OF THE HOLLOW-HORNED RUMINANTS. 43 



distinct subdivisions of the genus Antilope, the same species being thus three times de- 

 scribed in as many different subgenera. 



The only additions made towards perfecting the classification of the hollow-horned 

 Ruminants, subsequent to the publication of Colonel Smith's work, were the article 

 ' Antelope' of the ' Penny Cyclopaedia,' and a short paper on the generic distribution of 

 this order generally, in the fourth part of the ' Zoological Proceedings' .' In the former 

 the genus was divided into subgeneric groups, after the manner of Lichtenstein, De 

 Blainville, and Colonel Smith ; but the trivial characters employed by these naturalists 

 were, for the most part, discarded ; the groups were formed in strict accordance with 

 the characters of the individual species composing them, and greater simpUcity and pre- 

 cision were given to the definitions. The enumeration of species, however, was in many 

 cases compiled from the works of Colonel Smith and Desmarest, and is occasionally 

 inaccurate, the introduction of nominal or uncertain species being unavoidable in an 

 article of that kind. In the latter, the principles which I shall presently explain at 

 greater length were for the first time apphed to the classification of the Ruminantia in 

 general ; and though farther observation and experience have induced some modifications, 

 and enabled me to correct some material errors which had crept into that sketch, I be- 

 lieve the generic distribution of the hoUow-horned Ruminants there proposed will not 

 only be found to be based on essential, marked, and influential characters, but to be in 

 strict accordance with the natural habits, ceconomy and structure of the animals. 



III. Insufficiency and ill effect of the characters hitherto employed in the generic distri- 

 bution of the Ruminantia. 



In attentively considering the preceding review of the history of classification as ap- 

 plied to the hollow-horned Ruminants, it will be observed that the consequences of the 

 faulty and unphilosophical principles employed in that department of mammalogy were 

 natural enough. The genera Bos, Ovis, and Capra, represented by familiar and well- 

 known types, carried with them clear and definite ideas, and represented to the mind of 

 the naturalist distinct and determined forms. However vague and arbitrary their 

 generic definitions, they could not possibly be mistaken or confounded with any other 

 groups ; but the genus Antilope was exemplified by no common domestic species, familiar 

 to the every-day observation of the student, whose form was associated with his earUest 

 recollections, and whose characters were engraven upon his mind by a more indehble 

 process than the description of the zoologist. Everything connected with this genus 

 was vague, arbitrary, and indeterminate ; the term Antelope conveyed no positive idea 

 to the mind of the naturalist ; or the only conception it enabled him to form was, that 

 the animal, whatever else it might be, was neither an Ox, a Sheep, nor a Goat. The 



' ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' Part iv. p. 136-9. 



g2 



