OCR Text |
Show 542 MR. SCLATER ON MAMMALS FBOM SOMALI-LAND. [Nov. 18, living animal of which he did not certainly know the locality. Under these circumstances we cannot apply the term taniopus to the Somali form of Wild Ass. Nor can we apply it to the Nubian form, which Heuglin himself termed Equus asinus. To the latter animal, however, Fitzinger in 1866 (Sitzungsb. k. Akad. Wien, liy. p. 588) gave the specific name africanus, which I propose to retain for the Nubian form of Wild Ass, while the Somali form may be called Equus asinus somalicus. These two forms may be diagnosed a3 follows :-• 1. EQUUS ASINUS AFRICANUS. (Plate L. fig. 2.) Equus asinus, Heuglin, Pet. Mitth. 1861, p. 19. Equus africanus, Fitzinger, Sitz. Ak. Wien, liv. p. 588 (1866). Minor: isabellino-griseus ; linea dorsali distincta et altera trans humeros nigricante ; juba brevi erecta; pedibus plus minusve nigro transfasciatis. Hab. in desertis Nubiae superioris. 2. EQUUS ASINUS SOMALICUS. (Plate L. fig. 1.) Major: griseus; linea dorsali fere obsoleta, humerorum nulla; juba longiore, caduca; pedibus distincte et frequenter nigro transfasciatis. Hab. in terra Somaiica. P.S.-Since this paper was read I have had the opportunity of reading Herr Menges's article on his excursion into Somali-land, contained in Petermann's ' Mittheilungen' for the present month1. Herr Menges, who was the traveller employed by Mr. Hagenbeck to collect living animals, gives us a most interesting account of two of the Antelopes above mentioned, and also alludes to the Wild Ass. On the high plains south of Berberah he met with what was evidently Gazella walleri, which, he says, is one of the most beautiful Antelopes of Somali-land, and is called by the natives " Gere-nuk." He compares it with G. darna and G. sosmmerringi, but says it is manifestly different in its colouring. While the body is of a coffee-brown, it has a broad darker band on its back 10 to 15 centimetres in width. The neck is remarkably long. The horns are short and rather strong, curved gracefully backwards, but projecting forwards at the tips. In the mountains further south Herr Menges found the Dwarf Koodoo (Strepsiceros imberbis) more abundant than the larger species (S. kudu), and calls it the "most beautiful of all Antelopes known to him." It is termed "Aderio" by the Somalis, and is distinguishable from the larger Koodoo, as he says, not only by its smaller size (which is about that of a Fallow Deer) but by the more numerous cross-stripes, of which there are from twelve to fifteen across the back, while the larger Koodoo has only four or five. The Wild Ass Herr Menges merely mentions as being different in colour from other species known to him. 1 Ausflug in das Somali-land. Von Josef Menges. Peterm. Mittheil. 1884 p. 401. |