18/4.] MAJOR O. B. C. ST. JOHN ON ORYX BEATRIX. 95 



in geographical distribution ; and, to confess the truth, we must allow 

 that we are still far off from understanding these questions satisfac- 

 torily, and that hypothesis only will serve us to answer them. 



3. Note on the Locality of Oryx beatrix. 

 By Major 0. B. C. St. John, F.Z.S. 



[Received December 3, 1873.] 



In November 1864 I was at Maskat with Colonel Lewis Pelly, 

 H.M.s Resident in the Persian Gulf. Breakfasting at a country 

 house of the Imam s, some five or six miles from the town, we were 

 told that a rare animal, described as a wild cow, was kept there as 

 a curiosity. On going into the yard where it was confined I recog- 

 nized it at once as an Oryx, and from its pure white colour I sup- 

 posed it to be a Leucoryx (Onjx leucoryx), in which idea I was 

 strengthened by finding in an illustrated book of natural history 

 that the habitat of that species is South Persia and Arabia. The 

 specimen wewere looking at, a full-grown female, was immediately 

 offered for Colonel Pelly's acceptance, and was shortly afterwards 

 sent by him to the Botanical Gardens at Poonah. It had been 

 brought, I was told, from the country on the other side of the hi-h 

 mountains to the south of Maskat, which could not be reached 

 under a weeks camel-ride. As it is not, I believe, mentioned by 

 any of the travellers in Central Arabia, it is probably confined to 

 the comparatively fertile highlands of South-Eastern Arabia, the 

 nchest but least-known region of that country 



On visiting this Society's Gardens in 1867, on my return to 

 England, I saw at once that the Leucoryx there exhibited from 

 Western Africa was not identical with my Maskat specimen ; nor was 



, cfin 6 u°- °^ t0 what s P ecies the latter shou ld be referred. In 

 1869, being again in the Persian Gulf, I begged Colonel Pelly to 

 obtain more specimens from Maskat, and, visiting him the next 

 year found that he had procured a pair. Of these the male, the horns 



t J ♦ V T lr ?5 erfe 5 WaS accidenta % ki"ed ; and the female was 

 sent to England*. There was little difference in size between the 

 sexes, and so far as could be seen, none in the length of horn. Both 

 the animals were extremely tame, being allowed perfect liberty to 



Wushire m Vldnity ° f C ° l0nel Pdly ' S C0Untr ? hoUse near 



Is there any Member of the Zoological Society at Aden who would 



Ar a abia m ? qUmeS ** t0 ^ 0CCurrence of this Antelope in that part of 



* See notice of the arrival of this animal, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 603. 



