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country bordering the Moanza River, which enters the Shiré on its right 
bank, near the Murchison Cataracts. 
In 1895 a fine specimen of this Antelope was forwarded to the British 
Museum by Mr. Gerald Oliver, R.N., of H.M.S. ‘ Herald,’ with the following 
information in an accompanying letter :— 
“On the 5th of October, last year, I was shooting near a village called Mantana’s 
(lat. 16° 80’ S., long. 35° E.), about 7’ W. by S. of Chilomo, near the right bank of 
the Shiré River. Impala (Apyceros melampus) are very plentiful about this particular 
spot, but I had not been able to get a shot at a good head. Later in the day, wanting 
meat, I decided to kill what I could, and coming across a solitary doe I fired. Great 
was the astonishment of myself and boys to find I had killed a female Inyala. I took 
the skin to Chilomo, and was told it was the first Inyala ever known to have been 
killed about these parts, and that it was practically an unknown animal there. 
“On the 26th of October, near the same spot, a male Inyala was killed by the then 
Surgeon of this ship. On the 29th of October I saw together 2 Inyalas and 8 Impalas. 
On the following day, at dusk, I met with and killed a solitary male Inyala, whose skin 
I forward. The natives were tremendously excited, dancing about and exclaiming 
‘Booh, ‘ Boch,’ the local name for the Inyala, They examined the body with great 
care. I was told in the village that the natives, on account of some superstition, would 
not touch the meat. Our bluejackets, however, ate it, and it was very good. The skin 
was remarkably glossy and soft, and the hair was long under the neck.” 
In 1893 (see P. Z. S. 1893, p. 729) Sclater found a skull of this Antelope 
in one of Mr. Crawshay’s collections from the district of Lake Mweru, but 
we are not quite certain that it was actually obtained in that locality. 
Sir Harry Johnston, in his volume on ‘ British Central Africa,’ sums up his 
information on this species as follows :— 
“Tam inclined to think that the Inyala Antelope of British Central Africa is limited 
in its range, so far as we yet know, to the Western and Upper Shiré districts and the - 
Lake Mweru district, and that it may be of a different form from the Inyala of South- 
east Africa, inasmuch as the males retain the white spots and stripes on the skin to a 
greater extent, and do not assume such a grey fur at maturity. The Inyala, locally 
called Boo, is a very rare animal, frequenting dense thickets. Its horns somewhat 
resemble those of the Bushbuck, but are much larger proportionately, much wider 
apart, and slenderer. They may measure as much as 223 inches in length along the 
curve (I have a pair of horns giving this measurement). I have only twice seen skins 
of the adult animal. They were extraordinarily beautiful in colour, the females a deep 
chestnut, with narrow stripes and spots in pure white, and.a black line along the 
middle of the back from the neck to the base of the tail; the male purplish-grey, with 
white markings.” 
VOLE. U 
