RUMINANTIA. 



141 





Fig. 62. — Prong-horned Antelope 



Near it, wp conceive, should be placed tlie Addax, toa^etlier with the A. sylvaiica, decula, scripta, and one 



or two others. The A. scripta, or Harnessed Antelope, is an 

 elegant small species, the Guib of Buffon, of a lively fulvous 

 colour, marked with harness-]i\i.e white stripes and spots. 

 The A. zebra has dark reg'ular stripes across the crupper.] 



i. Horns bifurcated, {Aniilocapra, Ord ; Dicranoceros, 

 Smith). 



Of all the forms of hollow horns, this is the most singular : 

 a compressed branch is given off from their base or trunk, 

 almost like the antler of a Stag ; the pointed tips curve back- 

 ward. The best known species is 



The Cabril of the Canadians (A. ftircifera, H. Smith), which 

 inhabits the extensive plains of the centre and west of North 

 America in vast herds : its size is nearly that of the Roe ; hair 

 thick, waved, and reddish ; the antler of its horns situate 

 near the middle of their height. [Nearly allied is the A. pal- 

 mata. Smith, decidedly a distinct species, which has palmated 

 forked horns, that it employs in scooping away the snow : it is 

 a mountain animal, the range of which appears to be more southward than that of the other.] 

 1\. Four horns (Tetraceros, Leach). 



This subdivision, recently discovered in India, was not unknowii to the ancients. iElian speaks of it, xv. c. 14, 

 by the name of the Four-horned Oryx* : the anterior pair are before the eyes, the posterior completely behind the 

 frontal. [As the position of the horns varies in some groups of two-horned Antelopes, it may be that the anterior 

 pair of the four-horned species are represented in the greater number, and the posterior pair in the Bush Ante- 

 lopes (PMlantomba).'] 



The Tcliicarra (A. chicarra, Hardw.). — Size of a Roe> and nearly uniform fulvous : no horns in the female sex. 

 It is found in the forests of Hindostan. The .4. quadricornis, Blainv.. is only known to me by a cranium, the 

 anterior horns of which are proportionally larger ; perhaps it may only diifer in age. 

 /. IVo smooth horns. 



The Nylghau (^A. picfa, and trago-camelus, Gm.). — As large as a Stag, and larger : horns short, and recurved for- 

 ward, peculiar to the male sex ; a beard under the middle of the neck. Inhabits India. 



The Chamois (A. rupricapra, Lin.). — The only ruminant of western Europe that can be compared with the 

 Antelopes, but presenting peculiar characters. Its smooth horns are curved abruptly backward like a hook : behind 

 each ear, is a sac beneath the skin, which opens externally by a small orifice.f Its size is that of a large Goat. 

 Kair deep brown, with a black band descending from the eye towards the middle. Tliis species traverses rocks and 

 precipices with extreme agility, inhabiting in small troops the middle region of the highest mountains. [The 

 A. t/iar, svmatrensis, ghorral, and other goat-like species, seem to be allied to this group and to that of 

 A. sfrepsiceros.} 



Col. Smith separates from the Antelopes, under the generic title of 



The Gnus (Catoblepas), — 

 The AnIUope gnu, Gm. ; a very extraordinary species, which, at first sight, seems to be a monstrous bemg, 

 compounded of parts of different animals. It has the body and crupper of a small Horse, covered with brown 

 hair ; the tail furnished with long white hairs, like that of a Horse ; and on the neck a beautiful flowing mane, 

 white at base, and black at the tip of the hairs. Its horns, approximated and enlarged at the base, like those of 

 the Cape Buffalo, descend outwardly, and turn up at the point ; the muzzle is large, flat, and surrounded by a 

 circle of projecting hairs : under the throat and dewlap is another black mane ; and the legs are as slender 

 and light as those of a Stag. Both sexes have horns. 



This animal inhabits the mountains northward of the Cape ; where it does not appear comm.on, although the 

 ancients seem to have had some knowledge of it. [There are two other very distinct species, the Brindled Gnu 

 (C. gorgon), and the Taurine Gnu (C. fatirina), both also from the interior of South Africa.] 



The three remaining genera have the bony core of tlie horns occupied, to a considerable 

 extent, with cells, that communicate with the frontal sinuses. The direction of their horns 

 characterizes the several divisions. 



The Goats {Capra, Lin.) — 

 Have the horns directed upwards and backwards : their chin is generally furnished with a long beard, 

 and the chanfrin almost always concave. 



* The fossil cranium and some othe 

 ruminant, liave lately been discove 

 deposits of Northern India, tlie Sii>o 

 the siie of a large Ox,— Ed. 



' bones of a gigantic four-horned 

 ■ed in the productive Sivolik 

 kerium, Caut, and Kale, twice 



t It W.1S perhaps 

 ihich led the ancii 

 hrough their cars. 



nprehension of the nature of this aperture, 

 rits to say, after Erapedoclcs, that Goats breathed 



