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Show 1899.] ON SCORPIONS ETC. FROM TROPICAL WEST AFRICA. 833 could be arrived at. Now at the time this opinion was given my knowledge of the Blue-buck and its habits was but slight; but during m y residence in tbe Cape Colony I have studied them very carefully, and I am now able to advance further reasons why I am convinced that this K w a w a Antelope was not C. monticola. At first I could only point to the entirely different coloration, tbe K w a w a specimen being a warm yellowish-red, with pure white underparts, and a wash of the mouse-grey colour, peculiar to C. monticola, on the frontals and nape of the neck; but it is now evident to m e that the habits of the two are quite dissimilar, the K w a w a Antelope being very restricted in its range, more partial to open clearings, less shy, and a less pronounced browser, while its movements are springy and more resemble those of Nesotragus livingstonianus, for which Antelope I and m y native followers at first mistook it. However, I hope soon to secure other specimens, and until then it is idle to speculate upon the subject. 2. On the Scorpions, Pedipalps, and Spiders from Tropical West Africa represented in the Collection of the British Museum. By R. I. POCOCK. [Eeceived May 24, 1899.] (Plates LY.-LVIII.) With the exception of the Attida? and of some of the more obscure species of other families, which I have not attempted to determine, this paper contains a record of the Arachnida belonging to the Orders Scorpiones, Pedipalpi, and Aranese, now contained in the British Museum, which have been collected at various times in West Africa between Senegambia in the north and the Congo in the south. Senegambia has been fixed as the northern limit, because it is at that point that the western Ethiopian fauna blends wdth the western Mediterranean fauna. From the countries lying to the south of the Congo we have very little material; hence this river has been regarded as the southern limit of the area of which the fauna is discussed in the following pages. By far the richest collection, both as regards numbers of specimens and species, that we have received from this area is the one that has been sent in instalments during the past twelve months by Mr. Cr. L. Bates from the Benito Biver in French Congo. This collector, whose name has already been frequently mentioned in the pages of the ' Proceedings' in connection with various rare mammals that he has procured, has been wonderfully successful in his search after Spiders, having sent home representatives of many new species, and added to the National Collection several others which, although previously known, had never found their way into our cabinets. |
