812 Mil. A. E. PHASE ON THE [NoV. 17, 



The best and strongest horns I know are a pair I purchased 

 from an Arab who had come to Biskra vid Ouargla (see fig. 1, p. 811). 

 They measure 34| inches in length, 6| in. round the base ; 17| in. 

 between the tips, and 12| in. between the horns at the lower 

 outward curve. 



The Ghambas who have firearms shoot a great many of these 

 Antelopes, and assure me that when there is a wind sufficiently 

 strong to make the grass, broom (Oenista monospermal), and 

 bushes wave, it is very easy to get them. They told me that they 

 could easily take me where they were " like flies," and where I 

 could get as many as ever I wished. 



The Touaregs hunt the Begra el Ouash or " Tamita " with 

 Sloughia (Greyhounds — the Saharian Greyhound is called a 

 " sloughi " by the Arabs). The sloughia bring it quickly to bay, 

 and the men go in and spear it. 



Algeria and the Northern Sahara yield three distinct kinds of 

 Gazelles (I know nothing of Gazella rufina). Old works which allude 

 to these species are most confusing, and it is often impossible from 

 their descriptions and names to know to which their remarks refer. 



Shaw's accounts, so far as they go, of the wild animals of the 

 Barbary States are comparatively clear. In alluding to the 

 Gazelles, he says : — 



" Besides the common Gazelle or Antelope" (i. e. Oazella dorcas) 

 " (which is well known in Europe) this Country likewise produceth 

 another S])ecies of the same Shape and Colour, though of the 

 Bigness of our Eoe-Buck and with Horns sometimes of two foot 

 long. This the Africans call Lidmee (?'. e. the Achni or Oazella 

 cuvieri), and may, I presume, be the Stt-epsiceros and Addace of 

 the Antients . . ." 



It is usual to regard the Dorcas as the " common Gazelle," but 

 I have no doubt whatever that the Ehime (0. loderi) is by far 

 the most numerous species in North Africa, and to be found over 

 a very much more extended area than the Dorcas. The descrip- 

 tion given in the ' Proceedings ' of this Society (1894, pp. 467-473) 

 of the Algerian Gazelles is so complete that I shall confine myself 

 to a very brief notice of the three species that I am familiar with. 



(1) The Dorcas {Oazella dorcas), called by the Arabs generally 

 " Mhozal," but when exactness is required " Hemar." They regard 

 a large Dorcas as one of a separate race, and he is called Bou 

 Khrouma (Large Throat), but the Bou Klirouma and Ilemar are both 

 alike the Dorcas Gazelle. The French discriminate between the 

 Dorcas and the Ehime {0. loderi) by terming the former " Gazelle 

 des Plaines," and the latter " Gazelle des Sables." 



It is with great respect and diffidence that I object to the 

 Dorcas being described (see P. Z. S. 1894, p. 467) as "the common 

 Gazelle of the Algerian Sahara generally," for the Dorcas is not 

 met with in the Sahara proper, so far as I can learn, and in the 

 Eastern Algerian Sahara at least is not to be found south of 

 lat. SS*^. The Dorcas in the Eastern Province and in Tunisia is the 

 common Gazelle of the plains immediately south of the Aures 



