ZOOLOGY 
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development of its own in the great breadth across the nose. On the whole,. 
I should think it likely that the gnu developed from an early type of hartebeest 
somewhat similar to Bubalis swaynei. 
One point about the gnu used to puzzle naturalists like Dr. Gray, who 
founded their classification too much on external characters, and that was that 
the gnu had no rings on its horns. They were apt therefore to dissociate it 
from its nearest congeners among the antelopes and to class it with an 
extraordinarily far-removed animal—the Budorcas of Tibet. Yet the gnu really 
belongs to the group of antelopes and is derived from a form which once had 
rings on its horns. Traces of these rings may not only be seen on the horns of 
the most northern species of gnu, the white bearded gnu of East Africa 
(■Connochostes albojubatus) but are present on the under side and in the 
inner bend of the horns in female gnus when they have not had time to wear 
the marks away by rubbing the horns on the ground or against trees. The male 
gnu, however, has completely lost any trace of annulation, and in this resembles 
(as a parallel case) the Budorcas of Tibet, and the musk-sheep ( Ovibos ) of 
North America, both of which animals are aberrant types of Capricorns, 
a central group having annulated horns (though the annulation on the horns 
of the Capricorns is less marked than in the antelopes, goats and sheep). On 
the whole I think the Nyasaland gnu from the shape of the horns and the fact 
that the face is almost entirely without the great black brush which grows on it 
in the other gnus, is the least differentiated of all the species of this remarkable 
genus and comes nearest to a generalised type of hartebeest. 
We are now left with no order to discuss amongst the mammals but the 
Edentates, the River Shire and the great lakes being without any cetaceous 
animals such as the peculiar river dolphins which are found in the Amazon and 
the Ganges. The Edentates, as far as I know, are only represented by one type 
—the Manis or scaly Ant-eater. The Manis of British Central Africa is the 
short-tailed species 1 which extends in its range right across Africa from the 
west coast to Natal and to Somaliland. It is very common in Nyasaland, but 
only in the well-wooded country. Its food consists of white ants and other 
insects. This animal has an extraordinary power of escaping from almost any 
prison. Its powerful claws and the extraordinary leverage which it can exert 
by means of its limbs and the tripod they form with the tail, the smallness 
of its head and its remarkable “ squeezability ” and power of burrowing enable 
the Manis to obtain egress from almost any place of confinement. It can on 
occasions dig up cement with its claws by scratching it away from the edge of 
the wall. When shy and annoyed the Scaly Ant-eater rolls itself up into a ball. 
It is then an awkward animal to lift and carry away as the fingers may get 
between the interstices of the sharp-edged scales and be severely pinched. The 
animal seems to know this and promptly contracts so as to catch the fingers 
between the sharp edges. 
The Orycteropus , or Aard Vark, of South and East Africa is so far as I know 
entirely absent from British Central Africa—another animal whose range is 
interrupted by this section of the continent. It may yet be found (and if so it 
will probably be met with in the Luangwa Valley or about Lake Mweru) but 
no report of its existence has as yet come to hand. 2 
1 Manis temmincki. 
2 It is a curious point that such southern or eastern forms as are absent from Nyasaland but are still 
found in British Central Africa are usually met with in the Mweru district. The country between Mweru 
and Tanganyika would appear to be rather dry and desert-like, and more resembling the harsh steppes of 
Equatorial East Africa and of South Africa. 
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