On two re-discovered Antelopes

Among the Mammals collected by our travellers in Liberia are two Antelopes of a peculiar scientific interest; the one procured by Mr. Büttikofer was only known from a description and name given to a flat skin without head, neck, extremities and tail; the other, sent over by Mr. Stampfli, is the first complete representative of a species created in favour of a skull without horns belonging to an Antelope. The named piece of a skin as well as the skull are in the British Museum. As in so many other cases, if species have been described after insufficient materials , these type-specimens have a very problematical scientific value and the results of the laughing efforts to create as many species as possible in order to secure types are in the case under consideration that several naturalists have spent much time and filled many waste-paper. In describing the named species I subscribe Ogilby’s statement, that the re-discovery of an old species was at all times more gratifying and more beneficial to the science of zoology, than the original description of twenty that were new.