Genus V.NEOTRAGUS.
Size very small. No auricular glands nor accessory hoofs. Tail of median length.
Skull with its muzzle unusually well ossified, so that there are no anteorbital vacuities, nor extra vacuities in the maxillo-premaxillary suture. Anteorbital fossæ very large. Nasal opening a vertical oblong, its sides not bowed outwards.
Horns excessively small, their length less than the diameter of the orbit; laid right back on the sides of the crown in the direction of the facial profile.
Distribution.West Africa.
Distribution.West Africa.
Only one species of this genus is known.
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XXIX.Wolf del. Smit lith.Hanhart imp.The Royal Antelope.NEOTRAGUS PYGMÆUS.Published by R·H·Porter.
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XXIX.
Wolf del. Smit lith.
Hanhart imp.
The Royal Antelope.
NEOTRAGUS PYGMÆUS.
Published by R·H·Porter.
Cervus pusillus guineensis,Seba, Thesaurus, i. p. 10, pl. xliii. fig. 3 (1734).Capra pygmæa,Linn.Syst. Nat. (10) i. p. 69 (1758).Moschus pygmæus,Linn.Syst. Nat. (12) i. p. 92 (1766).Antilope pygmæa,Pall.Spic. Zool. xii. p. 18 (1777);Zimm.Spec. Zool. geogr. p. 540 (1777);id.Geogr. Gesch. ii. p. 112 (1780);Herm.Tabl. Affin. Anim. p. 107 (1783);Gmel.Linn. S. N. i. p. 191 (1788);Kerr, Linn. An. K. p. 318 (1792);Donnd.Zool. Beytr. i. p. 642 (1792);Link, Beytr. Nat. ii. p. 99 (1795);Bechst.Allgem. Uebers. vierf. Thiere, ii. p. 642 (1800);Shaw, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, p. 326 (1801);Desm.N. Dict. d’H. N. (1) x. p. 251 (1803), xxiv. Tabl. p. 32 (1804);G. Cuv.Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 241 (1804);G. Fisch.Zoogn. iii. p. 414 (1814);Afzel.N. Act. Ups. vii. p. 220 (1815);Desm.N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 192 (1816);Goldf.Schr. Säug. v. p. 1237 (1818);Desm.Mamm. ii. p. 465 (1822);Desmoul.Dict. Class. i. p. 445 (1822);Less.Man. Mamm. p. 379 (1827);J. B. Fisch.Syn. Mamm. p. 469 (1829);Oken, Allg. Naturg. vii. p. 1360 (1838).Tragulus pygmæus,Bodd.Elench. Anim. p. 131 (1785);Ogilb.P. Z. S. 1836, p. 138.Antilope(Gazella)pygmæa,Licht.Mag. nat. Freund. vi. p. 178 (1814).Cerophorus(Cervicapra)pygmæa,Blainv.Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.Cemas pygmæa,Oken, Lehrb. Naturg. iii. Zool. ii. p. 744 (1816).Antilope(Neotragus)pygmæa,H. Sm.Griff. An. K. iv. p. 270, v. p. 349 (1827).Neotragus pygmæa,A. Sm.S. Afr. Quart. J. ii. p. 218 (1834).Cephalophorus(?)pygmæus,Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 163 (1843).Nanotragus pygmæus,Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 231 (1846);Brooke, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 640, pl. liii. (animal), fig. skull;Flow. & Lyd.Mamm. p. 339 (1891);Lyd.Horns and Hoofs, p. 216 (1893).Cephalophus (Nanotragus) pygmæus,Gerv.H. N. Mamm. ii. p. 209 (1855).Antilope regia,Erxl.Syst. R. A. p. 278 (1777);Gatt.Brev. Zool. i. p. 80 (1780);Bodd.Elench. An. p. 140 (1785).Nanotragus regius,Gray, Knowsl. Men. p. 12 (1850).Antilope spinigera,Temm.Mon. Mamm. i. p. xxx (1827) (descr. nulla);Less.Man. Mamm. p. 379 (1827);J. B. Fisch.Syn. Mamm. p. 469 (1829);Gerv.Dict. Sci. Nat. Suppl. i. p. 263 (1840);Wagn.Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 457 (1844), v. p. 416 (1855);Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 421 (1845);Gieb.Säug. p. 320 (1854).Antilope(Spinigera)spiniger,Less.N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 178 (1842).Nanotragus spiniger,Sund.Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1844, p. 191 (1846);id.Öfv. K. Vet.-Ak. Förh. 1846, p. 83 (1847);id.Pecora, Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 143; Reprint, p. 67 (1848);Fitz.SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 164 (1869);Jent.Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 134 (1887);id.Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 164 (1892).Calotragus spiniger,Temm.Esq. Zool. Guin. pp. 192 & 201 (1853).Cephalophus spiniger,Büttikofer, Reisebild. Liberia, ii. p. 379 (1890).Nanotragus perpusillus,Gray, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 126; id. Ann. Mag. N. H. (2) viii. p. 143 (1851);id.Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 30 (1872);id.Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 98 (1873).Antilope perpusilla,Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. 1887, p. 67.
