3 i4 ANTELOPES 



LORD DERBY'S ELAND 



( Taurotragus derbianus} 

 (PLATE xii, fig. 2) 



This magnificent eland, of which a bull from the Bahr-el-Ghazal 

 stood 5 feet 8 inches at the shoulder, was first known in this country 

 from Senegambian specimens formerly living in the menagerie at 

 Knowsley, the seat of the Earls of Derby. 



From the typical eland it is distinguishable at a glance by the 

 larger and more massive horns, the much broader ears, and the 

 blackish neck, as well as by certain details of colouring, of which 

 the following are the more important. The forehead of sub-adult 

 bulls is wholly chestnut, but later on a " bush " of chocolate hair is 

 developed ; there is an incomplete white chevron below the eyes, and 

 the rest of the front of the face is blackish brown, with the exception 

 of a white patch over each eye, including the eyelid ; the lips are 

 white, the sides of the face fawn, with a band of chestnut running from 

 between the horn and the ear to the throat, and a white gorget in the 

 middle of the lower part of this band. The sides of the fore part of 

 the neck are fawn, followed posteriorly on each side by a broad oblique 

 blackish band narrowing towards the chest, with a narrow line of white 

 near its hind border ; and there is a black stripe along the middle line 

 of the neck, and another on the throat. The body-colour varies from 

 bright chestnut or rufous brown to cafc-au-lait fawn, and the number 

 of vertical white stripes from fifteen or fourteen to about ten. There 

 is a dark dorsal stripe, and black garters are developed above the 

 knees. The two largest known horns measure, respectively, 40 and 

 39^ inches. 



The range of this species extends from the open country in the 

 interior of Senegambia to the Bahr-el-Ghazal district of the Egyptian 

 Sudan and the neighbourhood of Lado. 



In the typical Senegambian race, represented at present In the 

 British Museum only by horns, the body-colour is bright chestnut or 

 rufous brown, and there are fourteen or fifteen white stripes. 



The Sudani race (Taurotragus derbianus gigas], which was named 

 by Heuglin in 1863 as a distinct species (Oreas gigas\ and of which 

 a head of an apparently immature bull is figured by the Hon. Walter 



