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Show 1 9 0 4 .] ON THE FOREST-PIG OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 193 24. C e p h a lo p h u s m e la n o rh e u s Gray. d . 2 juv. 109. Bilelipi, 10 m. c? • 149, 155, 157, 164. 2- 150, 154. N. Bantabiri, 1800 m. c?. 76. $ . 145. Bubi Town, Bantabiri, 500 m. 2 . 60, 66. Bantabiri, 10 m. E X P L AN A T IO N OF PLATE X I I I . 8 cotonycteris bedfordi, p. 187. 2. On Hylochosrus, the Forest-Pig of Central Africa. By O l d f i e l d T h o m a s , F.R.S., F.Z.S. [Received October 13, 1904.] (Plates XIY. & XV.*) For some years, dating from the discovery of the Okapi, it has been known to zoologists that the natives of the Semliki and other Central African forests had stories to tell about a large piglike animal, of whose size and ferocity they gave rather highly-coloured accounts. Such stories were first brought to Sir H. Stanley t during his Emin relief expedition of 1888-90, and later on to Sir Harry Johnston + (who thought they might possibly refer to a Pigmy Hippopotamus), to Mr. F. J. Jackson, Mr. W. D. Doggett, and others. More recently Lieut. R. Meinertzhagen, of the East-African Rifles, hearing tales of this Forest-Pig, determined to secure specimens of it for our National Museum, and it is to his perseverance and generosity that we are indebted for the specimens which form the subject of the present paper. The following extracts from Lieut. Meinertzhagen's letters to Prof. Ray Lankester will show under what circumstances he obtained the specimens here described :- " I was on an expedition near Mount Kenya last February and one of my men, who had been tracking cattle in the bamboos (about 8000 ft.), reported having killed in the forest a large animal which he greatly exaggerated as to size. I sent him back next day to see if he could bring in any of the beast. He found that the Wanderobo had got one and had cut the animal up. He, however, brought back two pieces of skin §, which was undoubtedly pig-skin, but of no pig with which I was acquainted. The Masai know the animal well and call it ‘ Elguia.' On moving * For explanation of the Plates, see p. 199. t Cf. Johnston, in Cornish's ‘ Living Animals of the World,' i. p. 267 (1902). x P. Z. S. 1904, i. p. 228. § " It was a sow, as the natives had left 2 fcetuses." P roc. Z ool. Soc.-1904, V ol. II. No. XIII. 13 |
