The Zoology of North American Big Game 



directed sometimes outwardly from the head with 

 a circular sweep ; at others with a backward curve, 

 often spirally. The muzzle is always hairy; there 

 is no small accessory column on the inner side of 

 the upper molars, found always in oxen and in 

 some antelopes ; the tail is short, and scent glands 

 are present between the digits of some or all the 

 feet. 



Now, as to the perplexing animals popularly 

 known as antelopes. No definition could be framed 

 which would include them all in one group, for 

 every subordinate character seems to be present in 

 some and absent in others, so that the most that 

 can be done with this vast assemblage is to arrange 

 its contents in series of genera, which may or may 

 not be called sub-families, but which probably 

 correspond in some degree to their real affinities. 

 We can only say of any one of them that it is an 

 antelope because it is not a sheep, nor a goat, nor 

 an ox. They concern us here only to be eliminated, 

 for they are not American, our prong-buck having 

 a sub-family all to itself, as we shall see later, and 

 the so-called "white goat" being usually regarded 

 as neither goat nor truly antelope. 



Within the limits of the real bovine animals, four 

 quite distinct types may be made out, chiefly by the 

 position of the horns upon the skull and by the 



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