Part 59

Ogilby’s Duiker, which we now proceed to consider, is closely allied to the last species, and like it is of a generally rufous colour with a black dorsal stripe, but it is immediately distinguishable by its pale yellowish face and flanks. It was first described by Waterhouse, as long ago as 1838, from specimens presented to the Zoological Society’s Museum by Mr. George Knapp, who had received them from the island of Fernando Po, and was named after William Ogilby, formerly Secretary to the Society and a great authority upon the Ruminant Mammals. When the Zoological Society’s Museum was broken up the typical specimen passed into the British Museum, where it now is. About ten years afterwards Ogilby’s Duiker was figured by Fraser in his ‘Zoologia Typica,’ probably from the typical specimen. Fraser, who had visited Fernando Po himself, states that this Antelope is extremely common in that island and is much esteemed by the natives as an article of food. In his conjecture that its range “is confined to that island,” he was no doubt in error, as we have several trustworthy notices of its occurrence elsewhere.

Specimens of the present species are recorded by Dr. Jentink as having been procured on the Du Queah and Farmington Rivers in Liberia by Büttikofer and Stampfli. These are in the Leyden Museum, as is also a female specimen from Ashantee. In his ‘Reisebilder aus Liberia’ Büttikofer tells us that the present species is common in the Liberian forests.

In the Cameroons the present species has been met with by the German collectors Preuss and Morgan, as recorded by Herr Matschie, and in Togoland, on the same authority, by Kling and Büttner. Thus there can be little doubt that Ogilby’s Duiker ranges along the woody littoral of Western Africa from Liberia to the Cameroons.

Ogilby’s Duiker having been figured by Waterhouse Hawkins in the ‘Knowsley Menagerie’ it is probable that one or more living specimens of it were exhibited in that splendid collection, but we can find no record of examples of it ever having been received alive by the Zoological Society of London.

Our figure of this species (Plate XVIII. fig. 2) was prepared by Mr. Smit, under Sir Victor Brooke’s directions, probably from specimens in the British Museum, but of this we have no certain evidence.

May, 1895.

28. PETERS’S DUIKER.

CEPHALOPHUS CALLIPYGUS, PET.

Cephalophus callipygus, =Pet.= MB. Ak. Berl. 1876, p. 483, pls. iii. & iv. (animal and skull); =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1892, p. 422; =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 211 (1893).

VERNACULAR NAME:--Mbindi in Mpongwe language, Gaboon (Buchholz).

Size about that of C. dorsalis. General colour of body yellowish brown, becoming more rufous posteriorly. Forehead and crest rich rufous. Chin and throat white, rest of under surface yellowish grey. Back with a broad black dorsal band commencing behind the withers, broadening posteriorly, and involving the whole of the hams and backs of the hind legs down to the heels, and also the tail, with the exception of the extreme tip beneath, where the hairs are white-tipped. On the sides of the thighs, edging the black, the general body-colour becomes rich rufous.

Horns short, directed backwards, lying below the level of the nasal profile.

Dimensions:--♀. “Total length to tip of tail 46 inches, tail 8, ear 2·7.”

Skull (taken from figure, and therefore only approximate): basal length 6·4 inches, anterior edge of orbit to muzzle (more or less decreased by perspective) 3·8.

The description is compiled from Dr. Peters’s description and figure of this striking species, of which no specimen has come to England.

Hab. Gaboon.

The present Duiker, although evidently belonging to the same group as the preceding species, and probably most nearly allied to C. dorsalis, is separated by prominent well-marked characters, combining a brownish body and dark dorsal stripe with bright rufous markings on the forehead and haunches, which render it easily distinguishable.

Peters’s Duiker was described in 1876 by the great zoologist after whom we have fashioned its English name, from a single specimen obtained by the late Professor Dr. Reinhold Buchholz during his sojourn in Western Africa, and transmitted to the Berlin Museum. In his notes upon this species Peters informs us that the specimen described, which is an adult female, was brought to Buchholz alive in Gaboon on the 18th August, 1874, and lived two days in captivity. Buchholz stated that the name of this Antelope in the Mpongwe dialect was “Mbindi” and noted that the iris was brown, the muffle blackish, and that the animal was provided with large purse-like inguinal glands, like other species of the genus.

Peters has given a good coloured figure of the specimen in the ‘Monatsbericht’ of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, in which his memoir on Buchholz’s mammals is published, and likewise an excellent figure of its skull of the natural size.

We are not aware that any other museum has been fortunate enough to obtain specimens of this rare Antelope.

May, 1895.

29. THE RED-FLANKED DUIKER.

CEPHALOPHUS RUFILATUS, GRAY.

Le Grimm, =F. Cuv.= H. N. Mamm. (fol.) ii. livr. xxvii. (♂) (1821).

Antilope grimmia, =Desm.= N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 191 (1816) (nec Pall.); =id.= Mamm. ii. p. 464 (1822); =Less.= Man. Mamm. p. 379 (1827); =H. Sm.= Cuv. An. K. iv. p. 266, v. p. 347 (1827); =Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 468 (1829); =Less.= Hist. Nat. Mamm. (Compl. Buff.) x. p. 294 (1836); =Gerv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. Suppl. i. p. 262 (1840); =Less.= N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 178 (1842); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 451 (1844); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 418 (1845); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 321 (1859).

Cephalophus grimmia, =A. Sm.= S. Afr. Quart. J. ii. p. 216 (1834).

Antilope (Grimmia) grimmia, =Laurill.= Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 623 (1839).

Sylvicapra grimmia, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844, p. 190 (1846); =id.= Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 142; =id.= Reprint, p. 66 (1848).