1897.] OF THE GENPS CERTICAPRA. 897 



■where a native could find them, hanging my handkerchief up in a 

 sugar-bush as a guide. 



" I have placed the entire skin and skull of the largest ram, 

 together with the entire skin o£ the young ewe, and the body-skin 

 of a normal coloured Mountain Esedbuck ram, in the hands of 

 Mr. Oldfield Thomas, to be deposited, after exhibition, in the 

 National Collection. 



" Although at present Mr. Thomas is doubtful whether these 

 Antelopes can fairly be considered a new and undescribed perma- 

 nent variety, I am myself very confident that they will eventually 

 prove to be so. I hope before long to be enabled to confirm my 

 opinion that they occur throughout the highest portion of the range, 

 for 1 think it most unlikely that they are confined to the com- 

 paratively restricted area which we visited, and I only regret that 

 I was prevented from pursuing my investigations further at the 

 time. 



" It is scarcely credible that albinism should stow itself in this 

 form, though I admit, as Mr. Thomas points out, that the white 

 hoofs lend colour to this supposition. But if this be the case, it 

 is very singular that no intermediate forms showing Je.fs tendency 

 to albinism — as, for instance, individuals lacking the white spot on 

 the frontal and the pure white tail ' — have ever been found amongst 

 the normal coloured ones, or even that no such one was either 

 seen or killed by us ; and, further, that no normal coloured indi- 

 vidual was seen amongst the Antelopes on the summit. 



" In conclusion, I propose that, until we are in possession of further 

 details as to the occurrence of this singularly marked Antelope, 

 it should be styled ' Cervicapra fulvorufula subalbina.' 



" As can be seen from the specimens now exhibited, it is in many 

 respects similar to the ordinary Mountain Reedbuck, but differs 

 from it most markedly in having all four legs white from the 

 knees down, white hoofs, a pure white tail both above and below, 

 a white ' kol ' or spot on the frontal, and a more or less clearly 

 defined white stripe down the back of the neck and along the 

 dorsal line ; while the white of the belly is continued further up 

 the flanks than in the true Cervicapra fulvorufula. 



" The male specimen in the British Museum may be looked upon 

 as the type of the name suggested." 



In conclusion Mr. Thomas expressed the opinion that — whether 

 species, subspecies, or aberration — this Antelope, which had the 

 general characters of a semi-albino, but was practically constant, 

 and in considerable numbers held the entire monopoly of a 

 mountain plateau, presented a problem of the utmost interest to 

 students of Variation ; and he was glad to be able to say that 

 Mr. Kirby was now again going out to the same district, and 

 would do his best to obtain further evidence on the subject. 



' [As a fact, there are some slight differences between the two specimens, and 

 even between the two sides of one of them, but these differences are so slight 

 that it would not be fair to use them as an argument against Mr. Kirby's 

 view.— O. T.] 



