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Show 1889.] DR. A. GUNTHER ON A N E W ANTELOPE. 73 4. Description of a new Antelope from Southern Central Africa. By Dr. A. G U N T H E R , F.R.S., Keeper of the Zoological Department, British Museum. [Received February 18, 1889.] A short time ago Mr. Morton Green, a resident and J.P. in Natal, brought to the Museum, beside several other interesting horns of Antelopes, a very singular head of a type of Antelope which evidently has hitherto escaped observation. Mr. Green stated that he had never seen the like of it during the thirty years he resided on the frontiers of Natal, nor could he ascertain from any hunter that he had seen the Antelope alive. He obtained this specimen many years ago through a hunter who went trading for him into the Zambezi region. This man told him that he had bartered it from a native chief who told him that the animal was extremely scarce. Mr. Green not being able to obtain any further information in the colony, has brought it now to England, with the object of seeing it deposited in a public Museum, where the information as to the mode of its acquisition would be preserved. The horns are evidently those of a very old animal; of the skull, unfortunately, only a portion of the frontal bones is preserved. The horns are gently curved backwards, showing the slightest indication of a twist near to the top; they measure thirty-one inches along the curve, and thirty in a straight line from the base to the tip. The distance of their ends is twenty-two inches. A transverse section taken three inches from their base would represent a triangle, the posterior side of which is slightly longer than the outer one; at this portion the horn is broader from side to side than from the front backwards. In about the middle of the length of the horn the transverse section becomes an isosceles triangle, passing into a circular shape in the last fourth of the length. The trihedral shape of the basal half of the horn is produced by a prominent, but obtuse ridge in front of the horn; this ridge is in the median line at the base of the horn, runs then a little inside of the median line for a short distance, and is finally directed towards the outside of the horn, disappearing altogether in the distal conical portion. The posterior side of the horn is remarkably flat and broad. The annulations are distinct only in the basal portion aud very obscure further on, the distal half being smooth. The annuli are very low, separated from each other by shallow grooves, and provided with narrow concentric wrinkles on the posterior side of the horn. The cranial base of the horns is broad and flat, without enlargement of the bone. The least distance between the bases of the horns is two and a half inches. The supraciliary foramina are situated opposite to the middle of each horn, distant from it about one- inch. The distance between these foramina is three inches. Of the known genera of Antelopes none approach this singular type more nearly than Tragelaphus. Tragelaphus has, likewise |
