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Show 1900.] ON A COLLECTION OF HEADS OF ANTELOPES ETC. 949 December 18, 1900. Dr. A L B E R T G U N T H E R , F.E.S., V.P., in the Chair. The Secretary read the following report on the additions to the Society's Menagerie during tbe month of November 1900:- The total number of registered additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of November was 143, of which 41 were by presentation, 8 by purchase, 84 were received on deposit, and 10 were born in the Menagerie. The total number of departures during the same period, by death and removals, was 138. Mr. Sclater stated that he had much admired the fine collection of heads of Antelopes and other animals exhibited by Major A. St. Hill Gibbons at the Meeting of the Eoyal Geographical Society on the 10th inst., when Major Gibbons gave an account of his remarkable journey across Africa. Major Gibbons had kindly sent three of these specimens of special interest to be laid before the Society's Meeting to-night. The first of these was the skull and horns of the Square-mouthed Ehinoceros (Rhinoceros simus ?) shot by Major Gibbons near Lado on the Upper Nile, about 5° N . lat., as already recorded by Mr. Thomas in ' Nature' (vol. lxii. p. 599, Oct. 18, 1900). This discovery, as Mr. Thomas had already pointed out, was of very great interest, as no authentic evidence of the existence of the square-mouthed form of Ehinoceros north of the Zambesi Eiver had been previously produced. Two mounted heads belonging to two different forms of the Topi Antelope, obtained by Major Gibbons, were likewise exhibited. One of these, obtained on the White Nile, was no doubt the Tiang (Damaliscus tiang)1. The other, obtained on the plains to the south of Lake Albert Edward, was probably the typical Topi (D.jimela)-, but required further comparison. Major Gibbons, who was present, then gave the following particulars concerning the two species of Topi Antelope which he had met with :- I first saw the larger Topi (Damaliscus jimela ?) some 25 miles south of Lake Albert Edward. As I neared the lake they became quite common and were frequently to be seen in small herds up to 12. It is improbable at least that their range extends south of about 1° S. lat., where, except for the lava valley running from the Kirunga volcanoes northwards, tbe country is very mountainous and wholly unsuited to the requirements of this class of Antelope. So, too, the great mountain-range stretching high and deep from the N . W . of Kivu along the shores of the Albert Edward to Euenzori and beyond in all probability has barred their expansion westwards. To the east of the Albert Edward the country, though hilly, is not without plains and valleys, and it is probable that this antelope 1 Sclater & Thomas, ' Book of Antelopes,' i. p. 63. ' Ibid. p. 67. 62» |