AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



51 



at the angle of each jaw, which exhales a strong 

 hircine odour, and between this spot and the ear the 

 hair is pale, or nearly white. There are no external 

 indications whatever of a crumen or lachrymal opening. 

 The horns are black, rise directly upwards and outwards, 

 without any inclination either forwards or backwards, and 

 curve sharply in towards each other at their tips. At the 

 base the distance betweenthemis 3S inches; within 2 inches 

 of the tip, where they begin to curve inwards, the dis- 

 tance between them is 10§ inches, and the tips are 7 

 inches apart. The horns are much compressed, in a 

 lateral direction, to about half their height, where they 

 give out a thin, triangular, or bracket-shaped process, 

 which projects directly forwards for more than an inch. 

 The surface of the lower half of the horns is striated, and 

 is rough, with small warts and knobs, two or three of 

 which project from a quarter to half an inch. The situa- 

 tion of these larger knobs varies in different specimens. 

 The horns above the flat snag have a shining, striated sur- 

 face, are nearly round, and taper considerably. The 

 upper parts of the body are of a clear, yellowish-brown 

 colour, deepening on the ridge of the back into blackish- 

 gray. The hairs are much longer between the ears, and 

 on the back of the neck, where they form an erect mane, 

 of a blackish-brown colour on its tips. The sides and 

 thighs are paler than the back, and approach in colour to 

 a clear wood-brown. The under jaw has a very pale 

 yellowish-brown colour, fading to white. The hair is 

 bushy about the angle of the lower jaw, and has a wood- 

 brown colour. This colour forms three belts across the 

 throat, which differ from each other in breadth, and are 

 separated by two patches of pure white. The chest, 

 belly, insides of the thighs, and legs, the tail, and a large 

 patch round it, which includes the rump, and upper part 

 of the buttocks, are pure white. There is a pale yellow- 

 ish mark at the root of the tail. The tail is 4| inches 

 long. The legs are slender, with long shank-bones; the 

 fur, covering their anterior surfaces, is yellowish-brown. 

 It has only two hoofs, there being no vestige of the pos- 

 terior supplementary ones. 



" The hair which clothes the body, resembles that of 

 a moose or rein-deer in its structure. It is long, round, 

 tapering from the root to the point, waved, and of a soft 

 and brittle texture, particularly towards the root, where it 

 is easily compressed, and does not regain its round form 

 again. Its interior is white and spongy, like the pith of 

 rush. When the hair makes its first appearance in the 

 summer, it forms a smooth coat, and has the ordinary 

 flexibility and appearance of hair ; but as it lengthens it 

 acquires the brittle, spongy texture, at its roots, and in- 

 creasing at the same time in diameter, it becomes erect, 



and forms a very close coat. As the spring approaches 

 the fine and flexible points are rubbed off, particularly on 

 the sides, where the hair appears as if it had been clipped. 

 The mane on the hind-head and neck retains its darker 

 points, even when the winter coat is dropping off. The 

 nose, cheeks, part of the lower jaw, ears, and legs, are 

 clothed at all times with short flexible hairs, which lie 

 smoothly. 



" The females are stated, by some American writers, 

 to have horns like the males, although smaller; but in 

 gravid, and, therefore, at least nearly full-grown indivi- 

 duals, which I have examined, there was merely a short, 

 obtuse process, of the frontal bone, scarcely to be felt 

 through the fur, and not covered with horn. 



" The young, at birth, are covered on the upper parts 

 with short hair of a clove-brown colour, more or less 

 hoary. The situation of the mane is marked by a dark 

 line. The tail is yellowish-brown, and the buttocks are 

 pure white. The dark mark on the nose, the one behind 

 the angle of the jaw, and the bands across the throat, 

 exist as in the adult. The legs are of a pure wood- 

 brown colour. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Feet. 



Length from the nose to the root of the tail, - 4 



Height at the fore shoulder, ----- 3 



" " haunches, - - - - - 3 



Girth behind the four legs, - .... 3 



" before the hind legs, ... - 2 



Length of the tail, with the hair, - ... 



Inches. 

 4 

 

 

 

 10 



4i 



MIGRATION OF MAMMIFEROUS QUADRUPEDS. 



Although in speculating on "philosophical possibili- 

 ties," said Buffon, the same temperature might have been 

 expected, all other circumstances being equal, to produce 

 the same beings in different parts of the globe, both in the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms, yet it is an undoubted 

 fact, that when America was discovered, its indigenous 

 quadrupeds were all dissimilar from those previously 

 known in the old world. The elephant, the rhinoceros, 

 the hippopotamus, thecameleopard, the camel, the drome- 

 dary, the buffalo, the horse, the ass, the lion, the tiger, 

 the apes, the baboons, and a number of other mammalia, 

 were nowhere to be met with on the new continent; while 

 in the old, the American species, of the same great class, 

 were nowhere to be seen — the tapir, the lama, the pecari, 

 the jaguar, the couguar, the agouti, the paca, the coati, and 

 the sloth. 



