The book of antelopes, vol. 1 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 1 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
After Afzelius subsequent authors were for many years content to
copy his notes and description, and we get no further information on
the subject till we come to 1850, when the species was figured in
the ‘Knowsley Menagerie’ by Waterhouse Hawkins from specimens living
in that magnificent collection. In this set of drawings it appears
twice--first on plate viii. fig. 1 (erroneously named _Cephalophus
punctulatus)_, which seems to have been taken from a young individual
of this Antelope; and secondly on plate xxiii. fig. 3, as _Cephalophus
sylvicultrix_, in which the adult, or at any rate a more advanced
stage, is represented. At the date of the sale of the Knowsley
Menagerie in 1851 it does not seem that any specimens of this Antelope
were left in the collection; but a young example, no doubt one of those
that died in the Menagerie, had been presented by Lord Derby to the
Zoological Society of London, whence it subsequently passed into the
collection of the British Museum. From the labels on this and other
specimens we learn that they were obtained by Whitfield, a well-known
collector formerly in the employment of Lord Derby, at Sierra Leone.
Little further information respecting this species is available until
1870, when the Zoological Society, on March 24th, purchased a single
living example of it from Cross of Liverpool, as recorded in the
Society’s ‘Proceedings’ (P. Z. S. 1870, p. 220). This animal, however,
did not live long in the Society’s Menagerie, as it died on the 14th
July of the same year. Its body was disposed of to Mr. E. Gerrard, jr.,
by whom it was stuffed and sold to the Melbourne Museum.
[Illustration: Fig. 16.
Skull of _Cephalophus sylvicultrix_, ad.
(P. Z. S. 1865, p. 205.)]
The only modern authority that speaks of this Antelope is Mr.
Büttikofer, of the Leyden Museum, who made two zoological voyages
to Liberia in 1880 and 1886. In Dr. Jentink’s list of the Liberian
mammals obtained by Mr. Büttikofer and his fellow collectors in Liberia
(Notes Leyden Mus. vol. x. p. 20) it is recorded that _Cephalophus
sylvicultrix_ is said to occur sparingly on the Jackson and Mahfa
rivers in that country, but to be more common on the Manna and Solyman
rivers. But Mr. Büttikofer, in spite of all his efforts, did not
succeed in obtaining specimens.
[Illustration: Fig. 16 _a_.
Skull of _Cephaloplms sylvicultrix_, jr.
(P. Z. S. 1871, p. 594.)]
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