9 i8 THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



There are two chief methods of hunting the prongbuck; one by 

 stalking or "still-hunting," and the other by coursing with grey- 

 hounds. In the northwestern portion of its habitat, the proper season for hunting 

 embraces the months of September, October, and November; but in the southwest 

 the period may be extended to the end of the year. In localities where they have 

 not been much disturbed, prongbuck are comparatively tame and not very difficult 

 to approach within range. The case is, however, very different in districts where 

 they are frequently hunted. Thus Mr. Du Bray writes, that " the ostrich, with his 

 vaunted power of vision, is comparatively nearsighted when compared with the an- 

 telope.* The giraffe may excell him, not from having superior eyes, but from their 

 greater elevation, and therefore greater scope. The deer is simply nowhere in this 

 respect. Even when in the habit of roaming on the prairie, he has not the knack of 

 detecting an intruder as an antelope has. I never had any trouble in getting within 

 two hundred yards of an ostrich, in any decent place; yet, with years 01 experience 

 on these, and a great deal of other prairie shooting, I at first found it difficult to get 

 within six hundred yards of an antelope, and then it was invariably a wide-awake 

 one, fully able to take care of himself." 



For coursing the prongbuck, only the very best bred and toughest greyhounds 

 are of any use, while it is equally essential that the horse on which the hunter is 

 mounted should be of the swiftest. With such dogs it appears, however, that the 

 prongbuck is by no means difficult to pull down, and it may accordingly be inferred 

 that the speed of the animal is considerably inferior to that of the Indian black 

 buck, which, as we have seen, cannot be captured by greyhounds on good ground. 

 Fossilized remains of the prongbuck occur in some of the superficial 

 Pleistocene deposits of North America, but palaeontology has not hith- 

 erto revealed to us the existence of any nearly-allied extinct forms. It is suggested, 

 however, that a small deer-like animal (Cosoryx], with short antlers, may have given 

 rise to the prongbuck by the loss of the fork in the antlers, and the development of 

 a superficial horny sheath. 



THE GIRAFFE 

 Family 



As we have already had occasion to mention, the giraffe (Giro/a camelopar- 

 dalis], like the prongbuck, is the sole existing representative of the family to which 

 it belongs. Whereas, however, the latter animal stands apparently alone among 

 Ruminants, species of giraffes were widely distributed in former epochs, while there 

 were also several more or less closely-allied types now extinct. 



Owing to the great length of its neck and limbs, coupled with its large bodily 

 size, the giraffe is by far the tallest of all Mammals. In addition to its elongated 

 neck and limbs, it is characterized by the depth and shortness of the body, the great 

 elevation of the withers as compared with the hind-quarters, and the long and deli- 

 cately-formed head, with its large, full, and clear eyes, and the pair of horn-like ap- 

 pendages covered with skin which surmount the occiput. 



* In America the prongbuck is often termed the antelope, pure and simple. 



