HIS PLACE. 65 
odor, which, however, is mostly confined to the male in the goat, 
while it is common to both sexes in our antelope. Then, again, 
the lachrymal sinus is wanting in both the Prong Buck and the 
goat; so it is wanting in many other hollow-horned ruminants, 
as the sheep and the ox, while it is present in the true antelope, 
and, I believe, in all the deer family. In all other respects it 
differs from the goat, except in those things which are common 
to all ruminants. In their food, especially, they are widely apart, 
though both are strictly vegetarians; so are all ruminants. The 
goat is the most promiscuous consumer in this order of quadru- 
peds; while no one is more delicate and select in its food than 
the Prong Buck. The goat affects rough and rocky grounds, 
and climbs with ease and safety dangerous cliffs and difficult 
passes, while the habit of our antelope is exactly the reverse. 
I must say that I think if his natural history had been well 
understood, he would never have been charged with a near kin- 
ship to the goat, and Capra would not have been a part of his 
name. Surely a more appropriate name could have been found, 
— one clearly expressive of the striking peculiarities of this ex- 
.traordinary animal. But it is now too late to change it. It is 
far better to adhere to a bad name by which it is now known to 
the scientific world, than to attempt to introduce him by a 
new name, no matter how much more appropriate. 
In its osteology, Dr. Theodore Gill, a gentleman eminently 
qualified for the investigation, excludes it from all the classifica- 
tions of the hollow-horned ruminants, and distinctly places it 
among those which have solid deciduous antlers; while, as we 
have seen, Dr. Murie finds in its anatomy elements peculiar to 
each of these classifications. Like the deer, the female has four 
active mamme, while the goat has but two. In common with 
the hollow-horned ruminants, it has the gall bladder, which is 
wanting in all the Cervide. 
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