BAY DUIKER 155 



also running down the hair covering the front surface of the hind 

 cannon-bones. The dorsal stripe is mixed with rufous on the withers, 

 and does not become well defined and black till farther back ; on the 

 tail it is narrow but very distinct. The tail terminates in a large 

 black and white tuft. The hind surfaces of the buttocks are pure 

 white, thereby distinguishing the species very markedly from the next, 

 in which they are chestnut. 



This species is a native of the Gaboon, whence the skin and skull 

 of the type specimen were brought by du Chaillu. 



It is a pity that we know practically nothing of the habits of this 

 and the allied west coast species, for it seems almost certain that these 

 are connected in some way with their colouring. A chestnut body 

 with a dark dorsal stripe in association with a white belly is, for 

 instance, a type of colouring characteristic of animals spending a 

 considerable amount of time in the open in strong sunlight ; in which 

 situations it serves a protective purpose. It, therefore, seems legitimate 

 to suggest that the present species is less strictly a bush -dwelling 

 animal than such of its relatives as have the under-parts of the same 

 general colour as the back. 



THE BAY DUIKER 



(CephalopJius dorsalis) 



With this medium-sized species we revert to one in which the 

 under-parts are dark ; one of its characteristics being the very short 

 and broad ears. The general colour is bright chestnut-rufous, with a 

 dark dorsal stripe running from the nose to the tail, interrupted only 

 at the crest, which may be either wholly black or wholly rufous, or 

 mixed black and red. The middle line of the face is brown, and the 

 eyebrow-streaks are bright rufous. The dorsal stripe, which in some 

 cases is well defined and at others widens out into an irregular patch on 

 the withers, is wholly black on the back. The under-parts, inner sides 

 of the limbs, and the hind surfaces of the hips arc rufous, like the 

 flanks. There is a longitudinal black or blackish patch on the chest ; 

 the fore-limbs are brown from the shoulders downwards, and the hind- 

 limbs from just above the hocks ; while the tail is almost wholly black 

 above, but white below at the tip. 



The range of this duiker extends from Sierra Leone to the Gold 

 Coast. 



