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Show 1874.] MAJOR O. B. C. ST. JOHN ON ORYX BEATRIX. 95 in geographical distribution ; and, to confess the truth, we must allow that we are still far off from understanding these questions satisfactorily, and that hypothesis only will serve us to answer them. 3. Note on the Locality of Oryx beatrix. B y Major 0. B. C. S T . J O H N , F.Z.S. [Received December 3, 1873.] In November 1864 I was at Maskat with Colonel Lewis Pelly, H.M.'s Resident in the Persian Gulf. Breakfasting at a country house of the Imam's, some five or six miles from the town, we were told that a rare animal, described as a wild cow, was kept there as a curiosity. On going into the yard where it was confined I recognized it at once as an Oryx, and from its pure white colour I supposed it to be a Leucoryx (Oryx leucoryx), in which idea I was strengthened by finding in an illustrated book of natural history that the habitat of that species is South Persia and Arabia. The specimen we were looking at, a full-grown female, was immediately offered for Colonel Pelly's acceptance, and was shortly afterwards sent by him to the Botanical Gardens at Poonah. It had been brought, I was told, from the country on the other side of the high mountains to the south of Maskat, which could not be reached under a week's camel-ride. As it is not, I believe, mentioned by any of the travellers in Central Arabia, it is probably confined to the comparatively fertile highlands of South-Eastern Arabia, the richest but least-known region of that country. On visiting this Society's Gardens in 1867, on m y return to England, I saw at once that the Leucoryx there exhibited from Western Africa was not identical with m y Maskat specimen; nor was I able to find out to what species the latter should be referred. In 1869, being again in the Persian Gulf, I begged Colonel Pelly to obtain more specimens from Maskat, and, visiting him the next year, found that he had procured a pair. Of these the male, the horns of which were imperfect, was accidentally killed ; and the female was sent to England *. There was little difference in size between the sexes, and, so far as could be seen, none in the length of horn. Both the animals were extremely tame, being allowed perfect liberty to wander about in the vicinity of Colonel Pelly's country house near Wushire. Is there any Member of the Zoological Society at Aden who would make inquiries as to the occurrence of this Antelope in that part of Arabia ? * See notice of the arrival of this animal, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 603. |