A\D SOMli; AKTELOPES OF ANGOLA. 337 



The Gemi^biick has a small pouch of loose skin just below the 

 junction of head and neck at the throat, which, like its neighbour 

 the Mountain Zebra, contains a hard, round lump of Heshy 

 matter. In the bulls the skin on the top of the neck is im- 

 mensely thick, being as much as 14 to 2 inches through, thinning 

 to about g inch on the under side. The hair is short, hard, 

 brittle, and shining — about the most perfect form of coat Nature 

 -could devise to resist the aggressive clinging wait-a-bit thorns, 

 while the skin all over the upper parts of the body is tough and 

 thick. 



I see that Lord Rothschild has made this Gemsbuck into a 

 new subspecies, and has been kind enough to attach my name 

 thereto. His reasons for doing so are based upon its paler and 

 greyer colour, and the reduced and partially interrupted areas 

 -occupied by the black markings in comparison with Oryx gazella. 



The discovery of this new form tending in coloration towards 

 ■heisa has caused him to consider that the straight-horned Oryx 

 may now all be classified as local forms of one species. This is 

 very interesting, and led me recently to visit the Zoological 

 Gardens to get a close view of the Arabian Oryx deposited there 

 by H.M. the King in 1 920. I noticed that this Oryx appears to 

 have the same pouch on the underside of the throat as Ornx 

 gazella, only in a lesser degree. Neither heisa, callotis, nor 

 algazel, the scimitar-horned Oryx, has this appendage. 



The range of the Gemsbuck in Angola stops at the Coporollo 

 River, north of which none have ever been seen. They are 

 never, like the Kudu and the Mountain Zebra,, found close to 

 the sea, nor did I see their tracks in the dambas leading coast- 

 wards from the interior plains. Tliey were not in large numbers 

 in the neighbourhood of Elephant Bay during my visit, where 

 I only Saw a fe\^■ herds and some solitary bulli- . 



All Oryx are naturally very wild, and these were no exception to 

 the rule. They are great wanderers, and any suspicion of human 

 presence causes them to leave the neighbouiliood. 



Although generally found on the flats where the best pasture 

 was obtainable, they had no hesitation in climbing the hills, with 

 Avhich they were obviously well acquainted, for their tracks were 

 to be found all over them along the Zebra paths. 



One frequently came across little secluded flat basins high up 

 among the rocks at a place whei-e several dambas joined, where 

 a herd of Gemsbuck had been resting, some lying down, and, 

 judging by the quantity of droppings both old and fresh, these 

 wei-e favourite spots. In the heat of the day a, whole herd would 

 often lie down under a single thorn-bush. I have seen as many as 

 ten so grouped. Solitary bulls are cai-eful to select a bush in the 

 open, and two or three may often be seen in the same plain lying 

 ■each under his favourite bush, widely segregated from each other. 

 Under certain isolated bushes the sand was always much trodden 

 jind scooped out, showing Avhere Gemsbuck were in the habit of 

 Testing. Gemsbuck keep generally so far in the open away from 



