730 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Equatorial Africa and the northern part of French Cameroons. 1 

 This appears to correspond to the more westerly portions of the 

 Ubangi Savanna District of Bowen (1933, pp. 256, 258) . The animal 

 occurs chiefly in the basins of the Shari and upper Benue Rivers and 

 on some of the tributaries of the Ubangi in Ubangi-Shari Territory. 

 It extends north to the Bagirmi district and to Dar Rounga (toward 

 the Sudan frontier) , west to the Garua district of Cameroons, and 

 south to the basin of the Kouango River. Schwarz (1920, p. 1022) 

 records specimens from between Njia and Nana Barja and from 

 Bate, eastern Cameroons. Ward (1935, p. 247) records specimens 

 from French Chad, "French Congo" [ = French Equatorial Africa], 

 Ubangi-Shari, and River Loubo; his determination of two specimens 

 from Cameroons (p. 246) as T. d. derbianus seems open to question. 

 Dollman (1929, p. 576) records a specimen from near Fort Arch- 

 ambault. 



At Borkoru (apparently in the Bahr Sara region southwest of 

 Fort Archambault) , Akroyd (in Maydon, 1932, pp. 400-401) "found 

 that the Eland were afflicted with some pest, of which they were 

 dying in considerable numbers." The natives "thereabouts reported 

 Eland frequently in sight." 



According to Lavauden (1934, pp. 382-383), the Arabs in former 

 times encountered the animal in the southern part of Wadai. It is 

 extremely localized in Cameroons and has become very rare. It is 

 protected by the game regulations of French Equatorial Africa 

 and can be killed only on scientific permit, but enforcement of the 

 law remains to be applied. 



In an area south of Fort Archambault the Elands had been 

 decimated by disease, by encircling fires, and by the systematic 

 operations of the hunters of a local sultan (Ramecourt, 1936, p. 124) . 



Malbrant (1936, p. 91) states that this Eland is still quite wide- 

 spread in French Equatorial Africa, and is not so rare as generally 

 believed. He gives detailed records from many points within its 

 range. 



L. Blancou reports (in litt., December, 1936) that it was for- 

 merly found by thousands throughout French Equatorial Africa, 

 from latitude 6 N. to the Chad Colony. It was localized, however, 

 in certain favorable regions. It still has the same range, but occurs 

 only by hundreds and no more by thousands. He is convinced that 

 the Derby Eland is now commoner in Ubangi-Shari than anywhere 

 else. Depletion was due to the demand for its excellent meat. It 



i The insufficiently described Taurotragus derbiamis earner oonensis Millais 

 (Far Away up the Nile, p. 240, 1924; "North-West Cameroon") is provisionally 

 included with the present subspecies. 



Rothschild's female paratype of congolanus was recorded as from "N. W. 

 Tanganyika"; but either the locality or the identification must be erroneous. 



