Vernacular Name:—Paa of Swahilis (Jackson and others).—In common with Raphicerus campestris and Neotragus moschatus.
Size medium. Proboscis more developed than in group A. General colour coarsely grizzled greyish fawn, more or less suffused with fulvous on the back, and with rufous on the sides and neck. Limbs rufous, but of very variable intensity.
Skull with the modification due to the development of a proboscis much more striking than in the first section of the genus, although not carried to such an extreme as in M. guentheri. Premaxillæ slender, their upper edge forming an S-shaped curve; their ascending process sometimes ending just above the anterior tooth, and sometimes rising nearly or quite to meet the nasals. Nasals very short. Last lower molar with the usual third lobe characteristic of all other ruminants but those of the M. saltiana group. Even here, however, the lobe is very small. Dimensions of a good male example:—Basal length 3·7 inches, greatest breadth 1·95, muzzle to orbit 2·03, muzzle to tip of nasals 1·25.
Horns thick, strongly ridged below, seldom exceeding 2½ or 2¾ inches in length.
Hab. E. Africa from Southern Somaliland to Ugogo.
This Dik-dik was likewise first described by Dr. Günther in 1880 from specimens transmitted to the British Museum by Sir John Kirk, who procured them near Brava, on the coast of Southern Somaliland. Dr. Günther drew special attention to the peculiar form of the elongated muzzle in this species. This feature, as will be seen by the illustration (fig. 29), which we are able to reproduce by his leave and that of the Zoological Society, is a prominent character in Madoqua kirki, as in the preceding and following species.
Fig. 29.
Head of Madoqua kirki
(P. Z. S. 1880, p. 17.)