468 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Zoology of 



it a new species I have named this little animal the Anomalurus 



Beldeni ;" and on the opposite page he gives a figure v\^hich he names 

 Anomalurus Beldeni : this figure is a beautiful and accurate copy of 

 Mr. Wolf's figure o^ Anomalurus Beecroftii in the 'Proceedings of 

 the Zoological Society,' 1852, t. 32, from which, no doubt, M. Du 

 Chaillu regards his A. Beldeni as distinct, or why does he give it an- 

 other name ? or does he think that one figure may serve to represent 

 two species? 



Species are not only described as new that have long been well 

 known, but they are figured in such an incorrect or exaggerated 

 manner as to render it impossible to make out what species they are 

 intended to represent, much less to correct the error of the describer. 

 Who, for example, could believe that the animal figured on the plate 

 opposite p. 422, and called the White-faced Hog {Potamochcencs 

 albifrons), is the same as the one now living in the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens, which is well figured in the ' Proceedings ' of the Society 

 for 1852, p. 129, t. 34, as the Painted Pig of the Camaroons (Pota- 

 mochcerus penicillatus)! yet the specimen in M. Du Chaillu's collec- 

 tion from which the figure is pretended to be taken is not only that 

 species, but even the same variety of it. 



Who could believe that the ' Naive ' (the Wild Bull of Equatorial 

 Africa) — " Bos brachych.eros^' on the plate at page 175, and again on 

 the plate entitled " the Leopard and his prey" at p. 1 25, and also where 

 it is shown tossing a native, at p. 204 — is the same animal as Bos 

 brachyceros, described and figured by me in the ' Magazine of Natural 

 History' for 1837, and in the 'Annals of Natural History,' vol. ii. 

 p. 284, t. 13? Yet the specimen in the collection leaves not the 

 slightest doubt on the subject ; and also shows that the position of 

 the horns in each of these three representations is not consistent 

 with nature, for they are all represented as having the horns recurved 

 from the root, while they ought to have been represented as spread- 

 ing out on the sides, and only recurved at the tips : so that persons 

 who might be inclined to doubt the identity of my Bos brachyceros 

 and M. Du Chaillu's Bos hrachycheros (which, by the by, at p. 174, 

 and again at p. 3U6, he calls "a quite new and hitherto undescribed 

 species of Buffalo") must not be led away, by this inaccuracy in the 

 representation of the animals, to believe the traveller's statement, 

 and regard the two animals noticed under such nearly similar names 

 as two species. 



As to the animal being " new and undescribed," I may state that 

 it and its habits were described by Denham and Clapperton, who 

 brought home a head of it, now in the British Museum, under the 

 name of the ' Zamouse ;' that it was described and figured by me in 

 1837, as above referred to; and that it was described by Dr. Riippell 

 as found in Abyssinia. 



I may observe that I am not inclined to place more reliance on 

 his statement of the habits of this animal than the figures lead us to 

 place m his accuracy as regards the representation of it. He de- 

 scribes it, at p. 1 24, as " a very savage beast," and at p. 306 remarks, 

 " I do not think the Bos brachyclieros, the wild bull of this country, 



