The book of antelopes, vol. 2 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 2 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
Height at shoulder from 39 to 45 inches. Body above sandy brown, hairs
beneath whitish; flanks rather browner, in contrast to the conspicuous
white rump. Upper part of the ears outside and their rims blackish,
inside filled with long white hairs. Hairs of neck long and thin,
rather paler in colour than the back. Front of face brown like the
back, but rather darker; eye-stripe, line round the naked black muzzle,
and chin white. Inner sides of limbs white. Feet below the knees
blackish, with slight white lines round the hoofs. Tail thin, above
brown like the back, beneath white, tip black; length about 14 inches.
Horns rising backwards nearly in a line with the forehead, then turning
upwards, strongly ringed; length along the curve about 26 inches.
_Female._ Similar to male but hornless, and slightly smaller in
size.
_Hab._ Senegal and Gambia.
The Sing-sing of Western Africa appears to have first come to the
notice of European naturalists in the year 1831, when a living pair
of this Antelope were brought to England, of which one, we are told,
went to the Surrey Zoological Gardens, and the other to the Zoological
Society’s collection in Regent’s Park. In the ‘Report of the Council of
the Zoological Society,’ read at the Anniversary Meeting in 1832, this
animal is entered in the list of mammals exhibited in the Society’s
Gardens (drawn up, we believe, by Mr. Bennett) as the “Sing-sing Deer
(_Cervus sing-sing_)” In Waterhouse’s Catalogue of the Mammals in
the Society’s Museum published in 1838, the same animal (then in the
Museum) is entered more correctly as “_Antilope sing-sing_” but
the specific term is attributed to “Ogilby.” In neither case, however,
was any description added to the specific name. It is curious also that
Ogilby, to whom the specific term “_sing-sing_” is attributed by
Waterhouse, in his article upon Antelopes published in 1834 in the
first volume of the ‘Penny Cyclopædia,’ did not use this name, but
referred the animal in question, of which a very fair figure was given,
to the “Koba” of Buffon, and called it “_Antilope koba_.” Ogilby
appears to have taken the same view in his remarks on certain Antelopes
published in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1836; but the
“Koba” of Buffon, as we have already shown (Vol. I. p. 60), is a name
of very uncertain application, and certainly not to be attributed to
this species.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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