1.36 



ANTELOPE S. 



form of hollow cones, of small diameter as compared 

 with their length. These tubular hairs stand out and 

 give the animal a shaggy appearance. The tubular 

 hair appears to be a defence against the snow and 

 cold in winter, for it does not come on till the end of 

 the season, and it is shed in the beginning of the 

 next. This is a curious winter change in the cover- 

 ing of an animal ; but as these tubular hairs contain 

 air, they form an excellent protection against the 

 very low temperatures to which the animal is exposed 

 in its more northerly haunts. The colour of the 

 points on the upper part is fawn ; and that of the 

 roots pale blue with a reddish blush. The interior 

 of the fore legs and thighs is white ; and there is a 

 white disc surrounding the insertion of the tail. In 

 summer the general tint has more of the reddish 

 blue, but as it passes gradually into the fawn colour, 

 the different individuals are differently tinted at that 

 season. As the hair elongates and becomes tubular it 

 loses its gloss, and no doubt also much of its vital action. 



Prong -horned Antelope. 



The greatest peculiarity, and the one in which it 

 differs from all other known species with persistent 

 horns, is in the form of these appendages. They are 

 branched, or have a little prong or antler projecting 

 forward from each. This prong is not far from the 

 root, and the part below it is rough, knobby, and 

 of a whitish colour, while that toward the tip is 

 round, polished and black, though curved forwards 

 and inwards. Those naturalists who have written on 

 this animal do not mention whether the bony core 

 has the prong and the irregularities on the basal part, 

 or whether these are confined wholly to the horny 

 sheath. Pronged horns, somewhat different in form, 

 and especially more compressed laterally in the basal 

 part, have been brought from America, from the same 

 regions that are inhabited by this animal ; but whether 

 they belong to the same species or to a different one, 

 has not been made out. The males only of this spe- 

 cies have horns. 



The range and also the numbers of these animals 

 are considerable. They are not found in the very 

 extreme north, nor on the summits of the Stony 

 Mountains ; but they range along the secondary hills 

 from the neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay, as far 

 south as the confines, of Mexico, and westward nearly 

 to the shores of the Pacific. They migrate south- 

 ward as the cold sets in, and prefer the open plains 

 and slopes to the woodlands. They are gregarious, 

 and associate and migrate in considerable flocks. 

 The females produce one or at most two at a birth. 

 Their flesh has a rank and "goaty" flavour, and is 

 not very much esteemed even by the Indians, unless 

 when they are very much in want of food. 



THE CHAMOIS (A. rupicapra). As the prung- 

 horncd is the only American species which has 

 hitherto been made out in a manner perfectly satis- 

 factory, so the chamois is the only one which ex- 

 tends into Western Europe, and has its principal 

 locality in that quarter of the world. It is not how- 

 ever confined to Europe, but is found in the moun- 

 tainous parts of Western Asia, although, hitherto, it 

 has not been seen to the eastward of the Caspian sea. 

 It follows the line of the European mountains, both 

 on the right and the left of the valley of the Danube ; 

 but it affects the most lofty and inaccessible situa- 

 tions, never descends into the lower plains, and is 

 perhaps more abundant in the Alps than in any other 

 locality. 



The body of the chamois is that of a goat, and 

 the legs also have the firmness of those of that animal 

 rather than the airy lightness of those of the true an- 

 telopes. The neck is more slender than that of the 

 goat, and the head, only that the horns are different, 

 and the tips more produced, has much of the air of 

 that of the furcifer. The horns are black in the co- 

 lour, perfectly smooth, erect for about two-thirds of 

 their length, and then turned back into hooks, very 

 sharp at the tips. The horns are not above six or 

 seven inches long, and they are smaller and less 

 hooked in the females than in the males. The hair 

 on the body is shaggy, deep fawn colour in summer, 

 fading brown in winter, and bleaching into a sort of 

 straw colour before that season is over. The females 

 drop their kids in March or April, after a gestation 

 of five months j they rarely have two at a birth, and, 

 contrary to many of the family, they have only two 

 teats. They continue to suckle their young till about 

 October. 



There are few who have not heard of the daring 

 and the perils of chamois hunters in the Alps ; and 

 the animal itself is truly a wonderful creature among 

 the crags and precipices. It is not very large, only 

 between three and four feet, and about two feet in 

 height at the shoulders ; the croup is as high ; and 

 indeed leaping animals, which leap in any other way 

 than to pounce upon their prey, in general stand 

 about equally high on both pairs of legs. But the 

 chamois appears as if it were wholly made of elastic 

 springs, and it absolutely gets up precipices that have 

 very little slope, and down those which are quite per- 

 pendicular, by playing at " ducks and drakes " against 

 the rocks, as a stone does upon the water when pro- 

 jected nearly parallel to the surface. In ascending, 

 it contrives so to strike the rock as that the force of 

 the rebound projects it upwards, and it can repeat 

 those rebounds, rising several feet at each. When 

 it descends it is just as adroit in breaking its fall ; and 

 if it requires a rest, the smallest ledge, or even a 

 pinnacle will afford it a secure footing. It seems 

 indeed to be as much made for the mountains as the 

 mountains are for it, and one almost regrets that 

 the chamois should ever be hunted. 



But the hunting of it is no holiday sport. Its 

 senses are keen and its vigilance great, so that to 

 come upon it requires both silence and patience ; 

 and as, when alarmed, it speeds like the wind, the 

 hunter of the Alps dearly wins his game. After all, 

 the prey which he takes is in all probability taken 

 only from the birds of prey or from famine. The 

 pastures on the Alps at chamois height are but 

 scanty, and could not, in all probability, admit of any 

 increase of numbers ; and notwithstanding the hardi- 



