The book of antelopes, vol. 2 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 2 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
Beyond quoting Buffon’s account of the “Nagor” and references to the
authors who had adopted his description, little, if anything more,
appears to have been added by subsequent writers to our knowledge
of _Cervicapra redunca_ until 1850, when the ‘Gleanings’ from
the Knowsley Menagerie were published. In the letterpress to this
work Gray appears to have confounded the present animal with _C.
bohor_, and perhaps with _C. fulvorufula_, but the plate of
_Eleotragus reduncus_ (tab. xiii.) seems to represent a male
and young one of the present species. In the letterpress we are told
that a “young male” was then living at Knowsley, and, so far as we
can understand the remarks, had been obtained from the Gambia, where
Whitfield had given its native name as “Wonto.” Again, from 1850 to the
present period there has been an almost complete blank in the history
of the West-African Reedbuck. No examples of it appear to have been
received either by the British Museum or at Leyden, and the species
seems to have remained (even up to the present time) unrepresented
in most of the great National Collections, except in Paris, where
there are two mounted males from Senegal, besides other specimens
formerly living in the Menagerie, and in the Senckenbergian Museum at
Frankfort-on-the-Main, where, according to Rüppell’s list (Mus. Senck.
iii. p. 182), there is also a specimen of it, which enabled him to
realize the differences between this species and _C. bohor_.
It was not until 1890 that the Zoological Society of London received
their first living specimen of this scarce Antelope. This was a young
male brought home from the Gambia and presented to the Society, along
with a young male Harnessed Antelope, by Dr. Percy Rendall, F.Z.S., on
the 23rd of June of that year. A photograph presented by Dr. Rendall
to Sclater, which was taken at Bathurst in August 1889, represents the
Harnessed Antelope, at that time one year old, and the little Nagor,
then only four months old, being fed together by Dr. Rendall himself.
The Nagor, we need hardly say, has long ago attained its full stature,
and at the time we write (January 1897) is, we are glad to say, still
living and thriving in the Zoological Society’s Antelope-House.
It stands about 28 inches high at the shoulders, and is above of a
nearly uniform reddish brown in colour, rather darker on the central
line; the insides of the ears and the ocular region are white, the
face being rather more rufous. The belly and inner sides of the limbs
are whitish. The large naked space beneath the ear is white and very
noticeable. The tail is short, broad, and bushy, like the back above,
and white beneath. The horns are black; the distance from their base to
their tips is about 5½ inches in a straight line; the muzzle is moist,
naked, and black; and the hoofs are black.
[Illustration: Fig. 40.
Head of _Cervicapra redunca_. (In viv. Soc. Zool. Lond.)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account