42 The Ottawa Naturalist [June 



I have had many, have given me greater pleasure, and I felt 

 rewarded for my long disappointment in failing to see before 

 that remarkable mammal the prong-horn antelope of Canada. 



Several years have since elapsed and I continued to keep 

 a keen outlook on the occasion of my many recent journeys, but 

 I was not privileged to see the antelope again until a few weeks 

 ago. In the first week of May, about 70 miles west of Swift 

 Current, a western man in the Pullman car was calling my 

 attention to a large herd of cattle scattered over some low hills, 

 400 or 500 yards from the railway track, when he excitedly 

 exclaimed, "There's a small band of antelope beside them." 

 A group of four or five prong-horn antelope were grazing about 

 one hundred yards from the cattle. They fed nervously and 

 every few seconds one or other of them would raise his head and 

 look round, keeping watch. They were plainly to be seen, 

 though less favourably than the group which I had observed a 

 few years before. My friend had the keen acute vision of the 

 western man, familiar with the moving objects of the plains, and 

 he had made no mistake. Indeed, one can make no mistake 

 about this graceful prairie animal as it haughtily tosses its 

 head and looks round, the dark perpendicular horns resembling 

 a high crown on its forehead and adding to its proud bearing. 

 The slender neck held erect, the sharp nose, high forehead, small 

 ears not unlike those of a pony, and the forked curved horns, 

 impart to it a peculiar aspect, very characteristic, and not 

 readity forgotten. There is a resemblance to the goat, the 

 delicate trim feet and the erect horns being so goat-like, but 

 the expression of the eyes and the light graceful bearing recall 

 the deer tribe. Our prong-horn antelope is indeed neither a deer 

 nor true antelope nor goat, but is intermediate in position, and 

 combines their zoological features. Like the giraffe, which, 

 is also a unique Ruminant, the antelope of the Canadian prairie 

 occupies a position by itself amongst mammals. The Rumi- 

 nantia form the highest group of the even-toed Ungulates or 

 hoofed animals. This group includes the Bovidae or hollow- 

 horned cattle, oxen, sheep, goats, and true antelopes; the 

 Cervidse or deer, the Ruminants with solid horns; the Camelidae 

 or Camels; and two peculiar families, the Giraffidae or Giraffes, 

 and the Antilocapridaj or Prong-horn x^ntelopes. These two 

 last families are remarkable as containing each only one species, 

 unless there be two species of Giraffes. The Prong-horn is there- 

 fore a unique species in a unique family, and cannot be ranked 

 with any other living ruminant. In height our antelope is about 

 three feet at the shoulder and about forty-eight inches from 

 snout to tail, while its weight averages 70 pounds, being therefore 

 much smaller than the Virginia deer (Cariacus virginianiis). 



