Hab. South Africa, extending on the west northwards to Angola and on the east up to British East Africa and Somaliland.
The little Antelope called at the Cape the “Duiker” or “Diver,” not from its going into the water, but from its “diving” so quickly into the bushes when alarmed, has been more or less perfectly known to the naturalists of Europe for the past 200 years. Described by Grimm in 1686 as the Capra sylvestris africana it was dedicated to that naturalist by Linnæus, when he adopted the binomial system, as the Capra or Moschus grimmia. This term, slightly modified in accordance with modern usage, we propose to adopt as its specific name. Other early names bestowed upon it were Antilope nictitans by Thunberg, of whose travels to the Cape we have already spoken, and Antilope mergens by Blainville, while various appellations, which are specified in our synonymy, were given to this species and its varieties by Andrew Smith, Hamilton Smith, Gray, and Fitzinger.
Fig. 22.
Skull of Cephalophus grimmi.
(P.Z.S. 1871, p. 591.)
In his important work on the ‘Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa,’ as they existed in 1836 and 1837, Cornwallis Harris figures the “Duiker” as a companion of the Pallah and speaks of it as common throughout the Cape Colony, especially towards the sea-coast, among the bushes and brush-wood. This experienced observer states that every female specimen of the Duiker that he had seen possessed short horns, nearly, if not totally obscured by the tuft on the head; this, we shall see, is contrary to the observations of some other writers. From the text of Harris’s volume we extract his lively account of the Duiker and its habits:—“The smaller Antelope, delineated in the annexed plate, is a denizen of the same locale as the Pallah; and although claiming from its diminutive stature an extremely limited portion of attention, was yet never neglected when accident placed it in our way. The pair which furnished the originals of this portrait were on my own shoulders borne three miles to the waggons from one of the central steppes of the Cashan mountains, whither, having gone out alone, I killed the buck as he sat on a projecting ledge—knocking over his disconsolate relict with the second barrel as she stood gazing in mute amazement at her mate’s death-struggles. The pasterns of this robust and sturdy little animal, which are singularly rigid, have the appearance of being encased in Blucher’s, or ancle boots; two other of its most remarkable features being the long suborbital slit that traverses the whole length of its Roman features, and the pencilled toupet of bright fulvous hair arising from the forehead, neither of which occur in any other Antelopes. Writers have noticed three distinct species of the Duiker, but the peculiarities in the horns that have led to this division are so trivial that I should rather feel disposed to place them to the score of age, disease, or accident, few specimens being exactly alike. The animal is extremely common in many parts of the Cape Colony, and on the outskirts of the deep forests which border the sea-coast especially. Here on my return from the interior, I killed several—and found it even more abundant than beyond the boundary. Occurring either singly or in pairs, the little dwarf is usually found crouching amid the shelter of bushy localities, and the dexterity with which it seeks to foil its pursuers among the intricacies of these, has gained for it the Dutch soubriquet in which it rejoices. Aroused from its snug form, the ‘Artful Dodger’ clears with one vigorous and elastic bound the nearest bush, and diving low on the other side among the heather and brushwood, continues alternately leaping and plunging whilst it flies straight as a dart to the nearest thicket—before seeking an asylum in which, and not unfrequently also during its retreat, it rises like the hare upon its hinder legs, and having thus reconnoitred the foe above the intervening vegetation, wheels with an impatient sneeze to the right about, and proceeds ducking and bounding as before.
“The approved Colonial mode of hunting the Duiker-bok is with dogs—and whilst thus topping the covert, or darting from one copse to another, the little wretch, despite of all its dodging and artifice, is easily slain with a hatful of buckshot discharged from a piece of ordnance of such calibre, that four fingers might be introduced without much squeezing! Like the rest of the Cape venison, the flesh is utterly destitute of fat, a deficiency which the thrifty Dutch housewife seeks to remedy with her usual skill by calling in the aid of a sheep’s tail. The animal is often to be seen running tame about the farm-houses, but it never ceases, even in a domestic state, to take the note of alarm from the least sound to which it has been unaccustomed—thunder invariably causing it to fly to the nearest shelter in order to hide itself away.”
As regards the Duiker in the Cape Colony at the present time, we are assured by Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington that it is still, next to the Steinbuck, the most common and widely distributed of the smaller Antelopes, being found sometimes in pairs, but more frequently singly in every suitable locality from Table Bay to the Zambezi. As a rule, these observers tell us, the Duikers of Cape Colony and Griqualand West are smaller and lighter in colour than those found further north. In certain portions of the Kalihari Desert they are very common, and attain their largest size, some specimens obtained by these gentlemen having measured 28 inches at the shoulder.
The Common Duiker no doubt extends far up the west coast of Africa. Although not mentioned by Andersson or Bains as occurring in Damaraland, it has been recorded by M. Du Bocage as having been obtained by Anchieta in Angola, and there are specimens in the British Museum from the same country transmitted by Gabriel, upon which Gray established his species Grimmia splendidula. But along the eastern side of Africa the range of this little Antelope, or of slightly representative forms, which at present we are quite unable to distinguish, is much more extensive. The Duiker is found throughout the Transvaal, and the great hunter Mr. F. C. Selous informs us that during his extensive journeyings north and south of the Zambezi, except in districts devoid of bush or covered by steep rocky hills, he has always met with this Antelope. According to this experienced observer, individuals, though shot in the same district, vary much in colour, some skins being of a greenish tinge and others of a reddish brown, while specimens from the borders of the Kalihari have less white upon the belly than others. Contrary to Cornwallis Harris and other testimony, Mr. Selous states that the females are almost always hornless, though he had met with three examples of this sex bearing horns. On the Zambezi and elsewhere in Mozambique Peters met with specimens of this Antelope, which he described and figured in his ‘Reise’ as new species under the names Antilope altifrons and A. ocularis. These names are now generally regarded as synonymous with Cephalophus grimmi. A third name, without any mention of the other two, has recently been added from the same region by Dr. Lorenz, and this we are equally unable to recognize as valid.