Our Plate XXIX., which was prepared under Sir Victor Brooke’s direction by Mr. Wolf and engraved by Mr. Smit, no doubt from Sir Victor’s own specimens, represents both sexes of this interesting species. The same drawing also served for the plate which illustrates Sir Victor’s paper in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings,’ already referred to.
The National Collection contains a mounted specimen of an adult male of this Antelope from Fantee, and a young one in spirits from the same locality, the latter presented by Mr. H. F. Blissett. In the same collection is a young specimen from Lagos, presented by our much lamented friend the late Dr. E. Dobson, and a second young one from the Guinea coast, obtained by Pel and received in exchange from the Leyden Museum. Further adult examples of this little Antelope would, however, be much valued, and it is to be hoped that among the many officers engaged in the new Ashantee Expedition to Kumasi some may be found with time and opportunity to get fresh specimens of this “smallest of all the Ruminants.”
December, 1895.
Genus VI. MADOQUA.
| Type. | |
| Madoqua, Ogilb. P. Z. S. 1836, p. 137 | M. saltiana. |
| Neotragus, Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1844, p. 191 (1846) (et auctorum plurimorum, nec H. Sm.) | M. saltiana. |
Size small; nose elongated, proboscis-like; its tip nearly entirely hairy, except just on the lower part of the nasal septum; crown of head tufted; tail very short, almost rudimentary; accessory hoofs present, but quite minute.
Skull with the premaxillæ long and the nasals short, in correlation with the lengthening of the snout into a proboscis; anteorbital vacuities large; anteorbital fossæ large but shallow; last lower molar in some species without the posterior lobe which is present in all other ruminants.
Horns from half to three-quarters the length of the skull, straight or slightly sinuate, strongly ribbed basally.
Distribution. Extending diagonally across Africa from Abyssinia to Damaraland. No species found either in N.W., South, or S.E. Africa.
Of this genus we are prepared to recognize six species, which fall naturally into two groups—(A) those in which the proboscis is comparatively slightly, developed and the last lower molar is without a posterior lobe, and (B) those in which the proboscis is very long and the last lower molar, as in other Ruminants, has a third lobe. Within the groups the species differ comparatively little from each other, but may be distinguished without difficulty by the characters of size, colour, and form, used in the following synopsis:—