176 MAMMALIA. 



that can be compared with the antelope, having, however, peculiar 

 characters: its straight horns are bent suddenly backward like a 

 hook ; behind each ear, under the skin, is a sac, whose only external 

 opening is a small orifice.* Its size is that of a large goat. The 

 hair is of a deep brown, with a black band descending from the eye 

 towards the muzzle. The swiftness of its course among rocks and 

 precipices is wonderful, and it remains in small herds in the middle 

 region of the highest mountains. 

 M, Smith separates from the antelopes, under the generic name of Ca- 

 TOBLEPAs, the 



A. gnu, Gm. ; Buff. Supp. VI. pi. viii and ix. (The Gnou or 

 Niou). A very extraordinary animal, which, at the first glance, 

 seems to be a monster composed of parts of different animals. It 

 has the body and croup of a small horse, covered with brown hairs ; 

 the tail furnished with long white hairs, like that of the horse, and 

 on the neck a beautiful straight mane, the hairs of which are white 

 at the base and black at the tip. The horns, approximated and en- 

 larged at the base like those of the Cape Buffalo, descend outwardly, 

 and turn up at the point ; its muzzle is large, flat, and surrounded 

 with a circle of projecting hairs; under the throat and dewlap is an- 

 other black mane; the feet have all the lightness of the stag's. 

 Horns in both sexes. Inhabits the mountains to the north of the 

 Cape, where it is rather rare, although the antients appear to have 

 had some knowledge of it.-j- 



The three remaining genera have the bony core of the horns principally 

 occupied with cells, which communicate with the frontal sinuses. The 

 direction of their horns furnishes the characters of the divisions. 



Capra, Lin. 



The Goats have the horns directed upwards and backwards; the chin 

 generally furnished with a long beard, and the chanfrin almost always 

 concave. 



C. cegragus, Gm. ; Cuv. Menag. du Mus. 8vo. II. 177. (The 

 iEgagrus or Wild Goat). Appears to be the stock of all the va- 

 rieties of our domestic goat. It is distinguished by its horns, trench- 

 ant in front, very large in the male ; short, or altogether wanting in 

 the female, which is also sometimes the case in the two species of 

 Ibex. It lives in herds on the mountains of Persia (where it is 

 known by the name oi paseng), and perhaps on those of other coun- 



* It was, perhaps, a mistaken idea respecting the indication of tliis orifice which 

 led the antients to say, that, according to Empedocles, goats breathed through the ■ 

 ears. 



f This species most probably gave rise to the catoblepas. See Pliny, lib. VIII. 

 exxxii, and /Elian, lib. VIII. c. v. 



The most complete work on the subject of the antelopes is that of M. Ham. Smith, 

 inserted in the work of Griffith, and I regret that the want of sufficient objects for 

 observation have prevented me from giving all its details. 



