DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 571 



The Klipspringers 



Subfamily Oreotragina 



The klipspringers are distinguishable from all other 

 African antelopes by their coarse, bristly, and pithy hair 

 and by the very narrow, cylindrical hoofs, the extreme tips 

 of which alone support the animal's weight. Besides these 

 peculiarities the skull exhibits a marked brevity of snout 

 with immense anteorbital glands on its sides, which open in 

 front of the eye by a large, rounded pore. The horns are 

 short, seldom exceeding the head in length, and project ver- 

 tically above the eyes, being wide apart basally and parallel 

 throughout their length. The body is rather heavily built, 

 and the legs are short. The hoofs are rounded at the tips 

 and the false hoofs are very broad. The inguinal region is 

 without pits or sacks in the skin. The female has four 

 mammae. The skull is remarkable for the large size of its 

 anteorbital fossa, which covers the entire side of the snout, 

 almost equalling the orbit in area. The nasal bones are 

 very broad and short, spreading out posteriorly so as to 

 make them triangular in shape. The sinus between the 

 nasal bones and the lachrymal is small and narrow or 

 obsolete. 



The Klipspringer 



Oreotragus 



Oreotragus A. Smith, 1834, S. Af. Quart. Journ., II, p. 212; type 0. oreotragtis. 



The klipspringer is the only African antelope which has 

 made an attempt to occupy the place in nature taken by the 

 wild sheep and goats of the northern hemisphere, the 

 chamois of Europe, the goral of Asia, and the white ante- 

 lope goat of America. He has succeeded remarkably well 

 and has widely differentiated himself from his kin. In the 

 matter of hoofs fitted for rock-climbing he has become 

 specialized beyond all other hoofed mammals, and has pro- 

 duced for himself a very narrow but elongate hoof upon the 

 extreme tip of which he walks, instead of upon the whole 

 base. The narrow tips give him a firm footing on the 

 steepest of rocks where often no foothold is visible on the 



