Abstract
I HAVE seen Mr. Oldfield Thomas's interesting letter in your issue of October 13 relative to the remarkable forest-pig (which he has named Hylochoerus meinertzhageni). With regard to the discovery of this remarkable beast, there are perhaps other names which should be associated with it as well as those of the late Sir Henry M. Stanley and myself. No mention of this forest-pig appears in Sir Henry Stanley's published works, but in conversation with myself and others he frequently told us that, in addition to hearing of a “donkey-like animal with large ears” (which afterwards turned out to be the okapi), he once saw a huge black pig, and he had reason to believe that a strange new species or genus of pig inhabited that portion of the Congo Forest near the Semliki River. I heard and transmitted similar stories told me by the natives of that forest; but even more detailed accounts were collected and sent later on by the late W. G. Doggett, who, to the great loss of zoological collecting in Africa, was drowned in the River Kagera in the early part of the present year. But I think the first definite accounts of this pig (or at any rate of Hylochoerus meinertzhageni) were transmitted by Mr. C. W. Hobley, C.M.G., a sub-commissioner of the East Africa Protectorate, who has recently been acting as Commissioner after the departure of Sir Charles Eliot. Mr. Hobley sent a drawing of the skull and a description of the creature from imperfect specimens he had seen on the slopes of Mount Kenia. Unfortunately his letters were delayed in transmission, so far as their reaching the Zoological Society was concerned. Mr. Hobley is now in England, and it is to be hoped that he will furnish the Zoological Society in detail with the extremely interesting particulars he has given me in conversation regarding this remarkable animal. I would remind your readers that Mr. Hobley (who as regards length of service is almost the senior British official connected with British East Africa) made the important discovery last year of marine organisms in the Victoria Nyanza.
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JOHNSTON, H. The Forest-pig of Central Africa. Nature 70, 601 (1904). https://doi.org/10.1038/070601a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/070601a0
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