Part 69

Antilope ptox and burchelli, =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. pp. 417, 420 (1845).

Sylvicapra mergens, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Hand-l. 1844, p. 190 (1846); =id.= Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 142; Reprint, p. 66 (1848); =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 167 (1869).

Cephalophus campbelliæ, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 164 (1846); =id.= Knowsl. Men. p. 9 (1850); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850, p. 121; =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 80 (1852); =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 194 (1853); =Gerr.= Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 237 (1862).

Cephalophus grimmia, =Gray=, Knowsl. Men. p. 8, pls. i., ii. (animal) (1850); =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 78 (1852); =Gerr.= Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 237 (1862); =Blyth=, Cat. Mamm. As. Soc. p. 167 (1863); =Buckley=, P. Z. S. 1876, p. 283, 1877, p. 453 (distribution).

Antilope altifrons and ocularis, =Pet.= Säug. Mozamb. pp. 184–186, pls. xxxvii., xxxviii., xxxix., xli. fig. 1, xlii. fig. 1 (animal & skull, ♂ ♀) (1852); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Suppl. v. pp. 418–420 (1855).

Cephalophus altifrons, =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 194 (1853); =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 166 (1869).

Cephalophus ocularis, =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 194 (1853); =Kirk=, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 656; =Crawshay=, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 661; =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 208 (1893).

Antilope (Cephalolophus) campbelliæ, =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Supp. v. p. 419 (1855).

Sylvicapra mergens, caffra, campbelliæ, and ocularis, =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, pp. 167, 168 (1869).

Grimmia nictitans, irrorata, splendidula, burchelli, and campbelliæ, =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1871, pp. 589, 592, fig. 1 (skull); =id= Cat. Rum. B. M. pp. 22–24 (1872); =id.= Hand-1. Rum. B.M. pp.92, 93 (1873).

Cephalophus grimmius, =Bocage=, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 743 (Angola).

Grimmia ocularis, =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 132 (1887); =id.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 161 (1892).

Grimmia mergens, =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 132 (1887); =id.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 161 (1892); =id.= N. L. M. xv. p. 265 (1893) (Cunene R.).

Cephalophus grimmii, =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1892, p. 428; =Ward=, Horn Meas. p. 76 (1892); =Nicolls & Egl.= Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 27, pl. vii. fig. 26 (head) (1892); =Lyd.= Horns & Hoofs, p. 207 (1893); =Thos.= P. Z. S. 1893, p. 504 (Nyasa); =Jackson= in Badm. Big Game Shooting, i. pp. 285, 308 (1894) (E. Africa).

Cephalophus grimmia flavescens, =Lorenz=, Ann. Mus. Wien, ix. p. 60, 1895 (Victoria Falls of Zambezi).

VERNACULAR NAMES:--Duiker and Duiker-bok of Dutch and English colonists (Thunberg, Burchell, &c.); Puti of Bechuanas; Impunzi or Impuzi of Matabili [also of Zulus and Swazis (Rendall)]; Pembgee of Makalakas; Unsa of Masubias and Makubas; Insea of Batongas; Goowah of Masaras (Selous); Nyassa in Sena (Peters); Insa of Anyanja; Gwapi of Ajawa; Nyiska of Atonga; Yisya of Ahenga (Crawshay); Ngruvu of E. African Swahilis (Jackson).

Size medium; form much more delicate and slender than in any of the species hitherto considered. Ears long, longer than the distance from the anterior canthus to the tip of the nose, their tip narrow and pointed. General colour of body pale greyish brown, sometimes with a yellowish tinge, but very variable in tone; more or less grizzled, owing to the hairs being annulated with yellowish and brown. Face rufous or yellowish, with a deep brown longitudinal patch on the nasal region, rarely extending upwards to the bases of the horns. Throat and belly like back. Chin, inner sides of fore arms and of thighs, and underside of tail whitish or pure white. Front of fore legs with a brownish line running down them to the hoofs. Metapodials brown. Tail black above and white below, but the base above is commonly coloured like the back.

Horns normally present only in male. These (see fig. 22, p. 207) are set up at a considerable angle to the line of the nasal profile, slender, tapering, attaining to about 5 inches in length, their bases roughened but not markedly thickened, their greatest basal diameter going about 6 or 7 times in their length.

Skull long and narrow. Anteorbital fossæ of medium depth, their border above generally rounded, not sharply ridged. Muzzle long, the distance from the anterior edge of the orbit to the gnathion much exceeding the greatest zygomatic breadth. Mesial notch of palate extending some way in front of the lateral ones.

Dimensions:--♂. Height at withers 23 inches, ear 4·3, hind foot 10·3.

