THE FAUNA OF EQUATORIAL AFRICA, 293 



late Earl of Derby lias remarked of his specimens in captivity, that 

 they " take no notice of the water?"* 



The typical Bovine of Western Equatorial Africa seems to be Bos 

 oracliyceros, a name pertinaciously misspelt by M. Du Chaillu, who 

 also gives us a good deal of queer information concerning its wildness 

 and ferocity when attacked. We cannot compliment M. Du Chaillu's 

 artist on his representation of this animal (p. 175), nor is the picture 

 (p. 204) of a native tossed by one of them, more creditable. Eor 

 correct figures of the head and skull of this Bos, we must refer our 

 readers to the " Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde," published by the Society 

 " Natura artis magistra," of Amsterdam, where an interesting notice 

 of it will also be found from the pen of H. S. Pel, formerly Dutch 

 Resident on the Gold Coast, and discoverer of many fine novelties in 

 Natural History. 



Among the numerous Artiodactyles of West Africa we find, in 

 M. Du. Chaillu's volume, frequent reference to the Hippopotamus. 

 There appears to be no doubt that the ordinary species is here spoken 

 of; but we may remind our readers, that a few degrees further 

 north of the Equator is Liberia, the home of the Chceropsis liberiends of 

 Dr. Leidy, the only known, second, recent species of this formerly more 

 extensive, genus of Pachyderms. It would be interesting to know 

 whether its range extends thus far south, but we have no doubt that 

 the officers of the Institution, who are the fortunate custodians of the 

 only knoivn examples of this scarce animal, did not forget to remind 

 M. Du Chaillu of the importance of obtaining additional specimens 

 if they were to be had. 



The characteristic Pig of these latitudes is the Potamoclicerus peni- 

 cillatus, now well known in England from the species having lived 

 and bred for these last few years in the Zoological Society's Gardens.! 

 Some slight deviations in character from the ordinary type have 

 induced M. Du Chaillu to give this animal a new name (P. 

 albifrons). His artist has also perpetrated an execrable figure of this 

 beast, which Mr. Murray ought to have been ashamed to publish, 

 after Mr. Wolf's inimitable portraits of the living animal. J 



M. Du Chaillu's Rodents embrace some half a dozen specimens of 

 Squirrels, (Sciuri erythrogenys, Stangeri, pyrrhopus, tyc.) most, if 

 not all, already known from Western African skins, and two species 

 of the singular African type Anomalurus, namely, A. Fraseri, and A. 

 Beecrofti. It appears to be the latter, which has been described 

 under a new name as A. Beldeni, and the figure given (p. 455), is, as 

 has been already pointed out by Dr. Gray, an unacknowledged copy 

 of Mr. Wolf's drawing of the same animal in the Zoological Society's 

 " Proceedings," with merely the ears a little sharpened. 



* See Knowsley Menagerie, p. 22. 

 fSeeP. Z. S. 1861, p. 62. 

 % See Proceedings of the Zoological Society, with Illustrations, 1852, pi. xxxiv: 

 and Wolf and Sclater's Zoological Sketches, (London, 1861) pi. 29. 



