3>8 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
in the North Nyasa district by Mr. G. A. Taylor. It undoubtedly occurs on 
the east coast of Lake Nyasa for it has been shot there by Major Frank 
Trollope. To the west of Nyasaland it is the common Hippotragine species 
and its range probably extends north and east to the Egyptian Sudan and 
thence westward across Nigeria to Senegambia. A third species of Hippotragus 
—the Blaubok—was a bluish-grey in colour and more uniform in tint with 
longer hair and in some respects more suggestive of the Cobus antelopes. 
Like many other remarkable creatures in South Africa it was promptly 
exterminated by the European settlers. 
Probably evolving from some Cervicaprine form we have the beautiful pallah, 
or mpala antelope (./Epyceros melampus), the shape of whose horns will be 
shown in the accompanying drawing which however illustrates the small Nyasa¬ 
land variety. 1 The coloration of the pallah is a rich dark chestnut with a white 
stomach and a black longitudinal mark in the front of the feet. It also is 
A ROAN antelope (Hippotragus equinus) 
marked by a black tuft of hair on the inner side of the hind legs below the 
tarsus. The lesser pallah, a variety named after myself because I happened to 
send home the first specimens, is the one usually met with in Nyasaland, the 
larger pallah being found in the regions to the west and east. The accompany¬ 
ing illustration is the head of Johnston’s pallah which differs from the more 
typical animal in the smaller size of the horns and body. Mr. Sharpe states that 
in his opinion the pallah all over Central Africa affects a special kind of country 
—forested plains with open glades of short grass not far removed from water. 
The Nyasaland Gnu or Wildebeest would appear to be a new species. 
Hitherto it has been treated as a new variety of the Blue Wildebeest ( Con- 
nochcetes taurinus). The first specimen sent home was killed by Mr. H. C. 
McDonald of the British Central Africa Administration in the vicinity of Lake 
Chilwa. This example was figured in the Zoological Society’s Proceedings 
for 1896. 2 Subsequently a fine specimen of this gnu was killed by Mr. James 
Harrison, an English sportsman, who was travelling in the Portuguese territories 
between Quelimane and the Protectorate. Mr. Harrison also saw a small 
herd of this gnu about sixty miles to the south of Lake Chilwa. The one 
1 A good drawing of the head of the larger pallah will be seen in my book on the Kilimanjaro 
Expedition, page 219. 2 p. 616. 
