The book of antelopes, vol. 1 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 1 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
The Black-headed Duiker was first described by Dr. Jentink, the
Director of the Leyden Museum, in 1885, from a single female specimen
procured near Schieffelinsville, on the Junk River, by Stampfli in the
preceding year. Unfortunately Dr. Jentink referred the specimen to
_C. longiceps_ of Gray, a species based on a skull brought home
from Gaboon by Mr. DuChaillu. In doing this he was perfectly justified,
on account of the extraordinarily close resemblance of its skull to
that of _C. longiceps_. But Thomas subsequently showed that
DuChaillu’s Gaboon skull (as already mentioned above) is undoubtedly
referable to the nearly allied _C. sylvicultrix_. Under these
circumstances it became necessary to give another scientific name
to the present species, and Thomas selected the appropriate term
_jentinki_; as it was Dr. Jentink’s “carefulness, led astray by
Dr. Gray’s serious mistakes,” that had “caused him to make the venial
error just referred to.”
During his second expedition, in 1887, Mr. Stampfli procured two more
examples of this Antelope on the Farmington River. Like the first, both
these were females, and, as we are told by Dr. Jentink, do not differ
in colour from the typical specimen. Mr. Stampfli’s notes on this
Antelope are as follows:--
“A little below Schieffelinsville, in the triangle between the Junk
River on one side and its two confluents, the Du Queah and Farmington
Rivers, on the other, a wooded eminence called ‘Sharp Hill’ rises in
the middle of the marshes, to which, according to the testimony of the
natives, these animals are restricted. As in the dry season the marshes
cannot be traversed in canoes, and yet are not sufficiently dry to be
passed on foot, these Antelopes can only be obtained in the rainy
season, and it is said to be quite an exception for a specimen to be
procured except during that period.”
In the second volume of Mr. Büttikofer’s ‘Reisebilder aus Liberia,’
which contains a complete account of the explorations and discoveries
of himself and his companions in that country, will be found some
additional details on this Antelope. Mr. Büttikofer calls particular
attention to the large size of the inguinal glands between the belly
and the thigh in this Antelope. They are so large that they will easily
contain a lemon. These are said to be fat-glands, from which the beast
extracts fat with its muzzle to lubricate its short, shining, hairy
coat. Mr. Büttikofer also says that this Antelope, although only
obtained from Sharp Hill, certainly occurs in other parts of Liberia.
Our figure of this Bush-Duiker (Plate XV.) has been prepared by Mr.
Smit from the mounted specimen in the British Museum, which is the type
of the species. It is one of the three specimens obtained in Liberia by
Mr. Stampfli, the other two remaining at Leyden. We believe that these
are the only three specimens of this rare Antelope existing in any
European museum.
_May, 1895._
21. ABBOTT’S DUIKER.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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