Mr. Woods on a new Species of Antelope. 5 



wanting in that species ; the disk on the buttocks is not so circumscribed 

 or so well defined as in Ant. personata ; the tail is a mere rudiment ; 

 and the general colour of the superior parts is bright fulvous red, with a 

 cast of crimson. 



Upon seeing the preserved skin of the Bompte-bok, I was much struck 

 with the alteration which had taken place in its appearance since its death, 

 which brought forcibly to my mind Mr. Waterton's humourous illustra- 

 tion of the effect which stuffing usually has upon the skins of quadrupeds. 

 I do not mention this circumstance as calling in question the ability of the 

 operator at the Museum of the Zoological Society, whose reputation is 

 well deserved, but with the hope of usefully supplying a hint to those 

 who might be inclined to derive from such specimens generic or specific 

 characters. In all cases some considerable distortions by partial shrink- 

 ing and expansion will inevitably take place, and, unless a living specimen 

 of the same species exist as a model, it is utterly impossible to preserve 

 the true figure of an animal : for how can a correct form be assumed, the 

 type of which is totally unknown ? This observation will be well borne 

 out by the subjoined enumeration of the principal points of difference 

 between the preserved skin and the living animal. 



The head in the foimer is much shortened ; the ears shrivelled to 

 two-thirds of their original size, the internal black bars having lost the 

 greater part of their colour ; the mask has likevdse shrunk and become 

 so pale as scarcely to present a prominent character. From the adoles- 

 cence of the specimen, and the consequent great vascularity of the nuclei 

 of the horns, their direction has so far changed, during the process of 

 drying, that their tips do not at all incline forwards, and the horns them- 

 selves, being very thin at their bases, have in shrinking nearly lost the 

 annulus ; the neck is too long ; the humeral hump has entirely dis- 

 appeared ; and the body is very much too thin, the skin either having 

 shrunk, or been stuffed to the model of some other Antelope ; finally, 

 the whole of the colours are infinitely lighter and more obscure, having 

 totally lost their richness and the evanescent purple hue, which so often 

 and so beautifully appears on the fur of Ruminant animals, when seen in 

 the vivid freshness of animation. 



