158 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



What animal he understood by it is not very evident ; the 

 compound name might be a mere paraphrase of Gazal, 

 and meant to signify fine or blooming eyes. Other names 

 are, however, derived from it in the Greek and Latin of 

 the middle ages. Antalopos, Analopos, and Aptalos of 

 authors, the Calopus of Albert the Great, and the very 

 Panthalops which Bochart would make a Copthic word to 

 designate the Unicorn, are all corruptions of one, by which 

 the Greeks of Western Asia seem at one time to have un- 

 derstood an oryx. 



From the institution of the genus, all Bisulcae which did 

 not clearly belong to the other genera already established, 

 were without further consideration crowded into Antilope, 

 till the last formed exceeded in number of species all the 

 others taken together. In the confusion, naturalists were 

 struck with the very great disparities in the extreme 

 species ; various subordinate associations were attempted, 

 but no additional genera, excepting, we believe, by M. Bris- 

 son. . At length Professor Lichtenstein formed the twenty- 

 nine species then known into four families or groups, the 

 Bubabides, Connochaetes, Antilopee, and Gazellse. M. de 

 Blainville soon after instituted eight subgenera, which he 

 distinguished by the names of Antilope, Gazella, Cervica- 

 pra, Alcelaphus, Tragelaphus, Boselaphus, Oryx, and Ru- 

 picapra, in which he noticed thirty-nine species. To these 

 M. Desmarets added three more, the Egoceres, Oreas, and 

 Mr. Ord's Antilocapra. 



Although these arrangements certainly tended to the 

 perfection of our knowledge on the subject in question, 

 yet the species being many of them very imperfectly known, 

 found their location in the subdivisions to which they do 

 not belong, or groups were formed of animals sufficiently 

 distinct to constitute separate genera. The flexures of the 

 horns gave alone a simple, but at the same time a purely 

 artificial, classification, in which the most remote species 