Cervus pusillus guineensis,Seba, Thesaurus, i. p. 10, pl. xliii. fig. 3 (1734).
Capra pygmæa,Linn.Syst. Nat. (10) i. p. 69 (1758).
Moschus pygmæus,Linn.Syst. Nat. (12) i. p. 92 (1766).
Antilope pygmæa,Pall.Spic. Zool. xii. p. 18 (1777);Zimm.Spec. Zool. geogr. p. 540 (1777);id.Geogr. Gesch. ii. p. 112 (1780);Herm.Tabl. Affin. Anim. p. 107 (1783);Gmel.Linn. S. N. i. p. 191 (1788);Kerr, Linn. An. K. p. 318 (1792);Donnd.Zool. Beytr. i. p. 642 (1792);Link, Beytr. Nat. ii. p. 99 (1795);Bechst.Allgem. Uebers. vierf. Thiere, ii. p. 642 (1800);Shaw, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, p. 326 (1801);Desm.N. Dict. d’H. N. (1) x. p. 251 (1803), xxiv. Tabl. p. 32 (1804);G. Cuv.Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 241 (1804);G. Fisch.Zoogn. iii. p. 414 (1814);Afzel.N. Act. Ups. vii. p. 220 (1815);Desm.N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 192 (1816);Goldf.Schr. Säug. v. p. 1237 (1818);Desm.Mamm. ii. p. 465 (1822);Desmoul.Dict. Class. i. p. 445 (1822);Less.Man. Mamm. p. 379 (1827);J. B. Fisch.Syn. Mamm. p. 469 (1829);Oken, Allg. Naturg. vii. p. 1360 (1838).
Tragulus pygmæus,Bodd.Elench. Anim. p. 131 (1785);Ogilb.P. Z. S. 1836, p. 138.
Antilope(Gazella)pygmæa,Licht.Mag. nat. Freund. vi. p. 178 (1814).
Cerophorus(Cervicapra)pygmæa,Blainv.Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.
Cemas pygmæa,Oken, Lehrb. Naturg. iii. Zool. ii. p. 744 (1816).
Antilope(Neotragus)pygmæa,H. Sm.Griff. An. K. iv. p. 270, v. p. 349 (1827).
Neotragus pygmæa,A. Sm.S. Afr. Quart. J. ii. p. 218 (1834).
Cephalophorus(?)pygmæus,Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 163 (1843).
Nanotragus pygmæus,Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 231 (1846);Brooke, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 640, pl. liii. (animal), fig. skull;Flow. & Lyd.Mamm. p. 339 (1891);Lyd.Horns and Hoofs, p. 216 (1893).
Cephalophus (Nanotragus) pygmæus,Gerv.H. N. Mamm. ii. p. 209 (1855).
Antilope regia,Erxl.Syst. R. A. p. 278 (1777);Gatt.Brev. Zool. i. p. 80 (1780);Bodd.Elench. An. p. 140 (1785).
Nanotragus regius,Gray, Knowsl. Men. p. 12 (1850).
Antilope spinigera,Temm.Mon. Mamm. i. p. xxx (1827) (descr. nulla);Less.Man. Mamm. p. 379 (1827);J. B. Fisch.Syn. Mamm. p. 469 (1829);Gerv.Dict. Sci. Nat. Suppl. i. p. 263 (1840);Wagn.Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 457 (1844), v. p. 416 (1855);Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 421 (1845);Gieb.Säug. p. 320 (1854).
