owcvcr, 

 seen on a 



The Eland 425 



with the desert elands of South-West Africa, as the coat becomes thinner 

 with age, the general colour both in the bulls and the cows becomes a 

 bluish-gray, and at a little distance the white stripes are not distinguishable. 

 The dark patches on the insides of the fore-legs seem to become fainter 

 with age, and in very old animals disappear altogether. As long, h 

 as there is any hair left, the white stripes can always be plainly 

 close inspection. Specimens of the striped eland (an adult male and 

 female from Mashunaland) may be seen in the Mammalia Gallery of the 

 Natural History Museum at South Kensington. 



The difference between the striped and unstriped forms of elands in South 

 Africa is entirely superficial and in no sense specific, Taurotragus oryx living- 

 stonei being merely a variety of Taurotragus oryx typkus. The two forms 

 breed together freely and the progeny are fertile, as has been proved by 

 experiments undertaken at the Zoological Society's Gardens in London. 

 Moreover, intermediate forms are found between the two varieties or 

 sub-species, in fact there appears to be a gradation through a long series of 

 infinitesimal variations from one form to the other. 



In April 1879 I shot some elands in the Northern Kalahari, between 

 Bamangwato and the Botletli River. None of these elands showed any 

 signs of stripes, but two of them had light gray patches on the insides of 

 the fore-legs. About 150 miles farther north, however, nearly all the 

 elands that I shot were more or less striped, though in most cases the 

 stripes were so faint that they only became apparent on a close inspection. 

 Travelling northwards towards the Chobi River I found that although some 

 elands were still to be met with, on which no stripes could be detected, 

 most ot them were more or less plainly striped, the patches on the insides 

 of the fore-legs becoming gradually darker at the same time. 



North of the Chobi, and between that river and the Zambesi, the 

 elands, taken as a whole, become well striped, and the dark markings on the 

 insides of the fore-legs more and more conspicuous, many individuals being 

 3 ' 



