366 Sport and Life. 



this generic name should or should not be employed seems to turn on what 

 that author intended to imply by the use of the term solid horns. 



It has been suggested to me in conversation by that eminent naturalist 

 Dr. Theo. Gill, that Rafinesque's idea of what constitutes solid horns was 

 not what we understand by the same term to-day, and that the agreement 

 of the other characters given with those of the white antelope and the 

 doubt as to the sense in which Rafinesque used the term solid justify 

 us in employing this generic name. 



It is perfectly clear that Rafinesque intended his description of Mazama 

 dorsata and sericea to apply to the white antelope and to no other animal. 

 Of this there is no shadow of doubt. The animal is identified beyond a 

 peradventure. This being the case, and Mazama being the earliest 

 generic name applied to it, it should be retained, and the white antelope 

 becomes Mazama montana (Ord), Gill. 



The local names in use for this species and those applied to it by 

 various authors are numerous. The older writers called it mountain sheep, 

 Rocky Mountain goat, and white goat, and these names still obtain in 

 various localities where it is found. On the eastern flanks of the Rocky 

 Mountains and generally in the United States it is commonly called " goat " 

 or " white goat " ; but among the Canadian Indians, who speak a little 

 English, it is more often spoken of as " sheep," and this term is universal 

 among the Indians, and nearly so among the white population, of the 

 north-west coast through Washington and British Columbia to Alaska. In 

 south-western Montana, in parts of Idaho, in eastern California, and perhaps 

 in other places, it is sometimes known as " ibex," a name which is also 

 often applied to the two or three-year-old male of the mountain sheep 

 (Ovis canadensis}. Lewis and Clark state that the Indians spoke of the 

 white antelope as " white buffalo." Mackenzie, according to Richardson, 

 says that his Indians designated Ovis canadensis by the same name, but it 

 seems likely that the reference may have really been to Mazama, to which 

 such a name would be especially applicable, as will be recognised by any 

 one who has had ample opportunity of observing these high-shouldered 

 rock climbers. 



Most of the Indian 'names for Mazama montana, so far as I have been 

 able to gather them and to learn their significance, have reference to its 

 colour ; thus the Blackfoot name Apoh'-mah-kee-kinna appears to mean 

 " white head," the Cree name is Wa-pa-tik, which signifies " white deer." 

 The Indians of British Columbia, as stated, call it " sheep," and where the 

 bighorn (Ovis canadensis) also occurs, the former is known as Taculp 

 sheep (white sheep), and the latter as Klale sheep (black or dark sheep). 

 Both these adjectives are from the Chinook jargon. The Squawmisht 



