308 ANTELOPES AND OXEN CHAP. 
of zoological significance. As a rule there are horns in both sexes ; 
but this rule is not without exceptions, of which one is the genus 
Strepsiceros, the Koodoo. Many other Bovidae are horned in 
the males only, e.g. Swiga, Tragelaphus. The Antelopes further 
differ from the true Oxen in their more graceful build, and 
in the fact that the horns, if they curve at all, generally curve 
backwards towards the neck. In the Oxen, on the other hand, 
the build is stouter, and the horns usually curve outwards. The 
same remarks apply to the Sheep. Such an Antelope, however, 
as the Eland (Orzas) is very Ox-hke in habit. Another feature 
which may be remarked upon, though not of absolute differential 
value, is that while the Antelopes are as a rule smooth and sleek 
in their skins, the Oxen tend to be rough and shaggy. The Zebu, 
however, in this, in its hump, and in general aspect, is far from 
being unlike an Eland. But then the Zebu is a domestic race, and 
we do not know what the wild stock was like. It is perhaps with 
the Goats that the Antelopes have the nearest affinities, and it is 
difficult to place such a form as Nemorrhaedus, and indeed some 
others. In the Antelopes as a rule the middle lower incisors are 
larger than the lateral ones ; in the Sheep and Goats they are alike 
in size. The parietal bones, too, in the Antelopes are moderately 
large and are much shortened in the remaining Cavicornia, especi- 
ally in the Oxen. As the Antelopes are the oldest, so far as we 
know, of all bovine animals, one would expect to find them com- 
bining the characters of the rest. But they do this so effectually 
that a disentanglement is really impossible. They date from the 
Miocene. Antelopes are now limited to Europe, Asia, and Africa ; 
they have always had the same range, though more abundant in 
former times in Europe. They preponderate now in tropical 
Africa, and abound in genera and species. Messrs. Sclater and 
Thomas ' allow altogether thirty-five genera, of which twenty-four 
are exclusively Ethiopian in range. 
In the following summary of the group Messrs. Sclater and 
Thomas’s work is followed. They commence with a section or 
sub-family of which the type is the Hartebeest. 
Bubalis, or Alcelaphus as it is sometimes called, is an African 
genus, ranging however into Arabia. These Antelopes are 
characterised by the long skull and the doubly-curved horns. 
There are eight species of the genus, of which B. caama is the 
oD 
1 The Book of Antelopes, London, Porter, 1894-1900. 
