CAPE HAKTEBEEST. 819 



to the muzzle ; but, in many cases at any rate, this is divided by 

 a nari-ow tawny line at the level of the eyes. They omit to 

 mention a plam-coloured patch on the side of the thighs below 

 the light area, extending to the hocks. 



In the ■ Book of Antelopes,' by Messrs. Sclater and Thomas, an 

 obviously over-coloured plate (no. iv.) of the entire animal is 

 given, in which the dark face-blaze, divided by an interocular 

 light bar, and the dark markings on the fore and hind limbs are 

 ■clearly shown, although there is no sign of a plum-coloured 

 saddle-patch. The authors describe the general colour as brown- 

 ish fulvous, darker than in any other member of the genus. 



The only sjDecimen of an adult male Cape Hartebeest from 

 ■Cape Colony in the British Museum is one obtained by Sir 

 Andrew Smith, which has recently been dismounted and con- 

 verted into a fiat skin. Although much faded by long exposure, 

 it serves to show that the type of colouring was originally much 

 the same as in the plate in the ' Book of Antelopes.' 



A few years ago Lord Selborne was good enough to ofter to 

 endeavour to procure for the Museum specimens of such South 

 African Antelopes as might be required for public exhibition ; 

 and as a result of his lordship's request the skin, skull, and horns 

 of an adult male of the Transvaal representative of the Cape 

 Hartebeest were received at the Museum in 1912, as a gift from 

 the De Beers Mining Company. The specimen was in due course 

 set up by Rowland Ward, Ltd., and placed on exhibition in the 

 galleries in lieu of the old and faded example from Cape Colony 

 referred to above. At the time I was busy with other matters, 

 and consequently did not pay any attention to the details of the 

 new acquisition. Recently, however, I have had occasion to 

 I'eview all the Hartebeests in the collection ; and this sui-vey has 

 left no doubt that the Transvaal Hartebeest, which was shot in 

 the neighbourhood of Kimberley, represents a very distinct 

 undescribed race of Buhcdis caama. 



From the typical Khama this race differs by its much paler 

 general colouring, which is yellowish fawn or tawny, not unlike 

 that of B. cokei, by the minor development and intensity of the dark 

 markings, and by the apparently less sharp definition of the white 

 on the sides and back of the lower part of the rump. The general 

 tawny tint tends to chestnut on the loins, as in B. cokei, but 

 elsewhere the back is of much the same colour as the flanks. The 

 nuclial stripe is indistinct ; and the face-blaze, instead of forming, 

 with the exception of the nari'ow light band between the eyes, a 

 continuous wholly black streak fiom the horns to the muzzle, is 

 much broken up, and everywhere mingled with fawn-coloured 

 hairs. It practically stops short of the horns, and is interrupted 

 in the neighbourhood of the eyes by a fawn area, mingled with 

 a few blackish hairs, for a length of about four inches, while the 

 nasal portion does not nearly reach the muzzle. Then, again, 

 the dark patch on the shoulder and fore-leg is much less intense 

 than in the typical race, and is everywhere mingled with fawn 



Proc. Zool. Soc.~1913, No. LIY. 54 



