OR ANIMALS WITH BLOOD. 253 



In numerous passages relating to oxen, sheep, and goats, 

 he describes various breeds, their food, diseases, and habits. 

 He records the existence of the well-known flat-tailed sheep 

 of western Asia, for he says that, in Syria, there are sheep 

 with tails a cubit in width.* The goats of Syria, he says, 

 have ears about a foot long, and, in some cases, their ears 

 hang to the ground ; the goats of Lycia, he adds, are shorn 

 just as sheep are in other places.! Aristotle is evidently 

 referring to the well-known Syrian goat, which has ex- 

 ceptionally long ears, and his Lycian goat is probably the 

 well-known Ajigora goat. 



In a long description of Bonassos, Aristotle makes it 

 clear that it was a wild, ox-like animal, heavily built, with 

 horns nearly nine inches long and turned towards each 

 other, that it had a mane from its head to its shoulders, 

 and a thick mass of hair extending as far as its eyes, in such 

 a way that it could see better sideways than in front, that 

 its colour was between ash colour and red or tawny, and 

 that it was found in Pseonia.t This animal was evidently 

 the European bison. 



Aristotle says that there are no deer in any part of Libya. § 

 This is not true. South of the Sahara, no deer are said to 

 be found, but, in northern Africa, there are deer, e.g., the 

 fallow deer and the Barbary deer. Aristotle seems to have 

 copied a precisely equivalent statement from Herodotus.il 



In Chapter x. some of Aristotle's statements about the 

 horns of Elaphos, the red deer in particular being meant, 

 have been discussed. 



The Hippelaphos has been much discussed by naturalists, 

 and some have attempted to discover it in territories as far 

 apart as Bengal and South Africa. According to Aristotle, 

 it was found in Arachosia, was cloven-footed, and furnished 

 with a tuft of hair on its throat, and also had a mane ; the 

 female was hornless, but the male had horns like those of 

 the DorJcas, or gazelle. IT 



Pallas tried to identify this animal with Pliny's Tragela- 

 phos, an animal living near the river Phasis.** According to 

 Desmarest,ff Allamand attempted to identify it with the gnu 

 of South Africa ; it may be mentioned that Allamand was 



'■■• H. A. viii. c. 27, s. 3. f Ibid. viii. c. 27, s. 3, 



I Ibid. ix. c. 32. § Ibid. viii. e. 27, s. 3. 



li iv. 192. if H. A. ii. c. 2, ss. 3 and 4. 



*=•■• Spicilegia Zoolog. Fasciculus Undecimus, 1776, p. 51. 



If Mammalogie, 1822, 2nd part, p. 472. 