Skull: basal length 7·2 inches, greatest breadth 3·3, anterior rim of orbit to muzzle 4·4.

Hab. South Africa, extending on the west northwards to Angola and on the east up to British East Africa and Somaliland.

The little Antelope called at the Cape the “Duiker” or “Diver,” not from its going into the water, but from its “diving” so quickly into the bushes when alarmed, has been more or less perfectly known to the naturalists of Europe for the past 200 years. Described by Grimm in 1686 as the Capra sylvestris africana it was dedicated to that naturalist by Linnæus, when he adopted the binomial system, as the Capra or Moschus grimmia. This term, slightly modified in accordance with modern usage, we propose to adopt as its specific name. Other early names bestowed upon it were Antilope nictitans by Thunberg, of whose travels to the Cape we have already spoken, and Antilope mergens by Blainville, while various appellations, which are specified in our synonymy, were given to this species and its varieties by Andrew Smith, Hamilton Smith, Gray, and Fitzinger.

Skull of Cephalophus grimmi.

(P.Z.S. 1871, p. 591.)]

In his important work on the ‘Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa,’ as they existed in 1836 and 1837, Cornwallis Harris figures the “Duiker” as a companion of the Pallah and speaks of it as common throughout the Cape Colony, especially towards the sea-coast, among the bushes and brush-wood. This experienced observer states that every female specimen of the Duiker that he had seen possessed short horns, nearly, if not totally obscured by the tuft on the head; this, we shall see, is contrary to the observations of some other writers. From the text of Harris’s volume we extract his lively account of the Duiker and its habits:--“The smaller Antelope, delineated in the annexed plate, is a denizen of the same locale as the Pallah; and although claiming from its diminutive stature an extremely limited portion of attention, was yet never neglected when accident placed it in our way. The pair which furnished the originals of this portrait were on my own shoulders borne three miles to the waggons from one of the central steppes of the Cashan mountains, whither, having gone out alone, I killed the buck as he sat on a projecting ledge--knocking over his disconsolate relict with the second barrel as she stood gazing in mute amazement at her mate’s death-struggles. The pasterns of this robust and sturdy little animal, which are singularly rigid, have the appearance of being encased in Blucher’s, or ancle boots; two other of its most remarkable features being the long suborbital slit that traverses the whole length of its Roman features, and the pencilled toupet of bright fulvous hair arising from the forehead, neither of which occur in any other Antelopes. Writers have noticed three distinct species of the Duiker, but the peculiarities in the horns that have led to this division are so trivial that I should rather feel disposed to place them to the score of age, disease, or accident, few specimens being exactly alike. The animal is extremely common in many parts of the Cape Colony, and on the outskirts of the deep forests which border the sea-coast especially. Here on my return from the interior, I killed several--and found it even more abundant than beyond the boundary. Occurring either singly or in pairs, the little dwarf is usually found crouching amid the shelter of bushy localities, and the dexterity with which it seeks to foil its pursuers among the intricacies of these, has gained for it the Dutch soubriquet in which it rejoices. Aroused from its snug form, the ‘Artful Dodger’ clears with one vigorous and elastic bound the nearest bush, and diving low on the other side among the heather and brushwood, continues alternately leaping and plunging whilst it flies straight as a dart to the nearest thicket--before seeking an asylum in which, and not unfrequently also during its retreat, it rises like the hare upon its hinder legs, and having thus reconnoitred the foe above the intervening vegetation, wheels with an impatient sneeze to the right about, and proceeds ducking and bounding as before.

“The approved Colonial mode of hunting the Duiker-bok is with dogs--and whilst thus topping the covert, or darting from one copse to another, the little wretch, despite of all its dodging and artifice, is easily slain with a hatful of buckshot discharged from a piece of ordnance of such calibre, that four fingers might be introduced without much squeezing! Like the rest of the Cape venison, the flesh is utterly destitute of fat, a deficiency which the thrifty Dutch housewife seeks to remedy with her usual skill by calling in the aid of a sheep’s tail. The animal is often to be seen running tame about the farm-houses, but it never ceases, even in a domestic state, to take the note of alarm from the least sound to which it has been unaccustomed--thunder invariably causing it to fly to the nearest shelter in order to hide itself away.”

As regards the Duiker in the Cape Colony at the present time, we are assured by Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington that it is still, next to the Steinbuck, the most common and widely distributed of the smaller Antelopes, being found sometimes in pairs, but more frequently singly in every suitable locality from Table Bay to the Zambezi. As a rule, these observers tell us, the Duikers of Cape Colony and Griqualand West are smaller and lighter in colour than those found further north. In certain portions of the Kalihari Desert they are very common, and attain their largest size, some specimens obtained by these gentlemen having measured 28 inches at the shoulder.