176 MAMMALIA. 
that can be compared with the antelope, having, however, peculiar 
characters: its straight horns are bent suddenly backward like a 
hook; behind each ear, under the skin, is a sac, whose only external 
opening is a small orifice.* Its size is that of a large goat. The 
hair is of a deep brown, with a black band descending from the eye 
towards the muzzle. The swiftness of its course among rocks and 
precipices is wonderful, and it remains in small herds in the middle 
region of the highest mountains. 
M. Smith separates from the antelopes, under the generic name of Ca- 
TOBLEPAS, the 
A. gnu, Gm.; Buff. Supp. VI. pl. viii and ix. (The Gnou or 
Niou). A very extraordinary animal, which, at the first glance, 
seems to be a monster composed of parts of different animals. It 
has the body and croup of a small horse, covered with brown hairs; 
the tail furnished with long white hairs, like that of the horse, and 
on the neck a beautiful straight mane, the hairs of which are white 
at the base and black at the tip. The horns, approximated and en- 
larged at the base like those of the Cape Buffalo, descend outwardly, 
and turn up at the point; its muzzle is large, flat, and surrounded 
with a circle of projecting hairs; under the throat and dewlap is an- 
other black mane; the feet have all the lightness of the stag’s. 
Horns in both sexes. Inhabits the mountains to the north of the 
Cape, where it is rather rare, although the antients appear to have 
had some knowledge of it. 
The three remaining genera have the bony core of the horns principally 
occupied with cells, which communicate with the frontal sinuses. The 
direction of their horns furnishes the characters of the divisions. 
Capra, Lin. 
The Goats have the horns directed upwards and backwards; the chin 
generally furnished with a long beard, and the chanfrin almost always 
concave. 
C. egragus, Gm.; Cuv. Menag. du Mus. 8vo. II. 177. (The 
/Egagrus or Wild Goat). Appears to be the stock of all the va- 
rieties of our domestic goat. It is distinguished by its horns, trench- 
ant in front, very large in the male; short, or altogether wanting in 
the female, which is also sometimes the case in the two species of 
Tbex. It lives in herds on the mountains of Persia (where it is 
known by the name of paseng), and perhaps on those of other coun- 
* Tt was, perhaps, a mistaken idea respecting the indication of this orifice which 
led the antients to say, that, according to Empedocles, goats breathéd through the 
ears. 
+ This species most probably gave rise to the catoblepas. See Pliny, lib. VIII. 
exxxil, and Alian, lib. VIIT. c. v. 
The most complete work on the subject of the antelopes is that of M. Ham. Smith, 
inserted in the work of Griffith, and I regret that the want of sufficient objects for 
observation have prevented me from giving all its details. 
