IN THE FAR WEST. 311 



of its limited range may be attributed to its cautiousness, 

 extreme fear of forests, and its peculiar taste in food. Its 

 aliment is entirely herbaceous, and, unlike some of its kindred, 

 it cannot be induced to partake of arboreous food even when 

 suffering- from hunger. The only time when it can be per- 

 suaded to enter timber is when the old bucks wish to seek 

 seclusion from their associates during the growth of the horns ; 

 but they will not seek refuge in it even then, if it is any way 

 dense, and is not surrounded by prairies. When startled there, 

 instead of trying to conceal itself in the undergrowth it breaks 

 away at once for the plains, as if it depended more on speed 

 than any other quality for safety. It is a fine specimen 

 of grace and nimbleness, and, when in motion, is an ideal 

 representative of a quadruped in flight. 



It is interesting to naturalists from the position which it 

 occupies in the animal world, it being the only species of its 

 genus thus far discovered. It might really be called a combi- 

 nation of the deer, antelope, and goat, for it has some of the 

 characteristics of all three. It differs from the true antelopes 

 in having a branch or snag on its horns, in having no lachry- 

 mal sinus, and in being destitute of the posterior or accessory 

 hoofs. It is smaller than the ordinary deer, an adult male 

 seldom exceeding four feet four inches in length, and three 

 ieet in height at the shoulder, while the weight rarely exceeds 

 seventy pounds. The head is rather short and broad ; the ears 

 are small and erect ; the neck is short and erect ; the body is 

 short and round ; the tail is so small as to be scarcely visible 

 at any distance ; and the legs are long, thin and tapering. 

 The horns, which are its most characteristic feature, and which 

 cause it to differ widely from all other ruminants, are worn by 

 both sexes; but they are little more than rudimentary in the 

 female until she is full-grown, and even then they seldom exceed 

 three or four inches in length. I have known them to measure 

 fourteen inches on the male, by following the curve ; to have 

 the snags five and a half inches from the base of the horns, 

 and to be over twelve inches apart; whereas the horns, where 

 they rise from the skull, are only from three to three and a 

 half inches apart. The great peculiarity of these corneous 



