ANTELOPES. 



In general the sexes are both of nearly the same 

 colour ; and when they differ they follow the general 

 law, in the change being in the adult male ; lor the 

 young- males are like the females. Colour in animals 

 has, however, so little to do with original difference 

 of species, and depends so much on circumstances, 

 that nothing useful can be founded upon it. 



The ears of the antelopes are in general long, 

 rather narrow and pointed. The tails vary con- 

 siderably in different species, being very short in 

 some, moderately long in others ; in some with a 

 brush at the point, in others with short hair on all 

 their length, and in others again entirely covered 

 with long coarse hair. 



But though it is difficult to select any characters by 

 which the antelopes may be systematically described 

 as one tribe, or even as several subordinate groups, 

 they have at least one character in common, which 

 cannot fail to recommend them to the student of 

 natural history : they are the children of wild nature, 

 and of wild nature in those places which lie the most 

 remote from the culture and the cognisance of man. 

 The cliffs and ledges of mountain rocks, the bush- 

 t angled wastes on the tropical plains and the margins 

 of the arid wildernesses, are the native habitats of the 

 antelopes. There they bound, and spring, and career, 

 ileet as the winds ; now balancing themselves where 

 one would hardly imagine there were foot-fall for a 

 bird ; now clearing the jungle as if they were winged 

 creatures ; and now bounding along the arid plain as 

 if they were actually endowed with a principle of 

 levity. To those who have been accustomed only to 

 the motions of the more sober animals, to the heavy 

 tread of the ox, or the pattering trot of the sheep, the 

 antelopes present something truly novel. From some 

 unseen hollow among the cliff's, one of these animals will 

 vault up perpendicularly, and alight upon all-fours on 

 a pinnacle only a few inches in breadth, and on which 

 any animal with which we are familiar in England 

 would empale itself if it attempted to descend. There 

 it will stand in perfect security with the feet all 

 touching each other and the spine bent upwards like 

 a bow, surveying at its leisure the new horizon of 

 which its elevation has given it command. And it 

 not only seems a bow, but it is one a bow fully bent 

 and itself the arrow ; for no sooner has it espied a new 

 footing to its mind than it bounds off' again though 

 the distance be many fathoms. Nor, if it is upon 

 a journey of some length, can it be contented with 

 walking or even with running along the plain ; but 

 proceeds by a few ileet steps and a still fleeter bound 

 alternately, as if it were utterly unable to keep its 

 own energy within limits. 



From the great diversities of size, power, and ap- 

 pearance, which are observable among antelopes, 

 we may naturally look for corresponding differences 

 of habit. Some accordingly are highly gregarious, 

 and assemble in very numerous herds, especially at 

 particular seasons ; others are found in small packs, 

 and others again solitary, or at most in pairs among 

 the rocks. Every where, however, they have to bear 

 great extremes of climate ; and thus, in no instance 

 has their great energy been given to them in vain. 



Some species may be more localised and permanent 

 in (heir dwellings than others ; but the general habit 

 of the animals is migrant, and there is probably not 

 one district which they inhabit, in which antelopes 

 are not at some season of the year compelled to 

 travel in quest of food. It is this tendency to sea- 



sonal mobilily which forms the grand and distinguish- 

 ing character of the race, and the one upon which, 

 in a useful point of view, it is best to describe tln-m. 

 No doubt, in some of their localities, they approach 

 pretty closely to some of the goats, as they also do 

 in structure and appearance ; so that there the line 

 of distinction between the two races is not very 

 definite, but that is only at particular points. 



Of the other Ruminantia, the buffalo keeps his 

 savannah, and the wild ox his dell or his forest, and 

 only shifts a little way with the seasons. The sheep 

 and the deer too, in the state of nature, have no very 

 strong migratory habits ; and though the mountain 

 goat is sometimes forced to descend in the inclement 

 season, his seasonal journeys are not to any very 

 great distance. These races, in general, inhabit the 

 regions where upon the average they can find food 

 during the greater part of the year ; and, therefore, 

 there are large tracts of the world which, though 

 seasonally rich in food for ruminating animals, are 

 not adapted for them. 



These are chiefly those regions which during Yhe 

 dry season are parched and foodies?, but which are 

 speedily covered with luxurious herbage as soon as 

 the rains set in ; the greater part of Africa, many 

 portions of Asia, and some of America. In Europe 

 they are comparatively few, and confined to the Alps, 

 the Pyrenees, and other mountain ridges. The species 

 on these mountains is the chamois ; and although it has 

 many of the appearances of the antelopes, it has many 

 of the habits of the goats. The same may perhaps be 

 said of the American species, of which the one best 

 known is also a mountaineer : and indeed it is in 

 the mountain species where it is difficult to draw 

 the line, and say with certainty what is an antelope 

 and what a goat. The common distinction that ante- 

 lopes have the section of the horns round, and goats 

 have it angular, is arbitrary, proves nothing, and is 

 not to be depended upon. 



In giving some notice of at least the more remark- 

 able species of these very interesting animals, we 

 shall not pay much attention to system. There is 

 merit no doubt in many of the systems ; but from the 

 very nature of the case not one of them can be re- 

 garded as any thing like perfect. New species are 

 often occurring ; and the classification is chiefly 

 founded upon the form of the horns, which, though it 

 may serve to distinguish one individual or species 

 from another, is connected with no other known 

 character or habit. Hence our plan, as the only popu- 

 lar one, must be to notice the appearance and habits 

 of the several species as briefly and clearly as possible. 



THE PRONG-HORNED ANTELOPE (A.fttrcifer). This 

 species is an American, inhabiting the northern 

 part of that continent ; but migrating a little to 

 the southward in the winter. It is a very hand- 

 some, beautiful, and agile animal, measuring nearly 

 four feet and a half from the nose to the insertion of 

 the tail, and standing three feet in the height of its 

 back, which is a straight line and equally high at the < 

 shoulders and the croup. The line t f the abdomen 

 is also nearly straight, the chest full, the body com- 

 pact and firmly set on the legs, which are finely 

 formed. The tail is very short. The neck is ' at 

 gax.e," carried at right angles to the line of the body ; 

 the ears are lanre, and the eyes prominent and bright ; 

 the hair on the head and neck, except a rudimental 

 mane on the latter, is short ; but that on the body is 

 matted, and the hairs are tubular, or rather in the 



