72 THE SELOUS OOLLEOTlOX. 



MASHONALAND ELAND. 



Tauroteagvs oeyx selousi. 



Oreas canna, Selous, A Hunter's Wanderings in S. Africa, pi. i. figs. 1 



and 3, 1881. 

 Taurotragus orrjx selousi, Lydekker, Ward's Records of Big Game, ed. 6, 



p. 328, 1910 ; ed. 7, p. 330, 1914. 



Elands are cliaracterlsecl by their veiy large size and the 

 presence of horns in both sexes, those of the females longer and 

 more slender than in the males ; horns with a large keel, and in the 

 form of a screw-like spiral. The Mashonaland Eland is closely 

 allied to the t^^pical race, Taurotragus oryx oryx, distinguished by 

 the presence of a number of light body-stripes, which are well- 

 defined in immature sj^ecimens, but tend to become very indistinct 

 in old age. In young and sub-adult specimens a white suborbital 

 streak is present ; in old males this marking disappears, the whole 

 forehead and upper part of nose being covered by a dense tuft-like 

 growth of brown hair. 



The male head with the best horns is No. 19.7.15.434: — 

 length from point to base 31 1 ; circumference 13 ; spread from tip 

 to tip 12. A considerable amount of variation is found in the 

 spread of the horns of this antelope ; in one specimen (No. 

 19. 7. 15. 439) the tip to tip interval is as much as 20| inches. 

 Tlie largest female horns (No. 19. 7. 15. 437) measure as follows : — 

 length from point to base 32 ; circumference 8| ; spread from tip 

 to tip 201. 



Typical locality, Umfuli River, Mashonaland, Southern 

 llhodesia. Selous *, writing in 1881 on the distribution of the 

 South African Elands, states as follows : — " The Eland is now 

 extinct in the Cape Colony, Natal, the Orange Free State, Griqua- 

 land West, and the Transvaal, and almost so in all the countries 

 watered by the tri'outaries of the LimjDopo, to the west of the 

 Matabele country. In the Kalahari Desert to the west of Secheli's 

 and Bamangwato it is plentiful, but never now comes as far east- 

 ward as the waggon-road between the two places. North of 

 Bamangwato, along the roads leading to the Lake Ngami, and to 

 the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi, there are always a few Elands to 



* Proc. Zool. Soc. 1881, p. 749. 



