o48 MR. K. LVJXEKKER OX 



17. On the Mountain Nyala, Tragelaplais huxtoni* 

 By R. Lydekkek, 



[Received December 1, 1910 : Eead February 21, 1911.] 

 (Plate XYI.t and Text-figure 103.) 



About the 10th of September I received a communication from 

 Mr. Rowland Ward to the effect that the skin, skull, and horns 

 of an apparently new Kudu-like Antelope had been received at his 

 establishment in Piccadilly from Mr. Ivor Buxton, by whom the 

 animal had been shot in Abyssinia. An inspection of the 

 specimen a few days later fully convinced me of the correctness 

 of Mr. Ward's diagnosis ; and I accordingly wrote a letter to the 

 ' Times,' which duly appeared in that journal on September 23rd, 

 1910, under the heading of " A New African Antelope." In that 

 letter it was stated that the specimen had been killed on the Arusi 

 plateau of Gallaland, in Southern Abyssinia, at an estimated 

 height of about 9000 feet above sea-level, and that it apparently 

 indicated a new species of Antelope in some degree intermediate 

 between the l^ja\a.{Tragelaphus angasi) and the 'KuAxji^Strepsiceros 

 capensis), but rather nearer to the latter than to the former. In 

 conclusion, it was urged that the specimen ought to find a 

 permanent home in the British Museum. It was also suggested 

 that the species might be known as the Spotted Kudu. 



Shortly after the appearance of this letter, Mr. Buxton wrote 

 to say that he would be pleased to present the specimen to the 

 Museum, and likewise giving full and more precise information 

 Avith regard to the locality where it was obtained. The matter 

 having thus become public, I decided that the time had come to 

 give the animal a scientific name ; and Strepsiceros huxtoni was 

 accordingly proposed by myself in 'Nature,' vol. 84, p. 397, 1910. 

 It was, however, added that it might be deemed advisable to 

 merge the genus Strepsiceros in Tragelaphus^ in which event the 

 title of the new sjoecies would be Tragelaphus huxtoni. As to 

 locality, Mr. Buxton, after reference to his note-book, informed 

 me that the type specimen of the new Antelope was obtained 

 during the summer of 1910, to the west of the Arusi plateau of 

 Callaland, in the Sahatu Mountains, at an estimated elevation of 

 9000 feet ; these mountains being situated some distance to the 

 south-east of Lake Zwei (Zuay). The ground on which the animal 

 was killed — as I gather from a photograph taken by Mr. M. C. 

 Allbright, who accompanied Mr. Buxton on his trip — is of an 

 open and stony natixre, with scattered dwarf bushes and tussocks 

 of grass. 



Soon after the publication of the aforesaid notice in ' Nature '" 

 I learned that Mr. Buxton had brought home the head-skin 



* Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum. 

 t For e-tplaiiation of the Plate see p. 353. 



