Guide to the great fame animals (Ungulata) in the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History) : Illustrated by 53 text and other figures.

  • British Museum (Natural History). Department of Zoology.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Guide to the great fame animals (Ungulata) in the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History) : Illustrated by 53 text and other figures. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    hair on the crown of the head. The tail is so short as to be almost rudimentary, and the lateral hoofs are very minute. The species, something like half-a-dozen in number, fall into two groups. In the first of these the development of the nose is not very excessive, and the last lower molar tooth wants the third lobe found in all other Ruminants. In the second the nose is so large as to be almost trunk-like, and the third lower molar is normal. Salt's Dik-dik, Madoqua saltiana (1164), belongs to the first, and Gunther's Dik-dik, M. \_Rhynchotragus~\ guentlieri (1165), to the second group. Salt's Dik-dik—the Reni Israel of the Arabs—abounds on the Red Sea littoral and in the hotter districts of Abyssinia. It inhabits bushes, keeping much to thick covert on the banks of water-courses; and is usually seen singly, or in pairs, either a male and female, or a female and young being found together. More rarely a female is accompanied by two young, which remain with her till nearly full grown. The Klipspringer. The African Klipspringer, Oreotragus saltator Genus or 0* oreotragus (1166)—which alone, with Oreotragus. several local races, represents the genus Oreo- [Case56.] tragus—differs from the other Neotraginae by the blunted, cylindrical hoofs, and the thick, pithy hair, which is very similar to that of the Musk-Deer. The horns, which are developed only in the male, rise vertically from the short skull. The Klipspringer derives its name (“ Rock-jumper ) from its habit of leaping from rock to rock in the rugged districts where it dwells. It always stands on the tips of its hoofs, and when alighting from a spring will frequently perch on a pinnacle of rock so small as to only just afford room for its feet, which are then crowded together. These Antelopes are generally found in pairs, and never associate in flocks. Although no longer met with in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town, they are still fairly common in some of the moun- tainous districts in the interior of the Colony, and range as far north as Somaliland. The Rhebok. The pale grey medium-sized African Antelope known Genus to the Boers as the Rhebok, or Vaal Rhebok (Pelea Pelea. capreolus, 1167), which is the only member of its [Case 56.] genus, forms in some respects a connecting link between the Neotragine and Cervicaprine Antelopes. With the former it
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