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Show 4 DR. J. MURIE ON AN AFRICAN ANTELOPE. [Jan. 10, ance, and, while saving the life of his servant, perished himself in the attempt. Among Harnier's collection of objects transmitted to Germany were two skins of a large Antelope. One of these has been mounted, and now forms an elegant specimen in the Ducal Museum of Darmstadt ; and as this specimen possesses some interest from its probably representing or being closely allied to an animal shot by our lamented countryman the late Capt. Speke in Uganda* (the head and horns of which are deposited in the British Museum), I have ventured to bring the following notice of them before our Society. I am indebted to Prof. Dr. Kaup for permission to examine the stuffed and dried skins; and the very accurate water-colour drawing which I here exhibit to the Meeting is due to the artistic efforts of his skilled assistant and conservator, F. Kerz of Darmstadt. The accompanying lithographic plate (Pl. II.) is a reduced copy of that drawing, and demonstrates more clearly than would a description the appearance of the animal. It will be seen that in the general aspect of the form and coloration it approaches nearly to the Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) ; but it wants the whitish elliptical band over the croup and hips, so peculiar to that species; while this specimen has lightish-coloured rings above the hoofs, which is not the case in K. ellipsiprymnus. In other respects, as to horns and the umber-brown tint of the hair, the two bear a close resemblance. Compared with Riippell's description and figuref of Antilope de-fassa it agrees completely. But as Dr. Gray (P. Z. S. 1850, p. 131, and Knowsley Menagerie, 15) considers the A. defassa of Riippell to be but a synonym of his Kobus sing-sing, Harnier's Antelope therefore would thus come under the latter appellation. Moreover, from my own examination of a living K. sing-sing in the Antwerp Zoological Gardens (labelled Antilope unctuosa, Laur., a synonym), and two stuffed specimens in the British Museum, together with the head brought from Uganda by Capt. Speke identified with K. sing-sing by Dr. Sclater J, I confess, although at first having some misgivings as to the identity of the two White-Nile specimens in Darmstadt with the Sing-Sing of West Africa, that I cannot adduce proof of their separateness, but rather evidence of their specific affinity. The peculiar greasy-like cuticular transpiration in the living Sing-sing, well named A. unctuosa by Laurillard, was a point which at first particularly struck me ; for in both skins in the Darmstadt Museum, there is neither to the touch nor look any appearance or remnant of such a secretion, whereas in the mounted specimens in the British Museum, and even in the head from Uganda, this character is to a certain extent notable. The cause of this secretion mav be worthy of investigation; it is so copious in the live animal that the * Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile, 1863, p. 471. f ' Neue Wirbelthiere zu der Fauna von Abyssinien gehorig' (1835-40), Saugethiere, vol. i. p. 9, pl. 3. X Figured in ' Proc. Zool. Soc.' 1864, p. 102. |