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Show 794 ON A WEST-AFRICAN KOB ANTELOPE. [June 20, 5. On a West-African Kob Antelope. By R. LYDEKKER. [Received June 1, 1899.] (Plate LIII.) Amoug a series of specimens from Sierra Leone recently offered for purchase to the Natural History Museum are the skull and skin of a small female Kob (Plate LIII.) which do not agree with those of any species of the genus Cobus hitherto described. The entire specimen was obtained, together with examples of G. cob, between the Great and Little Scarries Bivers, in the Sierra Leone Hinterland. The skull, which is slightly larger than that of the female Kob described as Cobus senganus, indicates an adult animal. And since it presents all the characters of the skull of the above-named genus, while the skin is likewise similar in general characters to the pelage of other Kobs, the serial position of the animal may be taken for granted. In size this K o b was approximately the same as the Senga Kob, or Buffon's Kob ; and it evidently belongs to the same subsection of the genus. From the Puku and Senga Kob (or Puku) it is distinguished by the black on the front surface of the fore legs and tbe lower portion of the hind pair; the hair also is shorter. The markings and plan of coloration are very similar to those of G. cob, but, instead of being uniformly foxy, the general colour of the middle of the back is dark chocolate-brown, gradually turning into tawny on the flanks, and thence into the dirty white of the abdomen. The leg-markings are similar to those of G. cob, the white rings on each fetlock being very distinct. There is also a similar white ring round the eyes. The hair on the withers and lower part of the neck is reversed. So far as I can see, the skin indicates an animal closely allied to G. cob, but distinguished markedly by its colour. As the skin is not mounted, it is impossible to ascertain whether any differences in addition to coloration distinguish the two. But since I am not aware of the prevalence of melanism as an individual character of foxy antelopes, it appears highly probable that the skin and skull under consideration indicate an undescribed form. Whether the difference be of specific or subspecitic value, it is hard to say ; but, assuming its right to distinction, the form represented by the aforesaid skull and skin may be named Cobus nigricans. I may add that among the same collection are also specimens of G. cob, a species of which the Museum has hitherto had no adult examples. I may likewise take this opportunity of mentioning that Mr. R. T. Coryndon has lately presented to the Museum male and female skins of a Kob from Barotse-land which I identify with C. senganus, described on the evidence of a female skull and skin obtaiued on the upper Loangwe river, westward of the northern end of Lake |