Part 52

The eminent Swedish naturalist, Adam Afzelius, a pupil of Linnæus, and subsequently editor of his master’s autobiography, resided for two years (1792–94) on the West Coast of Africa, as botanist to the Sierra Leone Company. Amongst numerous papers embracing the results of his researches on the West-African fauna and flora, he published in 1815, in the ‘Nova Acta’ of the Royal Society of Sciences of Upsala, a learned treatise on Antelopes generally, and specially upon those of Guinea. In the course of this memoir he described and figured for the first time the present species, calling it Antilope silvicultrix, as being the “Bush-Goat” of the colonists. Afzelius speaks of it as not uncommon in the hills round Sierra Leone, particularly in the districts adjoining the rivers Pongas and Quia. Here it is not met with among the rocks, but inhabits the lower tracts of the bush, either solitary or, in the rutting-season, in pairs, and occasionally in small herds. It hides itself in the bush by daytime, but comes out in the early morning to feed in the open spaces, where the hunters lie in wait for it. Its flesh is stated to be much esteemed as food, although it has a strong musky scent, particularly at certain seasons of the year.

After Afzelius subsequent authors were for many years content to copy his notes and description, and we get no further information on the subject till we come to 1850, when the species was figured in the ‘Knowsley Menagerie’ by Waterhouse Hawkins from specimens living in that magnificent collection. In this set of drawings it appears twice--first on plate viii. fig. 1 (erroneously named Cephalophus punctulatus), which seems to have been taken from a young individual of this Antelope; and secondly on plate xxiii. fig. 3, as Cephalophus sylvicultrix, in which the adult, or at any rate a more advanced stage, is represented. At the date of the sale of the Knowsley Menagerie in 1851 it does not seem that any specimens of this Antelope were left in the collection; but a young example, no doubt one of those that died in the Menagerie, had been presented by Lord Derby to the Zoological Society of London, whence it subsequently passed into the collection of the British Museum. From the labels on this and other specimens we learn that they were obtained by Whitfield, a well-known collector formerly in the employment of Lord Derby, at Sierra Leone.

Little further information respecting this species is available until 1870, when the Zoological Society, on March 24th, purchased a single living example of it from Cross of Liverpool, as recorded in the Society’s ‘Proceedings’ (P. Z. S. 1870, p. 220). This animal, however, did not live long in the Society’s Menagerie, as it died on the 14th July of the same year. Its body was disposed of to Mr. E. Gerrard, jr., by whom it was stuffed and sold to the Melbourne Museum.

Skull of Cephalophus sylvicultrix, ad.

(P. Z. S. 1865, p. 205.)]

The only modern authority that speaks of this Antelope is Mr. Büttikofer, of the Leyden Museum, who made two zoological voyages to Liberia in 1880 and 1886. In Dr. Jentink’s list of the Liberian mammals obtained by Mr. Büttikofer and his fellow collectors in Liberia (Notes Leyden Mus. vol. x. p. 20) it is recorded that Cephalophus sylvicultrix is said to occur sparingly on the Jackson and Mahfa rivers in that country, but to be more common on the Manna and Solyman rivers. But Mr. Büttikofer, in spite of all his efforts, did not succeed in obtaining specimens.

Skull of Cephaloplms sylvicultrix, jr.

(P. Z. S. 1871, p. 594.)]

Although, as already stated, originally discovered in Sierra Leone, the Yellow-backed Duiker seems to have a somewhat extended distribution along the western coast of Africa, reaching altogether from Liberia to the Congo. A pair of mounted specimens and a skeleton in the British Museum were transmitted from Fantee by the native collector Aubinn. The same collection also contains skins from Lagos, procured by Sir Alfred Moloney, and two skulls and a skin from Gaboon, brought to England by Mr. DuChaillu on his return from his celebrated gorilla-hunting expedition. Upon one of these skulls in 1865, Dr. Gray established his Cephalophus longiceps, and upon the second skull and the skin which accompanied it, in 1871, the same author based his C. melanoprymnus. Thomas has shown (P. Z. S. 1892, p. 416) that both these names are merely synonyms of, C. sylmcultrix. We may add we have as yet no information as to the range of this species into the interior, except that Herr Matschie has recorded its occurrence in Togoland; but it must be explained that our knowledge of the distribution of West-African mammals is still woefully deficient. As the same gentleman informs us, there is, besides several skins from Togoland, a stuffed example in the Berlin Museum sent by Herr Pechuel-Loesche from Longobondo.