Antilope(Spinigera)spiniger,Less.N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 178 (1842).
Nanotragus spiniger,Sund.Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1844, p. 191 (1846);id.Öfv. K. Vet.-Ak. Förh. 1846, p. 83 (1847);id.Pecora, Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 143; Reprint, p. 67 (1848);Fitz.SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 164 (1869);Jent.Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 134 (1887);id.Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 164 (1892).
Calotragus spiniger,Temm.Esq. Zool. Guin. pp. 192 & 201 (1853).
Cephalophus spiniger,Büttikofer, Reisebild. Liberia, ii. p. 379 (1890).
Nanotragus perpusillus,Gray, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 126; id. Ann. Mag. N. H. (2) viii. p. 143 (1851);id.Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 30 (1872);id.Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 98 (1873).
Antilope perpusilla,Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. 1887, p. 67.
Vernacular Name:—Sangof the Veys in Liberia (Büttikofer).
Vernacular Name:—Sangof the Veys in Liberia (Büttikofer).
Height about 10 inches at withers. General colour bright rufous fawn, browner on head and fore back, richer posteriorly and on sides of neck and flanks. Chin and under surface pure sharply defined white. Limbs rufous, except a narrow line down the posterior side of the fore and the anterior side of the hind ones, which is white. Tail about 2½ inches long, without its tuft, bright rufous above, except at its tip, where it is pure white, as it is also below.
Skull as described above. Dimensions of an old male example:—Basal length (c.) 3·5 inches, greatest breadth 1·9, muzzle to orbit 1·84.
Horns less than an inch long, sharply pointed, perfectly smooth and without ridges.
Hab.Forests of West Africa from Liberia to Ashantee.
Hab.Forests of West Africa from Liberia to Ashantee.
The literary history and complicated synonymy of the Royal Antelope occupied the attention of the late Sir Victor Brooke, when he was engaged in the study of the Ruminants, for a considerable period, and the result wasa valuable communication to the Zoological Society of London on the 21st May, 1872, which was subsequently published in the Society’s ‘Proceedings.’ Being engaged on a work originally planned by our lamented friend, and having the use of the illustrations which he has so carefully prepared, we cannot do better than commence our account of this species with arésuméof his excellent elucidation of this difficult subject, which is nearly as follows:—
Bosman, in his Description of the Gold Coast, published at Utrecht in 1704[2], seems to have been the first author who mentions the Royal Antelope. After describing the colour and very small size of the animal, and the custom of making the feet into pipe-stoppers (one of which he states he had sent home set in gold), Bosman writes:—“the negroes call it the ‘King of the Harts.’ This expression, no doubt, originated the English name of ‘Royal Antelope,’ by which this species has always been known.”
The celebrated ‘Thesaurus’ of Seba, published in 1734, gives us the first record of specimens of this animal having found their way into European museums, figure 3 of the 43rd plate of that work, illustrating hisCervus juvencus perpusillus guineensis, being, as Sir Victor Brooke has shown, undoubtedly referable to the Royal Antelope. In 1754 the Museum of King Adolphus Frederick seems to have contained a specimen of this animal, and it was in the folio catalogue of this collection that Linnæus appears to have first given a definite name (Capra perpusilla) to the present species. It seems, therefore, that the two sources from which Linnæus derived his knowledge of it were Seba’s ‘Thesaurus,’ with possibly an examination of Seba’s specimens, and, secondly, the Museum of King Adolphus Frederick. As regards the ‘Systema Naturæ,’ Linnæus first mentioned this species in his second edition (1740), and gave as its diagnosis “Capra pedibus digito humane augustioribus” with a reference to figure 3 of plate 43 of Seba’s ‘Thesaurus.’ In the 6th edition of the ‘Systema’ (1748) both diagnosis and reference are repeated word for word. But in 1754, when Linnæus prepared his catalogue of the Museum of King Adolphus Frederick just alluded to, besides describing a specimen of the Royal Antelope in that collection, to which he applies the diagnosis of the ‘Systema Naturæ’ given above, hementions on the same page a second specimen under the nameCervus guineensis. This, as Sir Victor Brooke has shown, was evidently quite a different animal—probably a young of some small species ofCephalophus. Nevertheless, in the 10th edition of the ‘Systema Naturæ,’ published in 1758, Linnæus, regardless of the nameCapra perpusillagiven in former publications, now attributes to the same species the new nameCapra pygmæa, and also founds another species, “Cervus guineensis,” on theCervus griseus subtus nigricansof the “Museum Adolphi Frederici.” In the 12th edition of the ‘Systema’ (1766) these two species are united under the titleMoschus pygmæus. It is, however, manifest from the diagnosis, and from his reference to Seba’s plate, that the “Royal Antelope” was the principal object in Linnæus’s mind when he founded hisCapra pygmæa. There is also little doubt, as Sir Victor Brooke has shown, that the young specimen of the Royal Antelope which ultimately passed from Seba’s Museum to Leyden was the original of Seba’s figure, plate 43. fig. 3, and that the specimen of the same species that went to the Stockholm Museum was the original of Seba’s figure 1 of plate 43. Under these circumstances we can have no hesitation in following Sir Victor Brooke, and adopting the termpygmæusof Linnæus as being the correct specific name of this Antelope. For its generic name we must use the termNeotragus, proposed by Hamilton Smith in 1827,as being unquestionably first in date, and the Royal Antelope thus becomesNeotragus pygmæusin the scientific terminology of modern Natural History.
Fig. 26.Skull ofNeotragus pygmæus, ♂.(P. Z. S. 1872, p. 642.)
Fig. 26.
Skull ofNeotragus pygmæus, ♂.
(P. Z. S. 1872, p. 642.)
Pennant, in his ‘Synopsis of Quadrupeds,’ published in 1771, is perhaps the first author who called the present species the “Royal Antelope,” quoting first of all Bosman’s term “King of the Harts,” though he added to its synonyms references to other species which probably do not belong to it. Erxleben in 1777 based the nameAntilope regiaupon nearly the same authorities, but this term, as we have already shown, was antedated by Linnæus’sCapra pygmæa. In 1827 Temminck applied the nameAntilope spinigerato the same animal, without, however, giving any description of it. Temminck’s name was employed by Sundevall in his excellent essay upon thePecora, first published in 1846, when, however, he very unnecessarily created the new generic termNanotragusfor this species, which, as already stated, had previously been calledNeotragusby Hamilton Smith. Sundevall took his description from an adult male specimen in the Leyden Museum, stating that he had also seen a female at Paris, but had mislaid his notes upon it.
The earliest specimens ofNeotragus pygmæusin the Leyden Museum, which consisted of two adult males and the skeleton of a female, were received in 1824 from the Dutch Factory on the Gold Coast.
The first collector of modern date who met with examples of this little Antelope appears to have been the Dutch naturalist Pel, who, when he left Leyden on his travels, was specially recommended by Temminck to search for it. After ten years’ residence upon the Gold Coast Pel succeeded in procuring three individuals only, which were found by him on the borders of Ashantee, and when sent home to Leyden served for Temminck’s excellent description of this animal, published in his ‘Esquisses Zoologiques sur la Côte du Guinée’ in 1853. Pel’s notes state that this Antelope is found “solitary or in pairs in the thickest forests of the Guinea coast. Their activity is remarkable, and they are disturbed at the least noise, starting off with leaps and bounds to a considerable distance.” Pel’s exact localities for these specimens, as given in the ‘Catalogue of the Mammals of the Leyden Museum’ (1892), are Dabocrom, St. George d’Elmina, and Ashantee.
Herr Büttikofer, though he speaks of this Antelope in his ‘Reisebilder aus Liberia,’ does not appear to have obtained examples of it in that country. He says, however, that it is called “Sang” by the native Veys, and that whenhe showed them a coloured picture of the animal they recognized it immediately, and said that it lived in the forest and was extraordinarily shy, moving away when discovered in a series of long jumps, which often extended to nine feet in length.
Sir Victor Brooke’s specimens of the Royal Antelope, consisting of three adult and very perfect individuals, were received by him from Mr. Ussher, who, when Governor of the Gold Coast, supplied our Museums with many interesting objects of Natural History.
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.