Zoo Notes 
name of Plantaganet, or if he marry an 
heiress and desire to adopt her family name, 
or if finally he be created a peer and assume 
a territorial title, his friends haye to put up 
with the inconvenience caused by the change, 
and accept the new name. If, however, 
Robinson were to discover that he ought to 
be called Brown, and that Brown must 
find a new name, say Black, for himself, 
all their acquaint- 
ance would protest 
against suchachange. 
A precisely analogous 
“swopping of names 
has been proposed in 
the case of the ante- 
lope represented in 
the photograph on 
page 218 and an 
to) 
allied Arabian species. 
Almost from time un- 
memorial the figured 
species has been 
known as the White, 
or Sabre-Horned, 
Oryx (Oryx lewcoryx), 
while the Arabian 
animal has been 
called O. beatriz. 
This, however, say 
the purists in nomen- 
clature, will not do, 
the former name was 
originally given to 
the Arabian animal, 
to which it must be 
transferred, and the 
forgotten title O. 
algazel vevived for 
the North African 
species. Common 
sense says that the 
latter has acquired a 
right to the name by which it has been so 
long known; and we are glad that it is thus 
designated by Captain Stanley Flower (to 
whom we are indebted for this and the 
photograph of the Addax) in the Zoological 
Gardens at Ghiza, near Cairo, now under 
his charge. The specimens at Ghiza were 
brought from Dongola, in Kordofan. 
YOUNG 
MALE ADDAX 
In Ghiza Zoological Gardens. 
DAG 
The prevailing colour of the sabre-horned 
oryx 1s white, with parts of the face, the 
whole neck, and portions of the limbs rufous 
fawn. ‘The general whiteness of the coat is 
doubtless to harmonise with the “shimmer” 
of the strong light reflected from the sands 
of its desert home. Why the rufous tint 
occurs in the particular parts of the body 
mentioned above it is not easy to understand ; 
but it is practically 
certain that these 
dark areas are 1em- 
nants of the ancestral 
colour of the species, 
which was probably 
not far removed from 
that of the more 
typical members of 
the group, such as 
the beisa and the 
gemsbuck, which in- 
habit less completely 
desert tracts. The 
whiteness of the 
sabre-horned oryx, as 
well as of the beatrix 
oryx of Arabia, 1s 
therefore evidently a 
special adaptation to 
a desert life. From 
the other members of 
its kind the present 
species, as indicated 
by its popular name, 
ditfers by the graceful 
sweep of its horns, 
which (asin the other 
of this 
group) are present in 
both sexes. Those of 
the male are known 
to attain a length of 
42 inches, although 
from 36 to 389 inches is a more general 
measurement for fine specimens. There is 
some doubt whether the species ranges into 
Syria and Palestine. 
No 
members 
Every rule, it is said, is proved by exceptions, 
and the Addax Antelope of 
north Africa, and, apparently, 
The Addax 
Antelope. 
