ANTILOPSN.E. 271 



muflle generally present. Feet-pits usually in all four feet. Inguinal 

 pits in some ; eye-pits usually present. Four mamma? in most. 



This family comprises antelope, goats, and cattle, which may form as 

 many sub-families. They are entirely wanting in South America and 

 Australia. 



Sub-fam. Antilopin^, Antelopes. 



Horns in both sexes or only in the males. Eye-pits in all, and feet-pits 

 in most. The bony nucleus of the horn is generally solid, and often has 

 a sinus at the base within. The horns are seated below the crest of the 

 frontals, and are usually considerably apart at the base. There are in- 

 guinal pits in many, and the muffle is often wanting. The mammse are 

 in most cases four. The occipital plane of the skull forms an obtuse angle 

 with the frontal plane. They resemble deer in the lightness of their make, 

 but they are of still more slender form, with finer limbs, and possess 

 still greater speed, but physiologically they are far removed from them.* 

 Their hair is generally finer and more smooth than in deer. 



The horns of antelopes are variously bent, usually ringed at the base, 

 and round and smooth at the tip, situated well forwards, almost over the 

 edge of the orbits. They are never branched, except in one species, the 

 prong-horned antelope of North America, which, by its harsh hair and 

 tail, evidently forms a sort of link between the antelope and deer, and 

 which, I have noticed, has been removed by a recent writer to the deer 

 family. One. small gi-oup has four horns. The eye is usually very large, 

 deep brown or almost black, contrasting with the light eye of the Caprince. 

 It is situated at the upper margin of the forehead, remote from the 

 nostrils. The head is lengthened owing to the elongation of the nasal 

 bones ; the ears are seated well back and are long. Antelope mostly live 

 in more or less numerous herds, and are found chiefly in the old continent, 

 by far the greatest number being from Africa, with many types. 



Antelopes have been variously grouped. Blyth, in his Catalogue, distri- 

 butes them in the sub-families, TragelaphincB, Cephalophinm, Adenotinie, and 

 Antelopince, of which the first and the last alone have representatives of 

 the Indian Fauna. Taking their habits as well as structure, the Indian 

 members of this sub-family may be classed into bush antelope and desert 

 antelope. 



Bush-antelope, Tragelaphincs apud Blyth. 



Horns smooth, unknotted, spiral in some ; females usually without 



* Throughout the Bengal Presidency all antelope are populai'ly called deer. 



