24 - THE ANIMALS OF NORTHERN AFRICA 



initial b we may admit an m, we have exactly the word ma-hez of the Egyptians, 

 a word which, according to the epoch, is pronounced either ma-hed or ma-het. 

 Finally, it seems that the African names behiza, bahida, beheit, and the Egyptian 

 name ma-hez, pronounced later ma-hed and ma-het, are in reality the same ; and 

 the only question remaining for consideration is whether the Egyptians borrowed 

 it from their southern neighbours, or whether the latter took it from the 

 Egyptians. 



The addax is characterised by the open spiral formed by the horns, which, 

 like those of the oryx, are common to both sexes, and are ringed almost throughout 

 their whole length, and incline backwards nearly in the plane of the face. The 

 shoulder-height is a little over 3 feet, and the horns measure from 26 to about 

 35 inches along the spiral. The greater part of the body is clothed with short, 

 close hair, but the forehead carries a mass of long brown hair, and in winter a 

 mane of similar hair covers the neck. Yellowish tawny is the general colour of 

 the addax in summer, but in winter the tone is greyer ; at all seasons there is a 

 white band above the eyes. Like the white oryx, the addax ranges right across 

 northern Africa, from the Sahara to the Egyptian Sudan. The addax is hunted 

 by the Arabs not only for the sake of its flesh, but for the purpose of training their 

 horses and slughi hounds ; the parties often remaining out for weeks together. 



Another essentially Ethiopian type of antelope inhabiting 



northern Africa is the bubal hartebeest (Bubalis boselajohus), a small- 

 sized member of an extensive group of large African antelopes characterised by 

 their generally foxy colour, long, melancholy-looking faces, crowned with a 

 pair of ringed and more or less sharply bent black horns of no great length, elevated 

 withers, and long, tufted tails. The range of the bubal includes a large part of 

 northern Africa, but does not, as formerly supposed, extend into Syria and Arabia ; 

 the same holding good also for the white oryx and the addax. The bubal is the 

 smallest representative of the hartebeests, standing some 37 inches at the withers. 

 In colour it is uniformly reddish brown. On the crown of the head is a pedicle, 

 from which, in both sexes, spring the relatively short and thick horns; these 

 attaining a length of from 13 to 14 inches, and curving in the form of the letter U. 

 The bubal is exterminated from the greater part of Tunisia : in West Africa it is 

 replaced by the much larger western hartebeest (B. major). 



Among the negative peculiarities of the fauna of Ethiopian Africa 



is the total absence of the deer tribe, or Cervidce. Northern Africa, 

 on the other hand, shows its affinity to other Mediterranean countries in possessing a 

 small race of the red-deer, commonly known as the Barbary deer (Gervus elaphus 

 barbarus). This deer, which is near akin to the Corsican stag (C. e. corsicanus), 

 is characterised by the absence of a brow-tine to the antlers of the stags, and the 

 frequent retention of light spots in the adult, as well as by its small stature. 

 Its chief haunts are formed by the strip of forest-country extending from the 

 Mediterranean coast on the frontiers of Algeria and Tunis southwards to the 

 Sahara. 



Although there appears to be no evidence of the existence of truly wild fallow- 

 deer (ft [Dama] dama) in northern Africa during the nineteenth century, it 

 seems probable that this essentially Mediterranean species once inhabited certain 



