140 Animal Life 
two very strange forms—the Dibatag (A mmodorcas), and 
the Gerenuk (Lithocraniuws), The nearest ally of these 
creatures, curiously enough, seems to be the Indian 
Gazelle (G. bennetti). The Dibatag and the Gerenuk 
have both developed giraffine necks. Their heads are 
disproportionately small for their bodies. The female in 
each case has no horns. he coloration is in the main 
gazelline, and the horns do not differ very widely from 
the gazelline type. The lmbs are long, the tail is also 
long, and in the dibatag is developed to an extraordinary 
extent with a tufted tip. When running the dibatag 
PNGiaTaED a aE holds its long neck well back and the tail is directed 
SOEMMERING'’S GAZELLE. stiffly forward, so that in an extreme attitude the back 
of the head and the tip of the tail nearly meet. Both 
these creatures feed largely on the leaves of trees, which no doubt accounts for the 
lengthened neck; and both of them (but especially the gerenuk) have acquired the 
habit of standing upright on the hind legs, both for observing the surrounding country 
and for reaching high branches, and even for concealment, the upright body and 
perpendicular neck with the fore limbs lightly placed for support against a branch looking 
very much hke a tree trunk. The gerenuk, however, when in flight runs with its neck 
extended horizontally, unlike the dibatag. 
The Saiga, amongst many other points of interest, is the only antelope which exists 
at the present day within the geographical limits of Hurope. It is found in the eastern 
part of Kuropean Russia (besides its much wider range over Central Asia and southern 
Siberia). But formerly it existed in Great Britain—say, some hundred-thousand years 
ago—as well as in Belgium, France, and Central Europe; while in historical times 
it was still found in Poland. The saiga differs from other antelopes in only ~ 
having two lower premolar teeth, but as some fossil remains of the saiga show 
the existence of three premolars, this point is of little classifactory importance. The 
females are hornless, which is a primitive characteristic, and the mamme are four in 
number, a point in which the saiga is more primitive than any other existing gazelline 
form. In its outward appearance it has a very sheep-like aspect, especially about the 
feet, the thick, woolly-looking coat and the rather small cropped ears (which indeed look 
as though they had been artificially clipped). The horns (which are gazelline in shape) 
are remarkable for their invavri- 
able lght yellowish colour. The 
most striking and extraordinary 
feature of the saiga, however, 1s 
its enormously inflated nose, at 
the end of which the nostrils are 
prolonged into a hairy — snout. 
This curious inflation of the nasal 
cartilages is one of those charac- 
teristics of antelopes which has a 
tendency to crop out apparently 
independently im diverse genera. 
It has already been described in 
connection with certaim neotra- 
eines. 
: é TS 
Photograph by S. G. Payne. : 
SAIGA ANTELOPE, (To be continued.) 
