The book of antelopes, vol. 1 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 1 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
Size medium. General colour bright orange, becoming rather more rufous
on the hindquarters. Nose brown, but otherwise the face is of the same
colour as the body. Nape and sides of neck brown or blackish, but
the hairs here so thin and short that the skin shows through and the
general colour is but little affected. Hinder back with a marked black
central dorsal streak, commencing vaguely at the withers, becoming
narrower and more sharply defined posteriorly, and running on to the
tail. Limbs dull yellowish, except on the phalanges, where they are
brown or black.
Horns in the direct line of the nasal profile; those of male about four
inches long, conical, slightly incurved, much broadened basally, their
greatest basal diameter going 2½ or 3 times in their length. Female
about an inch and a half in length, conical, smooth, broad at base,
pointed terminally, their length not twice their basal diameter.
Skull with a very considerable convexity in the frontal region.
Anteorbital fossæ shallow. Posterior palate with the three notches,
median and two lateral, all at about the same level.
Dimensions:--♂. Height at withers 22 inches, ear 3, hind foot 9·4.
Skull (♂, not fully adult): basal length 7·2 inches, greatest breadth
3·5, muzzle to orbit 4·4.
_Hab._ Coast of West Africa, from Liberia to the Cameroons.
Ogilby’s Duiker, which we now proceed to consider, is closely allied to
the last species, and like it is of a generally rufous colour with a
black dorsal stripe, but it is immediately distinguishable by its pale
yellowish face and flanks. It was first described by Waterhouse, as
long ago as 1838, from specimens presented to the Zoological Society’s
Museum by Mr. George Knapp, who had received them from the island of
Fernando Po, and was named after William Ogilby, formerly Secretary to
the Society and a great authority upon the Ruminant Mammals. When the
Zoological Society’s Museum was broken up the typical specimen passed
into the British Museum, where it now is. About ten years afterwards
Ogilby’s Duiker was figured by Fraser in his ‘Zoologia Typica,’
probably from the typical specimen. Fraser, who had visited Fernando Po
himself, states that this Antelope is extremely common in that island
and is much esteemed by the natives as an article of food. In his
conjecture that its range “is confined to that island,” he was no doubt
in error, as we have several trustworthy notices of its occurrence
elsewhere.
Specimens of the present species are recorded by Dr. Jentink as having
been procured on the Du Queah and Farmington Rivers in Liberia by
Büttikofer and Stampfli. These are in the Leyden Museum, as is also
a female specimen from Ashantee. In his ‘Reisebilder aus Liberia’
Büttikofer tells us that the present species is common in the Liberian
forests.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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