1872.] SIR V. BROOKE ON THE ROYAL ANTELOPE. 637 



The following papers were read : — 



1. On the Royal Antelope, and allied Species of the Genus 

 Nanotragus. By Sir V. Brooke, Bart., F.Z.S. 



[Received May 21, 1872.] 



(Plate LIII.) 



I have the pleasure of exhibiting to the Society three adult and 

 very perfect specimens of Nanotragus pygmteus, the smallest of the 

 Pecora at present known to science. These specimens I received 

 a short time ago from His Excellency Governor Ussher of Cape- 

 Coast Castle, West Africa, a gentleman who has already proved 

 himself one of the best friends zoological science possesses in a 

 country still doubtless rich in matters of interest to the naturalist. 

 As regards the nomenclature of this Antelope, the complications and 

 difficulties of its synonymy, extending as it does over a period of 

 upwards of 150 years, equal, and perhaps exceed, those connected 

 with any of the species contained in the extensive group of which it 

 is, as I have said, the smallest representative. But not only is it 

 with respect to its literary history that the species under considera- 

 tion is involved in some obscurity ; partly in consequence of mis- 

 takes arising from this source, and partly on account of the paucity 

 of accessible specimens, the natural affinities of the species appear 

 to me to have been somewhat overlooked. I will therefore divide 

 the remarks which I have to offer on this Antelope under two heads, 

 giving first those that concern its synonymy, and secondly those 

 that relate to its natural affinities. 



I. Remarks on the Literary History and Synonymy of 

 Nanotragus pygmseus. 



Professor Sundevall, in his well-known treatise on the Pecora, 

 published in the Swedish Academy's 'Proceedings' for 1847(p. 303), 

 enters most carefully into an examination of this subject, and, with 

 the exception of one point, seems to have most successfully unravelled 

 the mazes with which it was surrounded. In order to clear up this 

 single point I shall now describe what, after very careful investiga- 

 tion of the matter, I believe to be the history of the species as 

 connected with Linnaeus himself, and shall then specify in what 

 respect this account differs from that given by Professor Sundevall. 



Bosman, in his travels in Guinea in 1703, so far as I have been 

 able to ascertain, is the first author who mentions the species. At 

 page 249, after describing the colour and very small size of the ani- 

 mal, the feet being made into pipe-stoppers, one of which, he states, 

 he sent home set in gold, Bosman writes, " the negroes here call it 

 the King of Harts :" thus, no doubt, originated the English name 

 of Royal Antelope, by which this species has always been known. 



The 'Thesaurus' of Seba, published in 1734, gives us the first 

 substantial record of specimens having found their way into Euro- 



