So I Broke
The Truth Gently To My Friend, Who At Once
Acknowledged My Claim And Congratulated Me On
My Good Fortune.
How great this good fortune was I did not
know till long after; but even then, when I came
to examine the head and skin carefully, I found
that they both differed materially from those of
any other eland that I had ever seen.
For one
thing, there was no long tuft of hair on the
forehead, while from the lower corner of each
eye ran an incomplete white stripe similar to,
though smaller than, those found in the giant
eland. The sides of the forehead were of a
reddish colour, and on the lower part of the face
there was a much larger brown patch than is to
be seen on the ordinary eland. The striping on
the body was very slight, the chief markings
being three lines across the withers. On my
return to England in April. I sent the head to
Rowland Ward's to be set up, and while there it
was seen by Mr. R. Lydekker, F.R.S., of the
British Museum, the well-known naturalist and
specialist in big game, who wrote to tell me that
it possessed great zoological interest, as showing
the existence of a hitherto unknown race of eland.
Mr. Lydekker also contributed the following
notice describing the animal to The Field of
September 29, 1906:
"Considerable interest attaches to the head of
an eland, killed by Colonel J.H. Patterson in
Portuguese[1] East Africa, and set up by Mr.
Rowland Ward, on account of certain peculiarities
in colouring and markings, which indicate a
transition from the ordinary South African
animal in the direction of the giant eland
(Taurotragus derbianus) of the Bahr-el-Ghazal
district and West Africa.
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