The book of antelopes, vol. 4 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 4 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
Height at the withers of the adult male about 43 inches. General colour
of the head and body bright chestnut, with a white spinal stripe
extending from the withers to the root of the tail, and about 14 or 15
transverse white stripes on the shoulders, flanks, and hind-quarters,
passing from the spinal stripe above on to the belly beneath. Head with
a patch of deeper colour upon the forehead, and extending about two
inches below the eyes. An angular =V=-shaped white mark extending
inwards from the eye on to the nose, interrupted in the middle line
by a narrow brown band; chin and lips white; two or three cheek-spots
large and sometimes fused together; inter-ramal area and upper end of
throat covered with hairs of a blackish hue; lower end of the throat
with a very distinct transverse white band; chest and belly covered
with short hair of a purplish-brown colour; area between the hind legs
and beneath the tail up to the anus white. Fore legs blackish from
the fetlocks to the knees, chestnut from the knees to the shoulders
externally; white at the bases close to the chest, as also above the
knees and between knees and fetlocks internally; a large white spot
on the front of the pasterns. Hind legs chestnut down to the fetlocks
on the outer side; front of the hocks and cannon-bones broadly white;
fetlocks blackish or brownish, both without and within; a white patch
on the pasterns as on the fore legs.
Hair short and close all over the body. No mane on the throat; hairs
along the nape reversed, but scarcely forming a mane, being merely
slightly elongated; behind the parting there is a short spinal mane.
Tail bovine, thinly covered with hairs of the same colour as those of
the body, and ending in a tuft of long hairs of a darker red tint[10].
Horns massive, rather smooth, with weak anterior basal crest,
amber-yellow tip, and a single twist; usually about 30 inches long
round the curve and about 25 in a straight line. A skull gives the
following measurements:—Basal length 14·5 inches, orbit to muzzle 8·5,
greatest width 6·25.
_Female._ Similar to the male in markings, but without horns, and
rather paler in colour and smaller in size.
_Hab._ Forests of the West-African coast-range, from Liberia to
Gaboon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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