54 THE ANTELOPE OF AMERICA. 
to follow me out of the park, she would never return with me 
voluntarily but would immediately start off, exploring in her 
own way. This gazelle and the young antelope would follow me 
together, not only in my walks, but also when I drove, or rode 
on horseback in the parks. She disliked a visit to the elk as 
he did, though she did not resort to as intelligent means to tell 
me so. When both were following me, especially when I was 
riding, they would race together at top speed, all around me and 
sometimes two hundred yards away, as if ambitious to exhibit 
their agility, and would seem to enjoy the gambol together, as 
much as would two young dogs, though I never saw them play 
thus together except when following, and the gazelle showed less 
inclination to the sport than the Prong Buck, perhaps because 
she was older. 
After very extensive inquiries on this subject, I heard of a 
single instance of this animal breeding in domestication. Mr. 
Stephen Cipperly, in Bureau County, Illinois, has a pair which are 
in no way confined, but allowed the range of the neighborhood, 
and frequently visit the neighbors, several miles away, and seem 
to enjoy the sport if they can get dogs to chase them home. The 
female of this pair, when she was two years old in 1876, dropped 
one kid, which, however, was still-born, or at least dead when it 
was found. Jt can no longer be said that our antelope will in 
no case breed in domestication, but certainly it must be but 
rarely expected. We should have expected this to occur in the 
country where they flourish in a wild state, and it is certainly re- 
markable that it has occurred so far away, and in a region so 
unfavorable to their well-being. : 
The reason of the sterility of these animals in domestication is 
not very apparent. There is certainly no want of ardor on the 
part of the male, and the female is not Without an inclination to 
breed, but from some unknown cause their union is not fertile. 
That their reproductive powers should be impaired by domestica- 
tion, we should expect, in obedience to a very general law gov- 
erning a very large majority of wild animals and birds, when re- 
duced to domestication ; but this may be largely accounted for 
by the disinclination to breed, manifested to a greater or less de- 
gree by both sexes. Such can scarcely be said to be the case 
with our antelope, yet it is undoubtedly true that its general 
health and vigor is more impaired than is generally the case with 
wild animals when domesticated or confined. Until the one 
taken adult sickened and died after a few months’ confinement in 
