OCR Text |
Show 1867.] DR. J. MURIE ON AN AFRICAN ANTELOPE. / It may be mentioned that Capt. Speke gives an illustration (op. cit.) of the N'samma Antelope, which appears to be the native name in Uganda for the Kobus sing-sing. ., Sir Samuel Baker, in his interesting 'Albert Nyanza, Great Basin of the Nile' (1866, vol. ii. pp. 15, 16), tells of an Antelope shot by him near the Asua River, 3° 12' W., which he calls the Mehedehet Antelope. He says the Mehedehet weighs about 500 lb., stands 13 hands high, and has rough brown hair like the Sambur Deer of India. This description in some respects agrees with the Sing-sing, although the woodcut of the head given is not in perfect correspondence with Speke's or the present figures. Skull and horn of Harnier's Sing-sing, in profile. In conclusion, the foregoing remarks may be said to lead to the inference that the Antelope to which the name of Kobus sing-sing has been assigned appears to range in Africa from Senegambia on the west to Abyssinia on the east, and to be found, with slightly varying characters, as far south as Uganda, close upon the equator. In some senses the Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) would seem to be its representative in South Africa, and the Nile specimens or variety of Sing-sing be a kind of intermediate link between its North-west-African congeners and this allied species of the southernmost end of the continent. On the other hand, further tracing analogies, the Leche (Adenota |