138 Animal . Life 
species of oribi, the Abyssinian—if no 
others—has four mamme@, and exhibits 
traces of an upper canine tooth in the 
immature male. The horns are straight, 
and but that they are ridged in the 
lower part ave somewhat similar to the 
horns in female gazelles. There is a 
naked glandular patch below each ear 
similar to that found in the cervicaprines, 
with which group the oribis have marked 
affinities. Except that the tail is usually 
short, these little antelopes come very 
near to representing the stock from which 
the cervicaprines and, perhaps, gazelles 
were derived. It is possible that the 
oribis may, like so many other small 
antelopes, have lost the need for a long: 
tail, and it has thus degenerated recently 
into a short and bushy appendage. At 
the same time, im reviewing the various 
eroups of antelopes, tragelaphs or deer, 
one is often led to wonder whether 16 
may not be possible for a beast to 
re-develop a long tail (to suit special requirements) by forming once more caudal 
vertebre in place of those that have been lost in a previous state of development. 
The domestic sheep, for instance, has a long tail, whereas every known species of wild — 
sheep* from which it might have been derived has a short tail. Is it necessary that we 
must predicate an extinct species of long-tailed sheep as the origin of the domestic form, 
or is it possible that in domestication the sheep may have been able to reproduce 
vertebre to strengthen a lengthened tail ? 
The Pygmy antelope (Neotragus) is only found in West Africa, where it is often 
called the Royal antelope. The horns are barely an inch long, and are only present in 
the male. It is remarkable as being the smallest example known of the ruminating 
animals. It is an independent and isolated development of the neotragines. 
The Dik-diks are also very small antelopes with rudimentary tails, short, straight 
horns, present as a rule only in the male, with a last lower molar tooth in a degenerate 
form, and (in most examples) with a swelling of the nose cartilage and a lengthening 
of the tip until a pig-hke snout or proboscis is formed. The ears are also rather 
pig-like. But the dik-diks are much specialised, and not really primitive in structure. 
At present they are only found in eastern Africa and in Damaraland. 
The Gazelles are a very distinct group of antelopes, offering in some forms so marked 
an outward resemblance to the sheep as almost to suggest that they have some derivation 
in’ common from an ancestral type of capricorn.t With the gazelles are usually 
associated the Saiga and Chiru antelopes, the Indian Blackbuck, and the remarkable 
Dorcotragus (Beira or Bahra antelope). Some also class the pallah with the gazelles, 
but in the opinion of the present writer this is a moot point, the pallah, also offering 
resemblances to the hartebeests and cervicaprines. 
* Except, of course, the Wild Sheep of North Africa, which in my opinion is no true sheep at all, but an 
independent development from the Capricorn stock, allied to the Thar Goat of India and Arabia. 
{+ The horns in such Capricorns as the Chamois and the Rocky Mountain Goat are not at all unlike the 
Gazelline type. It is probable, however, on the whole, that the Gazelles are derived from the Neotragines or 
Cephalophines, the last-named offering some points of resemblance to the Capricorns. 
Photograph by W.P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regents Park. 
FOUR-HORNED ANTELOPE. 
