17 
subspecific rank, and to class them all under the one specific head as 
Hippotragus equinus. 
The Roan Antelope received its specific name as long ago as 1804, when 
a short description of it was published by Desmarest in the twenty-fourth 
volume of the first edition of the ‘ Dictionnaire d’Histoire Naturelle,’ taken 
from a specimen in the Paris Museum. Desmarest designated it by the 
French name “ Antilope Osanne,” but added Geoffroy’s MS. scientific name 
“ Antilope equina,” which must, therefore, be attributed to the former author, 
as having first published it. Desmarest states that the exact locality of this 
specimen was unknown, but we think it may be safely assumed to have been 
from the Cape. Desmarest’s description is not very accurate, but Desmoulins, 
who wrote the article “ Antilope” in the subsequently issued ‘ Dictionnaire 
Classique d’Histoire Naturelle,’ added a figure of the head of Geoffroy’s type, 
which seems to prove that it could have been of no other than the present 
species. 
The first European explorer in South Africa to meet with the Roan 
Antelope in its native wilds appears tc have been Samuel Daniell, who 
visited the Cape about the commencement of the present century under the 
patronage of Lieut.-General Francis Dundas, at that time Acting Governor. 
In his ‘ African Scenery and Animals’ (of which the original folio series 
was issued in parts in 1804 and the following years) Daniell figured what 
was, there is little doubt, an example of this Antelope under the name of 
“ The Tackhaitse” (no. 24), and informs us, in the accompanying letterpress, 
that he met with two of these animals near Latakoo (or Kuruman) in 
Bechuanaland, where “they are usually found grazing on the edge of the 
Karroo Plains near the foot of the hills in small herds of five or six.” Upon 
Daniell’s “Tackhaitse” Schinz founded his Capra ethiopica, Goldfuss his 
Capra barbata, and Fischer his Antilope truteri; but all these names are 
happily subsequent in date to the specific term usually adopted for this 
Antelope, and need not concern us further. 
After Daniell the next traveller to meet with the Roan Antelope appears 
to have been Dr. Burchell, who was at the Cape from 1811 to 1815. Inhis 
‘List of Quadrupeds presented to the British Museum,’ as part of the results 
of this memorable expedition, Burchell records a male of Antilope equina, 
“shot at the Little Klibbolikhénni Fountain in the Transgariepine” (now 
Orange Free State) in December 1812. In Hamilton Smith’s fourth volume 
VOL. IV. D 
