, except 

 by a few horns, to hunters and zoologists of the present day (Bry- 

 den, 1899, p. 439). 



In Gambia "it does not seem to be very abundant, and is undoubt- 

 edly very shy. During my stay on the river, several pairs of horns 

 were found in the possession of natives. Two were met with on the 

 south bank, west of M'Carthy's Island, and one at Koina, on the 

 north bank, 100 miles east of M'Carthy's Island. All these had been 

 procured in the year 1899." (J. S. Budgett, in Sclater and Thomas, 

 1900, vol. 4, p. 220.) 



"It has long since been exterminated within the limits of 500 

 miles of Timbuktoo" (Cotton, 1933, p. 1037). 



E. Johnson reports (1937, p. 65) for Gambia: "Only found in the 

 upper river, especially on the north bank near Koina, 300 miles up. 

 A lot are killed by native hunters during the months of May and 

 June. I have seen as much as fifteen heads weighing from 600 to 

 1,400 Ib. each brought in for sale during the month of May, 1926. 

 Now, however, much less appears in that district, I reckon there 

 are a thousand heads left. As these animals generally come in a 

 single file containing from six to a dozen animals, they become an 

 easy target for the night hunter. The Wild Animal Regulations for 

 1916 state 'absolutely protected'." 



All subspecies of Taurotragus derbianus have been accorded a 

 place in Schedule B of the London Convention of 1933. 



Giant Derby Eland; Sudani Derby Eland; Nile Derby Eland 



TAUROTRAGUS DERBIANUS GIGAS (Heuglin) 



BoselaphiLS gigas Heuglin, Nova Acta Acad. Caes. Leop. -Carol., vol. 30, 



Abhandl. 2, p. 19, 1863. (West of the upper White Nile, at about lat. 



7 N.) 

 FIGS.: Heuglin, op. cit., pi. 1, fig. 2; Sclater and Thomas, 1900, vol. 4, p. 208, 



fig. 117; Novit. Zool., vol. 12, pi. 12, 1905; Lydekker, 1908, p. 316, fig.; 



Brocklehurst, 1931, pi. facing p. 98; Nat. Hist., vol. 31, no. 6, cover and 



pp. 589, 590, 593, figs., 1931; Ward, 1935, p. 245, fig. 



