The book of antelopes, vol. 1 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 1 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
_Antilope (Cephalolophus) maxwelli_, _punctulatus_, et
_whitfieldi_, =Wagn.= Schr. Säug., Suppl. v. pp. 427–429 (1855).
_Cephalophus fredcrici_, =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 166
(1869).
VERNACULAR NAME:--_Fulintongue_ of Liberians (_Büttikofer_).
Size considerably smaller than in the previous species. Colour uniform
slaty brown, becoming paler below and on the inner sides of the limbs.
Superciliary streaks whitish. Ears small, rounded, behind dark brown.
Rump and backs of the hams uniform with body, except that just at the
base of the tail on each side, and on the top of the proximal half of
the tail itself, the colour is rather darker. Rest of tail above brown,
beneath whitish; limbs externally like body.
Horns set up at a slight angle above the nasal profile, but not nearly
so much as in _C. grimmi_: those of male short (about 2 inches
long), thick at base; their greatest basal diameter going about 2½
times in their length; of female, according to Temminck, exceedingly
small, and indeed they are entirely absent in the only specimen
available to us, but this is not fully adult.
Skull broad and strong. Muzzle rather narrow. Anteorbital fossæ rather
shallow. Mesial notch of palate only about ⅙ inch in advance of the
lateral ones.
Dimensions:--♀. Height at withers 14 inches, ear 2, hind foot 6·7.
Skull (♂): basal length 4·7 inches, greatest breadth 2·5, anterior edge
of orbit to muzzle 2·7.
This species shows a certain tendency to the peculiar coloration of
the rump characteristic of _C. melanorheus_; the colour-contrasts
of black and white of the latter, however, are in this case only dark
brown and light brown respectively.
_Hab._ Coast of West Africa from Gambia to the Gold Coast.
This Duiker, which is of considerably smaller dimensions than the
two previous species, and of a nearly uniform slaty-brown colour,
is likewise a West-African species, but seems to have a rather more
extended range along the coast. Whether it is really the Guévei of A
damson and Buffon is, to say the least of it, very doubtful, but it is
probably the species figured under that name by F. Cuvier in 1826 from
a specimen from Senegal then living in the Jardin des Plantes. Cuvier
referred this specimen to the _Antilope pygmæa_ of former authors,
but, as we know from Sir Victor Brooke’s excellent article on this
subject (P. Z. S. 1872, p. 637), that specific name properly belongs to
the Royal Antelope of Western Africa, of which we shall give an account
in a subsequent part of this work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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