Subfamily IV. CERVICAPRINÆ.
General Characters.—Size large or moderate. Muzzle naked. Anteorbital glands entirely absent. Tail moderate. False hoofs well developed.
Skull smooth in front of the orbits and without any traces of anteorbital fossæ; auditory bulla large and swollen; median incisors expanded at their summits; a well-developed supplemental lobe in the first true molar of each jaw.
Horns present only in the male, medium-sized or long, not twisted, generally directed backwards at the base, and curving upwards and forwards towards the tips, occasionally with a serpentine curvature or quite straight, strongly ridged except at the tips.
Range of Subfamily. Africa south of Sahara.
The Waterbucks and Reedbucks, as these Antelopes are usually called, from the nature of the places to which they mostly resort, may be arranged together with the Rehbok, which clearly belongs to the same group, in three genera, as follows:—
- A. Size large or moderate. Horns large, elongate, curved. Fur straight, often coarse.
- a. Size larger. No naked auricular patch. Tail long, slightly tufted. Premaxillæ reaching the nasals. Spurious hoofs well developed. 1. Cobus.
- b. Size smaller. A naked auricular patch. Tail short and bushy. Premaxillæ not reaching the nasals. Spurious hoofs smaller. 2. Cervicapra.
- B. Size small. Horns small, upright, straight. Fur woolly. Tail short and bushy. Premaxillæ not reaching the nasals 3. Pelea.
Genus I. COBUS.
| Type. | |
| Kobus, A. Smith, Ill. Zool. S. Afr. pt. xii. pl. xxviii. (1840) | C. ellipsiprymnus. |
| Kolus, Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 159 (1843) | C. defassa. |
| Adenota, Gray, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 129 | C. kob. |
| Hydrotragus, Fitz. Sitz. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 175 (1869). | “Adenota kul, Heuglin.” |
| Onotragus, Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 17 (1872) | C. lechee. |
Size large. Horns (in male only) long, sublyrate, and ringed for the greater part of their length. Suborbital gland rudimentary. Skull with a deep hollow in the middle of the forehead; no lachrymal depression; a large lachrymal fissure; and the premaxillæ reaching the very long nasals. Tail long, reaching to the hocks, with a ridge of hair on the upper surface, and tufted at the end.