Dr. W. L. Abbott, who is thus alluded to, is an American naturalist and explorer who passed nearly two years, in 1888 and 1889, collecting objects of natural history in the district of Kilimanjaro. On his return to America Dr. Abbott presented his whole collection to the National Museum, which is under the charge of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. Mr. Frederick W. True, the Curator of the Department of Mammals, to whom was assigned the task of describing the collection, speaks of it as “one of high scientific value.” “The specimens,” he says, “have been prepared with much care, the skins being almost invariably accompanied by the skulls, and furnished with labels giving the locality and date of capture, the sex, and other data.” It included altogether about ninety skins and an equal number of skulls representing some thirty-eight species. Amongst these was a single male example of the present Antelope, no doubt the specimen alluded to by Mr. Hunter which is stated to have been killed at a high altitude on Kilimanjaro. As there is no specimen of this Antelope available for our use, we have, as already stated, extracted the more essential characteristics from Mr. True’s two accounts.
Mr. True was of opinion that C. spadix is closely allied to C. niger, and even possibly identical with it. We think, however, that its nearest relatives are probably C. natalensis and C. harveyi, from which it is at once distinguishable by its larger size.
May, 1895.
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XVI.
Wolf del. Smit lith.
Hanhart imp.
The Natal Duiker
CEPHALOPHUS NATALENSIS
Published by R. H. Porter.