292 Mr. G. IMame on the Relationship 



ano-le, the horns themselves being more evenly divergent 

 outwards from their bases than is usual in dorcas. The skins 

 agree perfectly with that of the type of Isabella, being of a 

 reddish-fawn colour with distinct darker lateral band, the 

 pelage being short and iirm in texture. 



It was John Ray who first published a scientific description 

 of Gazella dorcas in 1693*, which he called '^ Gazella 

 africana cormbus bi'evibtis.'' Ilis description is a very lucid 

 one, and he makes special reference to tiie outward and in- 

 ward bend of the horns, which is a well-known character of 

 this species. There is an interesting paragraph in which he 

 mentions a living specimen that D. AVilhighby saw in the 

 Royal Menagerie at Westminster, which 1 venture to 

 quote : — '' Ha?c, nisi fallor, species est, quam D. Willughby 

 in vivario Regio Westmonasteriensi enutritam vidit et 

 descripsit.'^ 



No locality is given by Ray for his gazelle, but it must 

 have come from N. Africa, and most probably from Lower 

 Egypt. This opinion is also held by Mr. Walter Rothschild, 

 and I shall therefore assume that place to be the type locality 

 of dorcas. 



We have therefore Lower Egypt as the type locality of 

 dorcas^ and Abyssinia as that of Isabella. 



I have made a careful comparison of skins and skulls of 

 this group of gazelles in the B.M. Museum collection, to 

 which has been added a series sent from Tring by Mr. Roth- 

 schild. The localities from which they came are Abyssinia, 

 Suakin and the desert west of Suakin, Nakheila on the 

 Atbara River near its junction with the Nile, Wadi Natrun 

 west of Cairo, Kordofan, Tripoli, Biskra, the Central Algerian 

 Sahara, Lake Cliad, and Rio de Oro in the extreme Western 

 Saiiara. With the material thus provided it has been possible 

 to determine the true relationship of these gazelles to one 

 another. 



A comparison of the .'^kulls tends to prove that the gazelles 

 from Suakin on the Red Sea littoral, together with the 

 adjacent Nubian Desert, and a small series from Nakheila, 

 form a distinct group by themselves. G. Isabella from 

 Abyssinia shows some afiinities both to the Red Sea group 

 and to the others, but resembles dorcas in skull-characters. 

 It will therefore be classified as a subspecies of dorcas. 



Uf the remainder the extreme Western (Rio de Oro) and 

 Central Saharan specimens appear to be a smaller form of 



* Ray, Quad. p. 80 (1693). 



