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Antelope. The late Dr. Gray lost but little time in preparing descriptions 
of these striking objects, which were published in the ‘ Annals of Natural 
History’ for October of that year. We are indebted to the proprietors of that 
excellent journal for allowing us to copy the wood-block (fig. 33), which 
represents the head of the male brought home by Petherick. It thus came 
to pass that Dr. Gray’s name “maria,” given in honour of his wife, “ who 
assisted him in his studies,” takes precedence over Heuglin’s more appropriate 
designation ‘“‘ megaceros.” 
Consul Petherick returned to the White Nile in 1861, on a mission to 
meet Speke and Grant on their journey northwards. In the first volume of 
his narrative of this second expedition * (p. 159) he records having killed a 
female of this same Antelope on June 15th, 1862, in the country of the 
Kitch negroes on the White Nile, and adds a figure of the head of the male, 
which was doubtless taken from the specimen sent home on the former 
expedition. 
Several of the more recent travellers in the Nile districts appear to have 
also met with this Antelope. Marno (‘Reise im Gebiete des blauen und 
weissen Nil,’ 1874, p. 387) tells us that he saw a herd near Dabbed Hanakhi 
on the Bahr Seraf, in 1872, and that it is not uncommon there, and is called 
“Til” by the natives. In the course of his second journey (see ‘ Reise in 
der Aegyptischen Aequatorial-Provinz’) Marno met with it again in the 
country of the Kitch negroes on the Bahr-el-Gebel, amongst the beds of 
papyrus and ambatch, and gives us a figure of its head, which, although not 
very well drawn, is unmistakable. Schweinfurth in his ‘Im Herzen von 
Afrika,’ p. 68, also claims to have seen large herds of this Antelope on his 
voyage up the White Nile in about 12° 50’ N. lat., but did not bring home 
any specimens. Hartmann and von Barnem, as we are kindly informed by 
Herr Matschie, likewise met with this species on the White Nile and secured 
a pair of horns which are now in the Berlin Museum. 
But the only perfect examples of this scarce Antelope yet obtained are 
those of Heuglin, of which two (an adult male and young one) are in the 
Vienna Museum, and a third (an adult male) at Berlin. Herr Matschie has 
most kindly supplied us with full notes on the last-named specimen, which 
has also been examined by Sclater. 
* «Travels in Central Africa and Explorations of the Western Nile Tributaries,’ by Mr. and 
Mrs. Petherick. 2 vols. London: Tinsley Bros., 1869. 
’ 
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