Part 53

The Black-headed Duiker was first described by Dr. Jentink, the Director of the Leyden Museum, in 1885, from a single female specimen procured near Schieffelinsville, on the Junk River, by Stampfli in the preceding year. Unfortunately Dr. Jentink referred the specimen to C. longiceps of Gray, a species based on a skull brought home from Gaboon by Mr. DuChaillu. In doing this he was perfectly justified, on account of the extraordinarily close resemblance of its skull to that of C. longiceps. But Thomas subsequently showed that DuChaillu’s Gaboon skull (as already mentioned above) is undoubtedly referable to the nearly allied C. sylvicultrix. Under these circumstances it became necessary to give another scientific name to the present species, and Thomas selected the appropriate term jentinki; as it was Dr. Jentink’s “carefulness, led astray by Dr. Gray’s serious mistakes,” that had “caused him to make the venial error just referred to.”

During his second expedition, in 1887, Mr. Stampfli procured two more examples of this Antelope on the Farmington River. Like the first, both these were females, and, as we are told by Dr. Jentink, do not differ in colour from the typical specimen. Mr. Stampfli’s notes on this Antelope are as follows:--

“A little below Schieffelinsville, in the triangle between the Junk River on one side and its two confluents, the Du Queah and Farmington Rivers, on the other, a wooded eminence called ‘Sharp Hill’ rises in the middle of the marshes, to which, according to the testimony of the natives, these animals are restricted. As in the dry season the marshes cannot be traversed in canoes, and yet are not sufficiently dry to be passed on foot, these Antelopes can only be obtained in the rainy season, and it is said to be quite an exception for a specimen to be procured except during that period.”

In the second volume of Mr. Büttikofer’s ‘Reisebilder aus Liberia,’ which contains a complete account of the explorations and discoveries of himself and his companions in that country, will be found some additional details on this Antelope. Mr. Büttikofer calls particular attention to the large size of the inguinal glands between the belly and the thigh in this Antelope. They are so large that they will easily contain a lemon. These are said to be fat-glands, from which the beast extracts fat with its muzzle to lubricate its short, shining, hairy coat. Mr. Büttikofer also says that this Antelope, although only obtained from Sharp Hill, certainly occurs in other parts of Liberia.

Our figure of this Bush-Duiker (Plate XV.) has been prepared by Mr. Smit from the mounted specimen in the British Museum, which is the type of the species. It is one of the three specimens obtained in Liberia by Mr. Stampfli, the other two remaining at Leyden. We believe that these are the only three specimens of this rare Antelope existing in any European museum.

May, 1895.

21. ABBOTT’S DUIKER.

CEPHALOPHUS SPADIX, TRUE.

Cephalophus spadix, =True=, Pr. U.S. Nat. Mus. xiii. p. 227 (1890); =id.= op. cit. xv. p. 473, pl. lxxviii. (animal), pl. lxxix. (skull) (1892); =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1892, p. 418; =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 209 (1893); =Jackson=, in Badm. Libr. Big Game Shooting, i. p. 285 (1894).

Size comparatively large. General colour dusky chestnut-brown without spots or bands, and not lighter on the belly. Forehead dusky brown, like body; chin and throat pale greyish brown. Hairs of crest chestnut-red at the base, and tipped with black: mingled with them are some hairs which are dusky throughout, and others pure white. Anterior surfaces of the legs somewhat lighter than the posterior surfaces. Tail dusky, except at the tip, where there are a few pure white hairs.

Skull elongate; muzzle slender; frontal region strongly convex.

Horns “directed backwards, and lying below the plane of the upper surface of the skull”; those of male 4½ inches long; slender, straight, not thickened at the base in front.

Dimensions:--♂. Head and body 38 inches, ear 4¼, hind foot (hoof to hock) 9½.

Skull: basal length, from occipital condyle, 8·5 inches; greatest breadth 4; nasals, length 3·7.

This description has been compiled from Mr. True’s two notices and from his figures of the animal and its skull, as we have not as yet had any opportunity of seeing examples of the species, of which no specimen has come to Europe.

Hab. East Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro, at high elevations (Abbott).

We now proceed to consider the smaller Duikers of the section with horns slanting backwards. These are generally of a rufous colour, varied by more or less intense dark markings on the face and dorsal line, only C. doriæ, which we place by itself, having the back transversely barred.

Sir John Willoughby’s volume on ‘East Africa and its Big Game’ gives an excellent account of the adventures of himself and a party of friends during a shooting-expedition to the hunting-grounds of Kilimanjaro and its neighbourhood, and of the great variety and enormous quantity of the larger mammals to be met with, a few years ago, in that district. In an appendix to the volume, contributed by Mr. H. C. V. Hunter, F.Z.S., is added a systematic account of the principal mammals met with on the plains round Kilimanjaro and on the mountain itself, amongst which we find recorded such splendid Antelopes as the Eland, Koodoo, Oryx, Hartebeest, Gnu, Pallah, Waterbuck, Reedbuck, and three kinds of Gazelle. At the close of the list Mr. Hunter notes the occurrence, high up on Kilimanjaro, of a species of Cephalophus “of a dark red colour, much larger than the Common Duiker (C. grimmi). A male of this probably new Antelope, it is stated, had been killed by Dr. Abbott.” This, so far as we know, is the first published mention of the species of which we now speak as Abbott’s Duiker.

Dr. W. L. Abbott, who is thus alluded to, is an American naturalist and explorer who passed nearly two years, in 1888 and 1889, collecting objects of natural history in the district of Kilimanjaro. On his return to America Dr. Abbott presented his whole collection to the National Museum, which is under the charge of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. Mr. Frederick W. True, the Curator of the Department of Mammals, to whom was assigned the task of describing the collection, speaks of it as “one of high scientific value.” “The specimens,” he says, “have been prepared with much care, the skins being almost invariably accompanied by the skulls, and furnished with labels giving the locality and date of capture, the sex, and other data.” It included altogether about ninety skins and an equal number of skulls representing some thirty-eight species. Amongst these was a single male example of the present Antelope, no doubt the specimen alluded to by Mr. Hunter which is stated to have been killed at a high altitude on Kilimanjaro. As there is no specimen of this Antelope available for our use, we have, as already stated, extracted the more essential characteristics from Mr. True’s two accounts.

Mr. True was of opinion that C. spadix is closely allied to C. niger, and even possibly identical with it. We think, however, that its nearest relatives are probably C. natalensis and C. harveyi, from which it is at once distinguishable by its larger size.

May, 1895.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XVI.

Wolf del. Smit lith. Hanhart imp.

The Natal Duiker

CEPHALOPHUS NATALENSIS

Published by R. H. Porter.]

22. THE NATAL DUIKER.

CEPHALOPHUS NATALENSIS, A. SMITH.