106 DR. C. A. CANFIELD ON THE PRONGBUCK. [Feb. 27, 



from the house) to drink. It was not difficult, when they came to 

 drink, to kill them with a Colt's revolver. 



From the first of September to the first of March Antelopes run 

 in bands, the bucks, does, and kids all together. At the end of that 

 time the does separate themselves from the band, one by one, to drop 

 their kids ; tbey produce two at a birth. After a little the does 

 collect together with their young ones, probably for mutual protection 

 against the Coyotes. The old bucks, in the meantime, go off alone, 

 each one by himself, or at most two together, leaving the young 

 bucks and young does together in small bands. The old bucks now 

 for a month or two wander a great deal, and are seen in the timber- 

 lands and in other places where they never go at any other part of 

 the year, evidently tired of ' the world,' and fleeing from society. 

 After two or three months the young bucks and does join the old 

 does and their kids ; and finally, by the first of September, the old 

 bucks and all are together once more in bands of hundreds or thou- 

 sands. Any particular band of Antelopes does not leave the locality 

 where they grow up, and never ranges more than a few miles in dif- 

 ferent directions. In the summer months they sometimes wander a 

 little distance from their customary range for the sake of water, at 

 which time they drink once a day, or sometimes twice in three days. 

 But when there is any green food for them to eat they do not drink 

 water ; and this is the case the greater part of the year. When there 

 is scarcely a blade of grass to be seen anywhere, I have been very 

 much surprised to see the stomachs of Antelopes full of green food. 



"A band of Antelopes, when frightened, never run directly away 

 from you, but cross over in front of you, running across your path 

 from one side to the other repeatedly, and keeping about 100 yards 

 ahead. On this account it is sometimes easy on a smart horse to 

 run into a drove of them and catch one of them with a noose. 



" When an Autelope is alone, and is watching a person or animal, 

 and becomes frightened, it makes a sort of shrill blowing noise like 

 a whistle, and then commences bounding off. On the neck it has 

 a heavy, thick, chestnut-coloured mane, 5 or 6 inches long, and on 

 the rump a white patch of coarse hair ; and when the animal is 

 frightened it always erects the mane and the hair of the white spot 

 on the breech, thus giving it a very singular and characteristic ap- 

 pearance as it runs bounding away from you. The Antelope has a 

 very peculiar odour, strong and (to some persons) offensive. This 

 comes principally from the glands in the white patch on the breech. 

 One of these is placed over each prominence of the ischium, below 

 and each side of the tail ; and one over the junction of the sacrum 

 with the spine, 6 or 8 inches anterior to the tail. From these 

 glands a yellow saponaceous substance is secreted, which has a very 

 powerful odour. In the males this odour is often much greater 

 than in the females ; so that it sometimes gives the meat of the 

 bucks, when poor, a very rank flavour, offensive to most people ; 

 but on the whole I consider the meat of the Antelope to be very 

 excellent, much better than that of the Black-tailed Deer. Of 

 the pelage I can add only that there is frequently a very sparse 



