16 The National Collection 



able wild-goat forms, called markhor ("snake-eater!"), all of which inhabit 

 the "roof of the world'" in Kashmir and Beluchistan, northwest of India. 



In the group of short-horned goats (Rupicaprinac) is found the rare and 

 almost unknown Takin, Budorcas taxicolor (Plate IV, Fig. 6), from south- 

 eastern China, near the Assam frontier. Of this creature, as large as a donkey, 

 but horned like a gnu, Mr. Rowland Ward has said that, "although living 

 within sight of Indian territory, it does not appear that Takin ever have been 

 killed by English sportsmen, and specimens are very rare in collections." Mr. 

 Ward's "Records" note the existence of only fifteen specimens. 



The White Mountain Goat (Oreamnos montanus), which can come from 

 no other country than northwestern North America, is represented by a very 

 fine mounted head. By reason of its great bulk and shaggy coat of pure white 

 hair, this animal is so striking that it does not require, for the sake of appear- 

 ances, the massive and far-reaching horns of the ibex. On the contrary, the 

 horns of Oreamnos are small and inconspicuous; but, being very strongly built 

 and as sharp as skewers, they are exceedingly useful weapons in repelling 

 the attacks of all predatory animals except man. This specimen owes its place 

 in the nucleus collection, not to its size, nor the length of its pelage, but to 

 what the writer regards as the absolute perfection of its mounting. A Sep- 

 tember head, cut from the animal and placed in the flesh upon a shield would 

 be no more perfect in form than this head (Fig. 14), which was mounted by 

 Mr. Homer R. Dill. 



THE ANTELOPES 



In approaching the true antelopes we behold a great array of species and 

 a marvelous variety of forms. In size they vary from the tiny Duiker, with 

 legs no larger than a pencil, up to the gigantic Eland, an animal as large as an 

 ox. The array of different colors, and the variety of color patterns, is fairly 

 bewildering. The splendid Sable Antelope is jet black, the Hartebeests are 

 brown, the Roan Antelopes are red, the Oryxes are harlequin white and 

 black, the White-Bearded Gnu is blue-gray, and the Beatrix is snow white. In 

 some species the males and females are so widely and so permanently different 

 in color that to a stranger the sexes seem of different species. 



The variations in form also are very great. There is every possible range, 

 from the snake-like Gerenuk, with a neck so amazingly long and thin as to be 

 unbelievable until seen, to the Harnessed Antelope, with a short, heavy body 



