NOTES AND 
For the photograph on this page we are 
indebted to the Duchess of 
re are Bedford, and for the note 
accompanying it to Mr. Rh. 
Luydekker, who writes :—‘‘ Between the years 
1864 and 1866 the Zoological Society's 
Menagerie in the Regent's Park received 
four specimens—three males and a female 
—of the strange and somewhat melancholy- 
looking antelope known as the Saiga. None 
of the four survived long in captivity, and 
since 1869 or 1870 (at latest) the species 
has been unrepresented in the collection. 
A few years ago, however, a small herd of 
these creatures was added to the Duke of 
Bedford’s wonderful collection at Woburn 
Abbey, but unfortunately they were some- 
what injured during the voyage to this 
country, and most or all of them died after 
a short sojourn in one of the paddocks. 
More recently another small herd was 
purchased by the Duke, and these have 
Bedford. 
SAIGA (Saiga tatarica). 
From a living specimen at Woburn Park. 
MALE 
COMMENTS. 
been more successful, several of them being 
in excellent condition at the time the ac- 
companying photograph of one of the rams 
was taken. It is true that the creature 
looks im a somewhat dilapidated and ‘out- 
at-elbows’ condition, but this is due to the 
circumstance that when the portrait was 
taken it had not succeeded in getting rid 
of its shabby winter coat, which is shed 
piecemeal. 
“Saigas are somewhat clumsily built sandy- 
coloured antelopes of the size of small sheep, 
distantly related to 
and not improbably nearer cousins of the 
chiru of Tibet, which shows some approxi- 
mation to them in the form of its muzzle. 
Although the males alone are furnished with 
horns, both sexes have the curious inflated 
and trunk-like muzzle which forms the most 
characteristic feature of this antelope, and 
communicates to the whole physiognomy 
the aforesaid aim of melancholy and deep 
depression. What is the object 
of this strange nasal development 
no one knows; it 1s correlated with 
a remarkable shortness of the nasal 
the graceful gazelles, 
bones and consequent large size of 
the nasal aperture in the dried skull. 
Judging from the portrait, it might 
be assumed that saigas would find 
a difficulty in grazing; but inspec- 
tion of the Woburn herd shows 
that when thus engaged the crea- 
tures have a habit of ‘reefing’ 
their noses so that they become 
tucked up out of the way. 
“At the present day 
which go about in large flocks, are 
confined to the trans- Volga steppe 
but within the historic period they 
west Poland ; 
and a skull dug up in the gravel at 
Twickenham, and others found in 
the superficial deposits of Germany, 
salgas, 
ava 
2) 9 
occurred as far as 
