ORDER RUMINANTIA. 227 



lated to near the summits, which are turned inwards ; their 

 colour is yellowish and diaphanous. The animal is in size 

 nearly equal to the Fallow-deer, measuring more than four 

 feet in length, but not harmoniously proportioned, for the 

 head and body are heavy, compared to the delicacy of the 

 limbs ; the nose has a turned arched form, the nostrils are 

 open, wide, and moist, that part being wholly cartilaginous, 

 as the nasal and vomer bones are never entirely ossified ; 

 this rare structure furnishes the exquisite sense of smelling 

 possessed by the animal, and also causes it to graze back- 

 wards or sideways ; the ears are narrow, middle-sized, and 

 the tail short, being only four inches long, and naked be- 

 low during the summer, with a tuft at the end: at this 

 season the colour of the hair upon the back and flanks is 

 gray-dun, with a dark streak along the spine, and white 

 upon the belly ; in winter it becomes more hoary and longer, 

 so as to appear whitish at a distance ; the lips are pro- 

 vided with numerous bristly hairs ; and the legs, which are 

 of a pale dun colour, have small tufts on the knees, and 

 black pointed hoofs. 



This species resides on the shores of the Danube, south 

 of the Carpathian range, on the uncultivated parts of 

 South-eastern Poland, Little Russia, along the Black Sea, 

 round the Caucasian Mountains, the Aral and Caspian 

 Seas, to the east about the Irtish, the Ob, and the Altaic 

 Chain, being confined to the north by the thirty-fifth degree, 

 or less. In all this extensive region the soil is nearly every- 

 where steril, sandy, and salt ; supporting mostly Absyn- 

 thian, Artemysian, Atriplecian, and other bitter and saline 

 plants, many of which are evergreen ; these, together with 

 the brackish water of pools, afford the principal sustenance 

 of the Saiga, and communicate their flavour to its flesh, 

 which, however, is considered not unpalatable in winter, 

 but rejected in the summer, on account of the numerous 

 CEstri, probably of a particular species, which infest and 



