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as being unquestionably first in date, and the Royal Antelope thus becomes 
Neotragus pygmeus in the scientific terminology of modern Natural History. 
Pennant, in his ‘Synopsis of Quadrupeds,’ published in 1771, is perhaps 
the first author who called the present species the ‘“ Royal Antelope,” 
quoting first of all Bosman’s term “‘ King of the Harts,” though he added to 
its synonyms references to other species which probably do not belong to it. 
Erxleben in 1777 based the name Antilope regia upon nearly the same 
authorities, but this term, as we have already shown, was antedated by 
Linneus’s Capra pygmea. In 1827 Temminck applied the name Antilope 
spinigera to the same animal, without, however, giving any description of it. 
Temminck’s name was employed by Sundevall in his excellent essay upon 
the Pecora, first published in 1846, when, however, he very unnecessarily 
created the new generic term Nanotragus for this species, which, as already 
stated, had previously been called Neotragus by Hamilton Smith. Sundevall 
took his description from an adult male specimen in the Leyden Museum, 
stating that he had also seen a female at Paris, but had mislaid his notes 
upon it. 
The earliest specimens of Neotragus pygmeus in the Leyden Museum, 
which consisted of two adult males and the skeleton of a female, were received 
in 1824 from the Dutch Factory on the Gold Coast. 
The first collector of modern date who met with examples of this little 
Antelope appears to have been the Dutch naturalist Pel, who, when he left 
Leyden on his travels, was specially recommended by Temminck to search 
for it. After ten years’ residence upon the Gold Coast Pel succeeded in 
procuring three individuals only, which were found by him on the borders 
of Ashantee, and when sent home to Leyden served for Temminck’s excellent 
description of this animal, published in his ‘ Esquisses Zoologiques sur la 
Cote du Guinée’ in 1853. Pel’s notes state that this Antelope is found 
“solitary or in pairs in the thickest forests of the Guinea coast. Their 
activity is remarkable, and they are disturbed at the least noise, starting off 
with leaps and bounds to a considerable distance.”’ Pel’s exact localities for 
these specimens, as given in the ‘Catalogue of the Mammals of the Leyden 
Museum ’ (1892), are Dabocrom, St. George d’Elmina, and Ashantee. 
Herr Bittikofer, though he speaks of this Antelope in his ‘ Reisebilder 
aus Liberia,’ does not appear to have obtained examples of it in that country. 
He says, however, that it is called “‘Sang” by the native Veys, and that when 
VOL. II. HS 
