186 



CLASS MAMMALIA. 



species of buffaloes*, an idea which they extend to other 

 ruminants usually classed among the larger species of this 

 genus, and which we refer to our genus Damalis. The 

 Dutch colonists of the Cape alone have fancied some re- 

 semblance between their Oryx and the Chamois of Europe, 

 and named it Gemsebock. 



The Caffrarian Oryx. (A. Oryx.) The specific name 

 Oryx was most unquestionably bestowed on the wrong 

 animal ; for we have seen that Oppian describes it as white 

 with black cheeks, and, therefore, that he understood the 

 Leucoryx of the moderns, and not the species which is now 

 before us. The adult male is about three feet ten inches 

 high at the shoulder, and six feet six inches in length ; 

 the horns are straight, about three feet long, annulated 

 two-thirds from their base with from twenty-eight to thirty- 

 three rings. In the females they are smaller, and in old 

 specimens the base is considerably widened; the length 

 often exceeds three feet, but instead of being straight, they 

 have a slight bend backwards, and the tips again forward. 

 In these, the annuli are nearly obliterated, but they are 

 always black, shining, and sharp pointed, placed near the 

 summit of the frontals on the same plane as the face, and 

 not very divergent. The eyes stand high in the head, the 

 colour of which is white with a black space round the root 

 of the horns, descending down the forehead and chaffron, 

 and another passing through the eyes towards the corner 

 of the mouth, whence a band of the same colour passes 

 round the head over the nose, giving the whole an arti- 

 ficial appearance, as if it were a head-stall. In the young 

 and females these marks are neither so distinct nor regu- 

 lar : the ears are rather open, interiorly white and edged 

 with a black line ; a black list passes likewise from the 



* The Chinese Nicu Kyo Fo or Flying Cow, with one horn only, 

 remarkable for its swiftness and love of salt, is probably an Oryx, 

 if not the Leucoryx or the Keraas. 



