The Antelope. 305 



usually arched, and legs slender. The eye is very large and set 

 high up on the head, immediately beneath the base of the horn. 

 The antelope is reddish-yellow above and white below. The face 

 up to the horns, an irregularly oval patch at the angle of the 

 jaw. and a line down the back of the neck are blackish-brown. 

 The sides and lower portion of the head, several irregular cross- 

 bars on the front of the neck, the lower flanks, a large triangular 

 white patch on the rump, and the entire under parts and legs, 

 are white. The hoofs and horns are always black. The latter vary 

 somewhat in form. Near the base they are long oval in cross 

 section, the diameter from before backward being two or three 

 times greater than that from side to side. They rise from just 

 above the eye slightly forward and outward, and are sometimes 

 sixteen inches long, though usually less than twelve. The shaft is 

 scimeter shaped, the tip curving sharply so that it is usually directed 

 somewhat downward, but the continuity of the anterior outline 

 is broken by the " prong," which springs from a point about half 

 way between the base and the tip, as a triangular stub, with its 

 point directed inward, forward, and upward. The tips are usually 

 directed backward, or else turn inward so as nearly to meet. 

 Occasionally, a specimen is seen in which one tip is directed in and 

 one backward, and in a pair of horns now in my possession both tips 

 are twisted so as to point forward and downward. While the horns 

 usually rise straight from the head, only spreading very slightly, they 

 are sometimes directed almost away from each other, like the horns 

 of an ox, and on rare occasions a buck may be seen with one horn 

 growing down over his face, in the style of " the cow with the 

 crumpled horn." Twice I have killed bucks with four horns, the extra 

 ones being three or four inches long and attached loosely to the skin 

 behind the normal horns. The female antelope is usually hornless, 

 but a certain proportion of the does have small cylindrical horns, from 

 one to three inches long, and without the prong. 



The hair of the antelope is peculiar, being coarse, spongy, and 

 brittle, and so loosely attached to the skin that it is easily pulled off 

 in handling. There is also an under-coat of fine wool, which is 

 especially noticeable in spring when the coat is being shed. This 

 species is provided with a number of glands in the skin, and these 

 exhale a strong and disagreeable odor, which pervades the whole 

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