The book of antelopes, vol. 1 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 1 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
In 1882, as recorded in the eighth edition of their ‘List of Animals,’
the Zoological Society acquired by purchase of Mr. Cross, of Liverpool,
a living specimen of the Black-fronted Antelope, which lived for about
three months in the Menagerie. Of this it can only be said that, like
most of the smaller Antelopes (if we except the Gazelles), it was shy
and inoffensive in its disposition.
The existence of _C. nigrifrons_ in the Cameroons has been
recorded by Peters, who published in 1876 an account of the collection
of Mammals made by Dr. Reinhold Buchholz in this and other localities
in Western Africa. Buchholz, when at the Cameroons, obtained a specimen
of the Black-fronted Duiker from the natives who had captured it alive
when swimming across a river. He remarks on the prominent appearance
of the inguinal glands, and says that the horns are very short and
conical, and almost covered by the frontal hairs. The native name of
these _Cephalophi_ in the Cameroons is said to be “Ngolo.”
Our figure of this Bush-Duiker (Plate XVIII. fig. 1) was prepared by
Mr. Smit under the direction of the late Sir Victor Brooke. It was
probably taken from the specimen in the British Museum, but of this we
are not quite sure.
_May, 1895._
25. THE WHITE-BELLIED DUIKER.
CEPHALOPHUS LEUCOGASTER, GRAY.
_Cephalophus leucogaster_, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (4) xii.
p. 43 (1873); =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1892, p. 420; =Lyd.= Horns and
Hoofs, p. 211 (1893).
Size medium. General colour dull chestnut-rufous, with a black dorsal
band. Face rufous, darker down the centre; crest mixed rufous and
black. Nape browner. Dorsal stripe commencing in front of the withers,
not pure black, but grizzled with rufous, and not at all sharply
defined laterally; posteriorly, however, on the tail it becomes
abruptly very narrow and sharply defined, not covering the whole
breadth of the tail, but bordered on each side with rufous or white.
End of tail with a large mixed black and white tuft. Under surface of
body from chin to anus, inner sides of forearms and hips, and also a
line passing down the anterior side of the metatarsi, whitish or pure
white; no trace of a darker sternal patch. Posterior faces of buttocks
also pure white, very different from the deep chestnut of this part in
_C. dorsalis_.
Horns of type (apparently ♀) conical, sharply pointed.
Skull, so far as can be gathered from a young and very imperfect
example, with a slender narrow muzzle like that of _C. dorsalis
castaneus_, quite unlike the short conical one of _C. d.
typicus_.
Dimensions of the type (an immature specimen):--Height at withers 15
inches, ear 2·5, hind foot 7·9.
_Hab._ Gaboon.
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