Our illustration of this species on Plate XIII. is copied from a watercolour drawing taken in April 1894 by Keulemans, from a fine male specimen living in the Zoological Gardens of Rotterdam. As this animal was received from the Congo in June 1891 (presented by Heer A. de Bloeme) it must be necessarily quite adult. Mr. Keulemans’ notes on it are as follows:--“Head dark grey; neck grey, shading into brownish and becoming blackish near the shoulders; hairs of neck and head very short and glossy; general colour dark brown, with a bluish gloss, getting blacker on the buttocks, where the hairs are long; tail short and black; large plaque on the back and buttocks and tuft between the horns brownish ochre.” Our second figure (Plate XIV. fig. 2), which was prepared by Mr. Smit under Sir Victor Brooke’s directions, probably represents a young male of this species; but we do not know for certain from what specimen it was taken. The figure of Gray’s C. melanoprymnus in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1871 (pl. xliv.) was drawn from a still younger animal, probably of about the same stage as the figure of “C. punctulatus” in the ‘Knowsley Menagerie.’ It will be observed how greatly the colour of the back varies in these specimens of different ages.

May, 1895.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XV.

Smit del. et lith. Hanhart imp.

Jentink’s Duiker

CEPHALOPHUS JENTINKI.

Published by R. H. Porter.]

20. JENTINK’S DUIKER.

CEPHALOPHUS JENTINKI, THOS.

Antilope (Terpone) longiceps, =Jent.= N. L. M. vii. p. 272, pl. x. (animal) (1885) (nec Gray).

Terpone longiceps, =Jent.= N. L. M. x. p. 19, pl. i. (horns, ♀) (1887); =id.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 158 (1892); =Büttik.= Reiseb. a. Liberia, ii. p. 374 (1890).

Cephalophus jentinki, =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1892, p. 417; =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 213 (1893).

Size large, though smaller than C. sylvicultrix; form stout. Ears short, broad, and rounded. Colour of head, ears, neck all round as far back as the withers, throat, and a narrow sternal line deep uniform black; of body above and beneath coarsely grizzled grey, the hairs ringed with black and white. Lips and chin, a line all round the fore-quarters separating the black from the grey, axillæ, groins, fore and hind legs whitish; a rather darker mark running across the outer side of the forearm.

Skull much longer in proportion to the size of the animal than in C. sylvicultrix, agreeing, in fact, precisely in size with that of the larger species. In other respects also it agrees so closely with that of C. sylvicultrix that, had the external characters not been known, the two species would have been hardly supposed to be different. Such differences as there are, however, have been fully pointed out in Thomas’s monograph.

Horns long, tapering, placed in the line of the nasal profile, divergent as in C. sylvicultrix, those of female 6·1 inches long, base not specially thickened, basal diameter going about 5½ times in the length.

Dimensions:--♀. Height at withers 30 inches, ear 4, hind foot 12.

Skull (♀): basal length 10·5 inches, greatest breadth 5, muzzle to orbit 6·5

Hab. Liberia.

The present Duiker nearly equals the preceding species in size, but, as will be seen by the Plate, is immediately distinguishable by marked differences in colour, its black head and neck rendering it very conspicuous. Its discovery is due to Mr. F. X. Stampfli, a naturalist who made two expeditions to Liberia, in 1884 and 1886, to collect specimens for the Leyden Museum. In the first of these he was alone; in the second he was accompanied by Mr. Büttikofer, the well-known Conservator of that institution.