NA TURE 



191 



THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1910. 



THE MAMMALS OF SOMALILAND. 



The Mammals of Somaliland. By R. E. Drake- 

 Brockman. Pp. xvii4-2oi. (London: Hurst and 

 Blackett, Ltd., 1910.) Price 125. 6d. net. 



S3MALILAXD, it is hardly necessary to point out, 

 for its mammalian fauna, its flora, and to a 

 certain extent its birds, almost constitutes a separate 

 sub-reg-ion of the African domain, together with the 

 adjoining districts of Galaland, Abyssinia, and the 

 northern parts of British East Africa. The fullest 

 description of its interesting mammalian fauna was 

 written some years ago by Captain (now Colonel) 

 H. G. C. Swayne, R.E., the discoverer of Swayne's 

 hartebeest, one of the peculiar Somali forms. Since 

 then, alas! through! the unending attacks on the 

 Somali fauna by British sportsmen and sportswomen 

 and some of their foreign friends, not a few of the 

 beasts common in the northern or British part of 

 Somaliland in Colonel Swayne's day (beginning in 

 1885) have now disappeared from that territor\- or have 

 become extremely scarce, and are not found in the 

 list supplied by Dr. Drake-Brockman. It is curious, 

 nevertheless (since the title of the book under review 

 is " Somaliland "), that its author makes no allusion 

 to some of the most peculiar and characteristic of 

 '• Somali " mammals — at least in theory — such as the 

 Somaliland giraffe, an independent species (G. reti- 

 culata); a subspecies of "Cape" buffalo (probably 

 Bos coffer aequinoctialis), which is certainly met with 

 in the western, northern and southern parts of 

 geographical SomaUland ; besides other types referred 

 to later in this review. 



It may be that the author has preferred to restrict 

 himself to such mammals as have been seen or 

 obtained by himself. Yet he has been on the 

 Juba River and in southern Somaliland, and 

 fails to include in his list another most charac- 

 teristic mammal of restricted distribution. Hunter's 

 topi {Damalisctis hunteri), which from several 

 points of view is like the vanished connecting- 

 link which must have existed between the Bubalinc 

 group of antelopes and that of the Gazelline pallas 

 (^pyceros), just as Swayne's hartebeest suggests a 

 resemblance to the intermediate • types between the 

 hartebeests and the gnus. Also, it is probable that 

 among the mammals of Somaliland should be in- 

 cluded the Gelada baboon (Theropithecus). The 

 present writer has himself seen live specimens of 

 Theropithecus (probably T. ohscurus) in French 

 Somaliland, pets of the engineers working on the 

 Harrar railway, which were said to have been cap- 

 tured close by and brought in for sale by the Somalis. 

 Also in this book no allusion is made to the almost 

 certain existence of a Limnotragus tragelaph in the 

 Webbe and other big rivers of Somaliland {vide 

 Colonel Swayne's book, "Seventeen Trips through 

 Somaliland "). 



But though there may be these omissions from a 

 full and complete record of the mammalian fauna of 

 the Somali country-. Dr. Drake-Brockman gives ex- 

 cellent descriptions of nine-tenths of the known I 

 NO. 2 II 8, VOL. 83] 



beasts of this still mysterious and insufficiently e.\- 

 plored region (one of those portions of Africa with great 

 discoveries in store for us concerning the past and 

 present faunas of Africa). Also, he emphasises two 

 points worthy of the attention of the League for the 

 Preservation of the Fauna of the Empire (a league 

 which fights despairingly against official apathy and 

 the utter indifference of the overwhelmingly large 

 majority of the British public, a public caring nothing 

 about the fate of the dodo, qf the Somaliland giraffe, 

 of the English marten, or the Honduras ocellated 

 turkey); and these two points are: (i) that the 

 Somalis (for example), Midgans, and most other native 

 tribes do not seriously ravage the big or small game 

 of their country; and (2) that in spite of the meticulous 

 game regulations (this qualification is the present 

 writer's) there is a steady destruction of Grevy's 

 zebras, oryxes, and numerous antelopes going on at 

 the hands of European shooting-parties throughout 

 Somaliland. We deduce from what this author says 

 that the wild animals of British Somaliland of any 

 notability must in some portions of the countrj' be 

 extinct. Probably officialdom does what it can. It '.s 

 the nation from highest to humblest which wants con- 

 verting to a right interest in biology. 



Dr. Drake-Brockman has much of interest to say 

 about the cheetah. He remarks on the much greater 

 growth of mane in the cubs, their grey-white ground 

 colour, and different black markings from those in the 

 adult (a tendency to horizontal stripes instead of 

 spots). He also adds to our knowledge of the life- 

 history of the aard-wolf (Proteles), which he describes 

 as secreting a foul-smelling liquid in glands near the 

 base of the tail, and expressing this fluid secretion 

 when attacked by dogs. According to his observa- 

 tions of the long-eared Otocyon "fox" (which, he 

 says, is an easy animal to tame, and makes a de- 

 lightful pet), this Eocene canine goes about in small 

 packs rather than in pairs or singly. It seems to 

 live a good deal on insect food. The Somali wild 

 hunting dog (Lycaon) is smaller than the Lycaons 

 of central and southern Africa, and has much shorter 

 fur, is, indeed, inclined towards hairlessness — an 

 interesting trait in view of a similar tendency in some 

 varieties of Cams familiaris. 



Of the Baira antelope (Beira is the accepted name, 

 but is a misspelling of the Somali pronunciation) it 

 is said that the females are slightly larger than the 

 males. The author's excellent photograph of this 

 peculiar Somali antelope emphasises its kinship with 

 the klipspringer (Oreotragus). 



As to the Somali waterbuck, is it really (as stated 

 by Dr. Drake-Brockman) Cobiis defassa, like that of 

 equatorial East Africa, or an independent Somali species 

 or subspecies? Colonel Swayne classed it as the 

 ellipsiprymniis of South Africa, because of its grey- 

 brown colour and the elliptical white mark on the 

 rump. This is somewhat the description giv^en by 

 the present author; but defassa is, on the contrary, 

 without a white mark on the rump, and is remarkable 

 for its brilliant bay colour. 



The Beisa orAX, the various gazelles of Somaliland 

 — and if this is not par excellence " Gazelleland," what 

 is? — the greater and lesser kudus, are all effectively 



