HIS PLACE. 63 
circular form. In this condition the game must soon succumb, 
in consequence of the greater distance he has to run. 
HIS PLACE. 
The position in natural history which should be assigned our 
antelope has already occupied the attention of zodlogists.. If 
Pallas made it but a species of the antelope, later naturalists 
have agreed to assign to it a separate classification, and have 
adopted the name given it by Ord in 1818, Antilocapra Ameri- 
cana, or American Goat-Antelope. ‘Sir John Richardson says: 
* The term Americana is objectionable as a specific name, where 
more than one species of the same genus exists in that country.” 
Subsequent investigations have shown that this objection was 
altogether without foundation, for there is but one species of the 
genus. 
A careful study of specimens from every part of its range 
shows that there are not even varieties of the species. All are as 
near alike as possible. There is now no pretense for placing 
Capra Americana with our animal, for it is well settled that it is 
a true goat. 
Dr. Murie, to whom we are first indebted for the osteological 
description of this animal, seems inclined to go farther, and assign 
it “¢a new or a fourth section among ruminants. In regard to 
the second premise, its place, judging from the totality of struc- 
ture (excluding the brain not examined), it appears to me that 
the proposal to rank the Cabrit as a family per se (Antilocapride), 
merits attention. Notwithstanding what has been said of transi- 
tional forms, the present career of biological inquiry has not yet 
arrived at the stage when limited divisions can be dispensed 
with, although lines of demarcation are broken apace. Provision- 
ally, therefore, and for aught I can say to the contrary, the single 
genus and species, Antilocapra Americana, may preside as the 
type of a family. Still I am far from the opinion that it will 
long remain in solitary grandeur, for I.am convinced that its 
more aberrant features aré but bridges, the further connecting 
end of which temporarily hazy to us, from our temporary, cir- 
cumscribed view.” 
I have already, in another place, quoted a passage from this 
author bearing directly on this branch of our subject; but, as 
it will be remembered, it is hardly necessary to repeat it here. 
The comparison he there makes between this animal and the 
sheep, the giraffe, the deer, the goat, and the antelope, is for 
