OCR Text |
Show 1871.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE BUSH-BUCKS. 593 of my G. longiceps (P. Z. S. 1865, p. 205). The ears are moderate, rounded at the end, the outer surface covered with very short, close, deep-brown hairs, nearly naked within, except at the edge and end, which is bordered with short whitish hairs. Upper surface of the head pale brown, the nose deep brown, and forehead chocolate ; the upper parts of the cheeks are grey-brown, the lower part and chin whitish; a narrow, dark-edged, yellow-brown ray above the eye, and an elongate spot of the same colour under the orbit. The crest is divided into a central and lateral portions. The central portion is bright red, the lateral ones of hairs of two lengths, the shorter dark brown, and the longer bright red. He originally named this species Cephalophus ruficrista, but he has now changed it to C. longiceps. b. Antilope altifrons, Peters, Mossambique, p. 184, t. 38. f. 1 (skull of male). Hab. Mozambique (Peters). I see M . Bocage refers this figure to this group (I. c. p. 221). 3. CEPHALOPHUS. (Bush-goats.) Horns conical, recurved or ascending, short, and generally angular at the front of the base. Ears moderate, rounded at the end, covered with short hair. Skull short; forehead convex, swollen ; nasal bones triangular, wide behind and narrow and acute in front; preorbital pit very large. (Cat. Ungulata, t. 10. f. 1 [natalensis'], skull.) Fur varies greatly in different specimens. In some it is thin and closely adpressed, formed of more or less flattened hairs, which, in C. nigrifrons, are very broad and tapering to a point. In some, with the adpressed fur, as C. ogilbii, C. natalensis, and C. niger, the cheeks and neck have only extremely short fine hair on them ; others, as C. nigrifrons, have these parts covered with broad hairs like the body. Others are clothed with abundance of cylindrical hairs, varying in different degrees of softness ; in some they are more bristly, as in C. sylvicultrix, in others soft, sometimes with a few bristly hairs intermingled, as in C. pygmceus, C. max-wellii, and G. melanorheus. One species (C. melanoprymnus), which has a thick coat of moderately soft fur, has a crest of much longer hair extending along the whole length of the vertebral line, and a patch of softer hair over the base of the tail. I have made some remarks on the differences between the skulls of the various species of this genus in the observations appended to the description of C. longiceps (P.Z. S. 1865, p. 255). The specimens from Gaboon here described were purchased of M. du Chaillu. I do not find them mentioned in his published travels, nor in the list of animals which was published in America. Indeed in his journals he says there are no Antelopes found in that part of Africa ; but perhaps he does not consider Bush-bucks Antelopes. I suppose they are common, as he used the skins with the imperfect skin of his Potamochcerus albifrons to stuff out the body of his Tragelaphus albovittatus, in the skin of which they were sewn up. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1871, No. XXXVIII. |