144 
“Herr Spatz confirms what Sir Edmund Loder says of this species never drinking, 
and, as to its food, says it subsists on the leaves and berries of the few desert plants to 
be found in the sand wastes. The female of G. loderi, according to Spatz, often has 
two young ones at a birth, differing in this respect from G. dorcas, which seems to have 
but one. 
“So good a description of G. lodert has been given by Mr. Thomas (P. Z. 8S. 1894, 
p. 470), that I can add nothing thereto, except it be merely to say that tle coat of this 
Gazelle is extremely fine and short-haired, and that in the specimens which I have 
the knee-brushes are so slightly developed as to be scarcely noticeable or worthy of 
the name.” 
In the spring of 1895 Sclater was in Egypt, and convinced himself that 
besides G. dorcas, of which there were many specimens in the Zoological 
Gardens at Gizeh, there were examples of both sexes of another species 
belonging to the group of G. leptoceros and G. cuvieri, stated to have been 
obtained from the Arabs of the Western Desert (cf. P. Z.S. 1895, p. 400). 
On receipt in London of a skin and skull of this Gazelle subsequently sent 
to him by Mr. Jennings-Bramley, Sclater, after comparing it with typical 
specimens of Gazella loderi in the British Museum, pronounced them to be 
of the same species. Mr. Jennings-Bramley also supplied Sclater with some 
excellent notes on the mode of capture of this Gazelle by the Arabs of the 
Western Desert of Egypt, from which we extract the following passages :— 
“On the 27th of June, 1895, I started from the Pyramids in order, if possible, to 
catch some living specimens of Loder’s Gazelle (Gazellu loderi), known to the Arabs as 
‘Rasal Abiad’ (the White Gazelle), which the shikaries whom I took with me reported 
to be found in the desert at some thirty or forty miles distant from Cairo. 
“ Leaving at 4 p.m. on the 27th, we started, taking a south-easterly direction. We 
travelled till 12 that night, and at 4 next morning resumed our march. Soon after the 
sun had risen, one of the shikaries, pointing to the ground, showed what he made out to 
be the spoor, evidently but lately made, of a fine male Loder’s Gazelle. This, being 
larger than that of the Dorcas Gazelle, is very easily recognizable; the bluntness of the 
hoofs in the case of Loder’s Gazelle shows a marked difference. About 12 o’clock one 
of the camel-men called out that a Gazelle could be seen ahead, but the many heaps of 
white stones, scattered all over the desert, are so deceiving at a little distance that both 
shikaries shook their heads. 
“The camel-man, however, in this case proved to be correct, as we soon noticed the 
Gazelle walking leisurely away. It disappeared behind a mound of sand, where it must 
have remained, for, on reaching the place about half an hour later, we were surprised 
to come suddenly on the Gazelle, now only some 200 yards off. It was a fine female, 
very white in colour. Not wishing to disturb any others that might be near, I did not 
fire. We found, however, that it was alone. At 12 o’clock or thereabouts we came 
