THE AMERICAN ANTELOPE 



BY R. W. SHUFELDT 



WE have no true antelopes in this country, as all 

 the animals of that group including the gazelles 

 are Old World species and especially of Afri- 

 can habitat, where many interesting kinds are found. In 

 the United States we find but one animal that in any 

 way approaches the veritable antelopes in anatomy, form, 

 and habits, and this is the well-known Pronghorn ante- 

 lope, or, as it is almost universally known with us, 

 simply the antelope. It has other names, however, for 

 it has been called the Prongbuck, and, by the earlier 

 settlers of the West, the 

 Cabrit and Cabree. It is 

 the sole representative of 

 both the genus and the 

 family, and it is safe to say 

 that it is the only animal of 

 its kind in existence. We 

 have no fossil remains of 

 any form closely related 

 to it. 



Of course, our antelope 

 are now very rapidly dis- 

 appearing, while formerly 

 they were very numerous. 

 Their present distribution, 

 however, is generally given 

 as occurring from the 

 Mexican boundary, north- 

 ward to the valley of the 

 Saskatchewan (Lat. 53), 

 and on the plains from the 

 Missouri River westward 

 to the Rocky Mountains. 

 In Washington and Ore- 

 gon the Cascade Range 

 formerly defined their ex- 

 tension in that direction ; 

 but in the absence of exact 

 statistics on this question, I 

 am not prepared to state 

 over what areas of their 

 former range before they 

 were molested by man they may still be found. 



Antelope, wherever met with, is purely an animal of 

 the plains and open, rolling country, never being found 

 in the timber, much less in the mountains. We have 

 no history of its ever having been found east of the 

 .Mississippi River, and we possess no evidence of this 

 kind through the discovery of fossil or subfossil re- 

 mains in this region, nor in Indian mound-relics and 

 tradition. 



A full-grown buck antelope is smaller than any adult 

 specimen of our American deer, and quite different from 

 any of them in form. It has a big head, which is held 

 erect upon a short, thickset neck. The body is robust 



A FULL-GROWN MALE AMERICAN ANTELOPE 



Figure 1. Drawn by the well-known British animal artist, J. Smit, for the 

 Zoological Society of London. The long tail removed by the present 

 writer, and the figure retouched. Only in the adult female does the 

 horn grow to a length so as to be visible above the hair. 



and somewhat chunky. It has a very short tail, and 

 rather short, slim limbs. Its small pointed hoofs are 

 bifid and black, and its horns are peculiar, being situ- 

 ated on bony cores supported by the frontal bones, 

 deciduous and hollow to the extent of admitting into 

 them the aforesaid cores. These horns are perfectly 

 black with whitish tips, and at the middle of each there 

 springs a short, triangular snag in front. Below this, 

 the horn is laterally compressed while it is cylindrical 

 above it. Cutaneous glands and hair tufts are absent 



from the limbs, while they 

 do occur singly over the 

 flanks below, at the base of 

 each ear, behind each hock, 

 and a dorsal one ; and each 

 foot has an interdigital one 

 eleven in all. Beneath 

 the eye, both the lacrymal 

 gland and sinus are absent. 

 Aside from numerous 

 anatomical characters, it 

 may be stated that in the 

 mouth-parts the mucuous 

 membrane and naked areas 

 are coal black ; the hair on 

 the cheeks and top of head 

 above the eyes, as well as 

 the under side of the head, 

 is * white ; face very dark 

 brown a color which also 

 surrounds the white ears, 

 and there is a patch of the 

 same under each ear. Up- 

 per parts are yellowish 

 brown, below, white. There 

 is also a white spot behind 

 either ear; the throat is 

 white, and the two triangles 

 on the front of the neck 

 are likewise white. Rump 

 white ; legs ocre brown, 

 and the tail white, with a 

 dash of tawny on the upper side. All rudimentary hoofs 

 are absent, and the eyes are black, large, and very 

 expressive. The hair on the back of the neck is pro- 

 duced as a short mane. The length of the animal is 

 four and a half feet, with height at the shoulder nearly 

 five feet in full-grown males. 



Judge Caton describes the topographical character of 

 the antelope in great detail perhaps some would say in 

 greater detail than is necessary for so well known and 

 so easily recognized an animal ; but in this opinion I do 

 not concur. It is very evident that the Judge was 

 writing for all time and not simply to satisfy the popu- 

 lar taste of his day. For example, he says of the eye 



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