| OCR Text |
Show 816 ON THE GAZELLES OF TUNISIA. [Nov. 17 of Ghardimaou, on the Algerio-Tunisian frontier, from both of which places M . Blanc, tbe naturalist in Tunis, tells m e he has received specimens in the flesh. I myself have also been offered Edmi-shooting on an estate only some twenty miles or so south of Tunis. It seems evident, therefore, that the species has a wide range in the Regency, although perhaps it is nowhere very abundant. In Algeria, as shown by M r . E. N . Buxton ' and Sir Edmund Loder2, the Edmi occurs on the mountains of the Atlas, notably on the Aures range, and I myself have seen freshly-killed specimens of it in the Biskra market; but probably the species has a more limited range in Algeria tban further east, in Tunisia, where the character of the country, and more particularly of the mountains, is more compatible with the requirements of this animal. G. cuvieri is to be found either in small herds or singly, and occasionally, though not as a rule, at a considerable elevation. On the Djebel Selloum and Djebel Semama, near Kasrin, both of •wdiich mountains are nearly 4000 feet above sea-level, I found the Gazelles about halfway up. These mountains, although steep in places and with some very rugged scarps, are in great part well-wooded with Aleppo pines, and on the lower slopes with a thick undergrowth of the usual maquls vegetation. In this brushwood tbe Gazelles easily escape detection and are naturally not very often seen. Although fond of cover, the Edmi will adapt itself to circumstances, and seems equally at home on the arid mountains of the south, where there is but little vegetation, and that merely of a dwarf description, affording slight shelter. In the spring, when m y hunting-trips after Aoudad (Ovis tragelaphus) and Edmi have taken place, there has always been a little water on these mountains ; but for some months of the year, I a m told, the watercourses are dry, and the animals then, should they wish to drink, must travel some distance. That both these species, however, shift their quarters constantly I feel convinced, force of circumstances rendering them as nomad as the Arabs themselves. The Edmi is very much larger than the Dorcas Gazelle, its weight being almost double. Its coat is darker in colour and with rather longer and coarser hair, while its knees, besides having very strongly developed brushes, show distinct callosity. The horns in the adult male are very stout and deeply annulated, and generally with but little curve, measuring about 13 inches, or even more in fine specimens. Those of the female are much more slender and smoother, but sometimes of fair length, some in my possession measuring 11 inches. GAZELLA LODERI, Thos. (P. Z. S. 1894, p. 470, pl. xxxii.) This pale desert Gazelle, only recently scientifically described, and named by M r . Oldfield Thomas after Sir Edmund Loder, is 1 See Buxton, B. Z. S. 1880, p. 363. 2 See Loder, P. Z. S. 1894, p. 473. |
