ORDER RUMINANTIA. 211 



and markings, that it will, perhaps, be necessary to obtain 

 these species collectively, and to compare them more mi- 

 nutely in their habits, than has been done, or can well be 

 effected by the casual examination of living individuals 

 and stuffed skins ; but if they be of the same species, we 

 think, nevertheless, that they form, most decidedly, distinct 

 races, which inhabit the same countries, but seldom or 

 never intermix, and that the presumed identity may be as- 

 cribed, in a great measure, to their general resemblance, 

 most particularly in the transition of nonage to maturity 

 These remarks are, however, only in part applicable to the 

 Persian Antelope, whose habitat is confined to a range of 

 latitude where snow is found, at least, during some period 

 of the year, and whose characters, in several particulars, 

 are sufficiently remote from the others to be considered as a 

 separate species. 



This animal is known to the Persians by the name of 

 Tzeiran, and to the Turks by that of Jairan. In size it is 

 about the same as the former, measuring three feet seven 

 inches in length, and above two feet at the shoulder. The 

 horns of an old male are from thirteen to fifteen inches 

 long, measured upon the curves ; they are grayish-black, 

 lyrated, from the base spreading forwards and outwards, 

 then bending inwards turn their points again outwards and 

 backwards, and sometimes into a hook : they are marked 

 with about nineteen rings, some of which are interrupted, 

 extending two-thirds of the whole length, and leaving the 

 points smooth. In the skull there are no openings or void 

 spaces between the nasal and lachrymal bones, and the 

 superorbitary perforations are small and single, not double 

 or triple, as in other Antelopes : such are the characters of 

 a skull in the collection of Mr. Brooks. M. Guldenstaedt, 

 however, in the Act. Acad. Petrop. describes the horns of 

 his specimen as shewing the basal annuli very close, and 

 the others more separated, and almost obliterated at the 



