OCR Text |
Show 452 DR. GUNTHER ON CERVUS EQUINUS. [June 15, register1. Having examples of both sexes we naturally expected that the male would put on in the spring the chestnut breast and full breeding-plumage portrayed by Mr. Gould in his figure of that sex. Such, however, has not been the case ; little change has occurred except the brightening of the colour; and, as far as I can make out, the birds do not belong to A. punctata at all, but to A. gibberifrons, Miiller, a species closely resembling the female of A. punctata, which has lately been ascertained to occur in Australia 2. Mr. Sclater exhibited the skin of an Antelope received from the Gaboon, of which Mr. Wolf has prepared a coloured drawing, and remarked that it appeared to belong to the female of an undescribed species of Tragelaphus allied to Tragelaphus spekii, which he proposes to name TRAGELAPHUS GRATUS, sp. nov. (Plate XLIV.) Fur long and coarse, as in T. spekii, of a deep rich chestnut, paler on belly ; dorsal line dark; chin, three spots on the sides of the head, throat, wide band across the neck, inside of limbs, under surface of tail, and three or four longitudinal series of spots on each side of the body (sometimes running into lines) white; feet with a dark line in front; hoofs much elongated, as in T. spekii. Length of skin from the tip of nose to base of tail 6 inches, tail 6, tarsus 8, ear 4. Obs. This fine Antelope is obviously nearly allied to T. spekii, and belongs to the same division of the genus, characterized by the long coarse hair and long tarsus and toes, which indicate aquatic and marsh-loving habits. The generic term Hydrotragus, Gray (Cat. Rum. 1872, p. 49), should be perhaps employed for these two species. The skin, which I now exhibit, was sent to Mr. R. W. Roulston, the Society's agent at Liverpool, by one of his correspondents at Gaboon, who asked whether such an Antelope would be required for the Menagerie. I have requested Mr. Roulston to procure a skin and horns of the male animal, and hope to receive them shortly. Dr. Gunther exhibited a series of horn's of Cervus equinus (S. Miiller), collected by H. Brooke Low, Esq., in Sarawak. He pointed out the variation in the spread of the horns and in the direction and comparative length of the snags, and expressed his entire agreement with the view held by Blyth (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1869, p. 659), viz. that the Bornean Sambur was but a small race of the Indian Cervus aristotelis, at least as far as he was enabled to judge from the horns and skulls. He also exhibited for comparison a pair of horns with frontlet of an adult Sambur killed in Bengal, which, as regards size, were even inferior to those of tbe Borneaii5 Deer. 1 See P. Z. S. 1879, p. 827. 2 See Dr. Puller's 'Birds of New Zealand,' p. 251. |