1875.] some Indian Ruminants. 19 



The Capra bezoartica of Linnseus is thus described " Oapra bezoartica 

 cornibus teretibus arcuatis totis annulate, gula barbata." The bearded 

 chin, and the description of the animal's habits refer, I think, to the bezoar 

 goat of Persia, Capra cegagrus, whilst the round arcuate horns are probably 

 those of a Gazelle, and very possibly those of Gazella subgutturosa, the 

 species found in Persia. The description cannot possibly be made to agree 

 with the Indian antelope. 



The first description of the Indian antelope published after the appear- 

 ance of the 12th edition of Linnaeus is that of Pallas, whose first fasciculus 

 of the Spicilegia Zoologica, published in 1767, contains a monograph of the 

 genus Antilope. The Indian antelope is there described as A. cervicapra, 

 p. 18, No. 16, and figured in Tab. I. and II. The bezoartica of the same 

 monograph No. II., p. 1-i, is apparently an oryx. 



Gmelin, Schreber, Wagner, and almost all continental writers have 

 adopted Pallas's name for the species, and it has undoubted priority over 

 all others. The same name appears to have been used by most English 

 writers until lately. Error in this case, as in that of Capra cegagrus, is to 

 be traced apparently to the British Museum Catalogues,* in whfch the 

 species was named Cervicapra bezoartica upon a well known principle, 

 which although admissible, is extremely objectionable, that of converting 

 the specific name into a generic term and coining a new specific term. This 

 was in the catalogue of 1813, in which the only species retained under the 

 genus Antilope was A. melampus. In both the subsequent catalogues, 

 those of 1852 and 1872, the Indian antelope is made the sole member of the 

 genus Antilope, Sundevall's genus JEpyceros being employed for A. melam- 

 pus, but instead of restoring Pallas's specific name, Dr. Gray has in violation 

 of all rule retained his own (or Aldrovandi's ) most objectionable appellation 

 bezoartica. It is a question whether this name should be preserved at all, 

 in the first place it is misleading, "as the Indian antelope is not the bezoar 

 goat, and in the second place it leads to confusion because the animal is not 

 the Capra bezoartica of Linnaeus ; but if the antelope be placed in the genus 

 Antilope, there can be no question that its proper name is A. cervicapra. 



There remains, however, one question to be decided, and that is, whether 

 A. cervicapra is correctly made the type of the genus Antilope. This 

 genus was not employed by Linnaeus, who placed the species of antelope 

 known to him, with the goats, under Capra. The modern genus must 

 therefore be derived from Pallas, who, as already mentioned, published a 



probably the -wild goat of Persia. It is evident that he meant to give the name to 

 the animal from which bezoar was obtained, and he figured the Indian antelope under 

 the mistaken idea that it was the real bezoar-producing animal. 



* List Sp. Mam. B. M., 1843, p. 159.— Cat. Mam. TJngulata Furcipeda, 18-52, 

 p. 66.— Cat. Rum. Mam. 1872, p. 40. 



