$4 
of late years, even in these remote and uninhabited districts, its numbers seem to have 
diminished considerably. This is said to be owing to the fact of the peace that has 
lately reigned between the Saharan Arabs and the Touaregs having enabled the former 
to devote themselves more to the chase than in the previous times of warfare. The meat 
of this animal, it appears, is much esteemed by the Arabs as food, while the hides are 
still more highly prized for the purpose of making the soles of shoes and sandals. 
“With regard to the present range of the Addax in the Tunisian Sahara, 1 cannot 
speak from personal knowledge, never having myself penetrated sufficiently far inland 
to meet with it; butin the course of my travels from time to time in South Tunis I 
have done my best to obtain reliable information on the subject. Among others, 
Herr Spatz, who has resided for several years in South Tunis, and is, perhaps, as com- 
petent an authority on the matter as any living European, informs me that up to three 
years ago the Addax was to be met with in considerable numbers in the neighbourhood 
of Bir Aouine (or Bir Auin), which les to the east of Berezof, or some eighty miles 
south of the Chott Djerid, thence extending its range in a southerly and south-westerly 
direction, throughout the sand-dune couutry, down to Ghadames, where, from all 
accounts, the species is abundant. During the last three years, however, it appears the 
Antelopes have become much scarcer in the country north of Ghadames, and this year 
they were not to be met with at all anywhere near Bir Aouine. Whether this is due to 
the incessant persecution of the Arab hunters above referred to, or whether it is merely 
due to dry seasons, and the consequent lack of food in these thirsty regions having kept 
the animals away, I cannot say; but as a proof of the recent defection of the Addax in 
the Tunisian Sahara I may mention the fact of a party of five native hunters this spring 
having only succeeded in obtaining seven of these Antelopes in an expedition lasting 
37 days, while in 1895 a similar party killed ten of the animals in a short trip of 
12 days. The Tunisian Arabs hunt the Addax in the same way as they do the pale 
desert Gazelle (G. leptoceros), viz. by stalking, in which art they are certainly 
proficients, and it is well for the preservation of the species, with all the keen- 
wittedness of its race, that these men are, as a rule, armed with but primitive flint-lock 
weapons, little better than gas-pipes, with a very limited range. Were it otherwise, 
the Addax would probably long ere this have been exterminated in this part of North 
Africa. 
“This Antelope seems generally to be met with in very small herds, or in pairs, and 
the young are born, as a rule, in the winter or very early spring, never more than one 
being produced at a birth, according to my informants. The Arabs sometimes capture 
the young Addax alive, and I have on more than one occasion been offered fawns of a 
few weeks old. 
“T have in my collection two complete skins of the Addax obtained in South Tunis 
in the month of May, both of a milk-white hue, evidently the summer coat, the hair 
being very short and fine ; while other skins in my possession obtained in February and 
March are of an isabelline dun-colour, and with the hair rather long and coarse, the 
winter garb, which no doubt varies in intensity of colour according to the season. The 
thick frontal tuft of hair seems to be of a dark brown colour at all seasons, while part 
