MAMMALIA. 93 



Cervicapra Isabellina, Sundevall, Pecora, 70. 



Antilope Eleotragus y. Isabellina, Fischer, Syn. 435. 465. 



Var. 2. With a large black rhombic spot on the back of the head 

 behind the ears; female. Gray in Knowsley Menag. 13. 



Afzelius, Lichtenstein, H. Smith and Sundevall have described 

 two species of this genus as coming from South Africa; the 1 

 smaller they call A. Eleotragus, and the larger A. Isabellina. 

 The latter author has given a comparative character between the 

 two kinds, but he has only seen two specimens of the former (a 

 male at Berlin and a female at Stockholm), and several speci- 

 mens of the larger kind. I have examined with care a series 

 consisting of four males and five females from different parts of 

 South Africa, and can find no distinction between them, except 

 a slight difference in the length of the fur and in its colour. Two 

 specimens in the British Museum are larger than the rest, and 

 have the tarsus one-fourth longer than the others ; they have a 

 shorter fur and are of a rather brighter colour, and the front of 

 the leg is blacker ; but the fur and colour probably depend on 

 the season when they were killed. In these respects they agree 

 with Sundevall's description of A. Isabellina, but they both have 

 the temporal spot large and quite naked, while Prof. Sundevall 

 described the spot on this species as pubescent. The female 

 of the larger specimen has the black spot on the back of the 

 head; some of the smaller ones have the temple-spot much 

 smaller and less naked than the others. The two larger speci- 

 mens have a single whorl of hair in the middle of the back ; the 

 others, with longer hair, show the whorls more distinctly, and 

 have the hair from the central whorls to the shoulders forming a 

 more or less diverging line. After examining these specimens 

 and those in other colfections, I conclude that they form only a 

 single species. M. Sundevall, in a note just received, observes, 

 " Mr. Wahlberg considers A. Isabellina and A. Eleotragus as 

 very distinct, and our specimens seem to show a difference, 

 though not very well expressed. Also I have committed a mis- 

 take, for the young female described in my Synopsis as y. under 

 A. Isabellina\$ really A. Eleotragus." 



Riet or Reed Bok (Eleotragus) lives in reedy marshes, and in 

 the grass of damp flats, in which it lies close until actually put 

 up by the hunter or his dogs, and even then rarely running be- 

 yond musket range ; hence it has been nearly exterminated near 

 the colony. 



The Rooye Rhee Bok inhabits the rugged slopes of high moun- 

 tains, and the summits of those of less elevation, from the east- 

 ern district of the Cape colony to the Tropic of Capricorn, living 

 in small herds. Andrew Smith. 



