1872.] SIR V. BROOKE ON THE ROYAL ANTELOPE. 639 



that of his 2nd and 6th editions. He, however, introduces for the 

 first time in this edition Cervus guineensis of the Catalogue of 

 Adolphus Frederick, with the short diagnosis " C. griseus, subtus 

 nigricans." In the 12tb edition (1/66) we find collected under the 

 name of Moschns pygmceus all the allusions to this species in the early 

 editions of the 'Syst. Nat.,' with still no mention of the collection 

 of the king ; but here, for the first time, Linnaeus refers figs. 1 and 2 

 of Seba's plate 43 to this species. The diagnosis of Cervus guineensis 

 is brought down unaltered from the 10th edition. 



My interpretation of this complicated and difficult subject is as 

 follows. I believe that two perfectly distinct species were the types 

 of the Moschus pygmceus vel Capra perpusilla and the Cervus gui- 

 neensis of Linnaeus. The type of the former I believe to have been 

 a genuine specimen of the Royal Antelope, which specimen is repre- 

 sented in tig. 3, plate 43, of Seba's 'Thesaurus.' The debris of 

 Seba's collection, as Temminck at page 203 of his 'Esquisses 

 Zoologiques ' informs us, was received by him at Leiden about 50 

 years after Seba's death. Amongst the remnants of this collection 

 Temminck discovered a very young specimen of his Nanotragus 

 spiniger, discoloured and hardly recognizable, but still in sufficiently 

 good condition to admit of its being set up and placed in the Leiden 

 collection. From the rarity of specimens, and the exact corre- 

 spondence of Temminck's description of this specimen with fig. 3 of 

 plate 43 of the ' Thesaurus,' it is almost certain that this is the 

 identical specimen represented in the drawing ; if so, it is clear that 

 a true specimen of the Royal Antelope was the type of Capra per- 

 pusilla of the Catalogue, and therefore of the Moschus pygmceus of 

 the 12th edition of the 'Systema Naturae.' A consideration of the 

 history of the specimens contained in the collection of Adolphus 

 Frederick throws additional light upon this conclusion. This col- 

 lection, Prof. Sundevall tells at page 304, /. c, passed entire to 

 Stockholm. In a bottle which Prof. Sundevall tells us he failed to 

 examine sufficiently carefully during the preparation of his first trea- 

 tise in 1844, he found in 1846 a veritable specimen of the Royal 

 Antelope, in size and form so similar to Seba's fig. 1, plate 43, that 

 he could have believed it to have been the type of that figure. In 

 the fact of this undoubted specimen having passed under the inves- 

 tigation of Linnaeus we have still further grounds for believing that 

 the species described by him under the name of C. perpusilla in the 

 Catalogue, and of Moschus pygmceus in the 12th edition of the 

 • Systema Naturae,' to both of which fig. 3, plate 43, of the ' The- 

 saurus ' is referred, was undoubtedly the species under consideration, 

 the Royal Antelope. The type of Cervus guineensis seems to me to 

 be equally certain. Agreeing in every detail with the description 

 given in the Catalogue we find fig. 2, plate 43 of the ' Thesaurus.' 

 At page 301 Prof. Sundevall expresses his opinion that nothing at 

 all answering to the description of C. guineensis was to be found in 

 the Drottingholm collection ; but at page 304 he says that in the 

 same bottle as that in which he discovered the young male of 

 Nanotragus spiniger he also discovered a specimen exceedingly 



