The eminent Swedish naturalist, Adam Afzelius, a pupil of Linnæus, and subsequently editor of his master’s autobiography, resided for two years (1792–94) on the West Coast of Africa, as botanist to the Sierra Leone Company. Amongst numerous papers embracing the results of his researches on the West-African fauna and flora, he published in 1815, in the ‘Nova Acta’ of the Royal Society of Sciences of Upsala, a learned treatise on Antelopes generally, and specially upon those of Guinea. In the course of this memoir he described and figured for the first time the present species, calling it Antilope silvicultrix, as being the “Bush-Goat” of the colonists. Afzelius speaks of it as not uncommon in the hills round Sierra Leone, particularly in the districts adjoining the rivers Pongas and Quia. Here it is not met with among the rocks, but inhabits the lower tracts of the bush, either solitary or, in the rutting-season, in pairs, and occasionally in small herds. It hides itself in the bush by daytime, but comes out in the early morning to feed in the open spaces, where the hunters lie in wait for it. Its flesh is stated to be much esteemed as food, although it has a strong musky scent, particularly at certain seasons of the year.
After Afzelius subsequent authors were for many years content to copy his notes and description, and we get no further information on the subject till we come to 1850, when the species was figured in the ‘Knowsley Menagerie’ by Waterhouse Hawkins from specimens living in that magnificent collection. In this set of drawings it appears twice—first on plate viii. fig. 1 (erroneously named Cephalophus punctulatus), which seems to have been taken from a young individual of this Antelope; and secondly on plate xxiii. fig. 3, as Cephalophus sylvicultrix, in which the adult, or at any rate a more advanced stage, is represented. At the date of the sale of the Knowsley Menagerie in 1851 it does not seem that any specimens of this Antelope were left in the collection; but a young example, no doubt one of those that died in the Menagerie, had been presented by Lord Derby to the Zoological Society of London, whence it subsequently passed into the collection of the British Museum. From the labels on this and other specimens we learn that they were obtained by Whitfield, a well-known collector formerly in the employment of Lord Derby, at Sierra Leone.
Little further information respecting this species is available until 1870, when the Zoological Society, on March 24th, purchased a single living example of it from Cross of Liverpool, as recorded in the Society’s ‘Proceedings’ (P. Z. S. 1870, p. 220). This animal, however, did not live long in the Society’s Menagerie, as it died on the 14th July of the same year. Its body was disposed of to Mr. E. Gerrard, jr., by whom it was stuffed and sold to the Melbourne Museum.
Fig. 16.
Skull of Cephalophus sylvicultrix, ad.
(P. Z. S. 1865, p. 205.)
The only modern authority that speaks of this Antelope is Mr. Büttikofer, of the Leyden Museum, who made two zoological voyages to Liberia in 1880 and 1886. In Dr. Jentink’s list of the Liberian mammals obtained by Mr. Büttikofer and his fellow collectors in Liberia (Notes Leyden Mus. vol. x. p. 20) it is recorded that Cephalophus sylvicultrix is said to occur sparingly on the Jackson and Mahfa rivers in that country, but to be more common on the Manna and Solyman rivers. But Mr. Büttikofer, in spite of all his efforts, did not succeed in obtaining specimens.
Fig. 16 a.