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 representative of the Black-rumped Duiker in Uganda has recently
been separated by Herr Matschie from _C. melanorheus_ under the
name of _C. æguatorialis_ on account of its darker belly, which
is stated to be of a bright isabella-brown colour, “nearly of the tint
which Mr. Ridgway, in his ‘Nomenclature of Colours’ (tab. iii. no. 21),
calls écru drab, and scarcely lighter in colour than the back.” The
species was based upon five specimens obtained by Stuhlmann in Chagwè,
Uganda, in the month of December. Dr. Stuhlmann’s note is that this
Antelope lives in the forests of Uganda, and that its skins are brought
in numbers to the market at Mengo. A living example of this species, we
are informed by Herr Matschie, was in 1892 in the Zoological Garden of
Berlin.
On examining two skins of adult females of what we suppose to be
the same Antelope, obtained by Capt. W. H. Williams in Uganda, and
presented to the British Museum in April 1893, we do not find the
character, assumed by Herr Matschie as distinctive of the species,
to be quite constant. The bellies of the two specimens just referred
to are scarcely darker than in West-African specimens of _C.
melanorheus_. Moreover, two examples of the latter species from
Cameroons, collected together, differ markedly in the coloration of
their bellies. We should therefore not have been inclined to admit
_C. æquatorialis_ as a distinct species were it not for the
fact that the perfect skull of one of the specimens in the British
Museum shows no traces of horns. This is also stated to be the case
in two female specimens in the Berlin Museum upon which Herr Matschie
established the species. In _C. melanorheus_, as already stated,
the horns are always present in both sexes. Under these circumstances
it is better to keep _C. æquatorialis_, provisionally at least, as
distinct, until further information is obtained.
Mr. Scott Elliot during his recent adventurous journey to Mount
Ruwenzori obtained a single specimen (now in the British Museum) of
this Duiker in Uganda, and has favoured us with the following note upon
it:--
“The _Cephalophus_ of which I brought home the skin was obtained
from some natives at Kampala, Uganda, in February 1894. It was a
female. I believe it was found on the highlands bordering Lake Victoria
Nyanza, at an elevation of from 3900 to 4100 feet.”
_August, 1895._
35. THE BLUE DUIKER.
CEPHALOPHUS MONTICOLA (THUNB.).
[PLATE XXI. FIG. 1.]
_Capra monticola_, =Thunb.= Resa, ii. p. 66 (1789); =id.= Engl.
Transl. ii. p. 58 (1793).
_Antilope monticola_, =Thunb.= Mém. Ac. Pétersb. iii. p. 314
(1811); =Afz.= N. Act. Ups. vii. p. 220 (1815).
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