THE HOOFED MAMMALS. 



149 



lying to the north of Bechuanaland and known as Khama's country, or 

 Bawangwato, together with the Northern Kalahari. Even here, however, 

 their existence is threatened, as there is a proposal to put down tube-wells in 

 the Kalahari, which, if successfully accomplished, will open up the one great 

 stronghold of the animal to the hunter. Unless, therefore, efficient and 

 prompt measures are taken for its protection, there is much reason to fear 

 that the giraffe will ere long be practically exterminated from this part of 

 Africa, although it will doubtless long survive in the remote districts of the 

 Sudan and Kordofan. 



Although closely allied to the typical hollow-horned Ruminants, the prongs 

 buck, or proTig-horned antelope (^iif iiocctpjTt ajreecicann) is regarded as repre- 

 senting a distinct family, on account of the circumstance 

 that not only are the sheaths of the horna branched, but The Prongbuck. 

 that they are annually shed, and their place taken by new — Family 

 sheaths, which have been growing up beneath the old ones. AntilocapridcB. 

 In size, the prongbuck may be compared to a fallow-deer, 

 although its form is lighter and more elegant. It has no lateral hoofs ; the 

 horns are present usually only in the males ; the ears are rather long and 

 pointed ; and the tail is short. There is a thick mane of long hair on the neck, 

 and the general colour is chestnut ; but there is a white patch on the rump, 

 and white bars on the throat, while the lower portion of the flanks, to- 

 gether with the under-parts, are likewise white ; the compressed and 

 scimitar-like horns being black. Prongbucks are inhabitants of the open 

 plains of Eastern-Central North America, where they associate in herds, 

 which may frequently be of large size. 



The last, and at the same time by far the largest family group of the 

 Ungulates, is that of the hollow-horned Ruminants, or Bovidtn; under which 

 title are comprised antelopes, goats, sheep, oxen, etc. 

 Almost the whole of the members of this great assemblage Hollow-horned 

 are inhabitants of the Old World, the only American forms Euminants. — ' 

 being the Rocky Mountain goat, the bighorn sheep, musk- Family Bovidce. 

 ox, and American buffalo, and all these confined to the 

 northern half of that continent. Indeed, there is little doubt that the 

 ancestors of at least three of these were immigrants from the Eastern Hemi- 

 sphere ; and there is no evidence 

 that South America was ever the 

 home of any member of the 

 group. The essential feature 

 of the hollow-horned Ruminants 

 is the presence, in one sex at 

 least of all the existing forms, 

 of a pair of unbranched horns on 

 the upper part of the head, com- 

 posed of an underlying core of 

 bone, covered with a hollow, 

 horny sheath, which is never 

 shed. None of these animals 

 ever have upper canine teeth ; 

 and the lateral metacarpal and 

 metatarsal bones of the feet are 

 invariably absent, although lateral hoofs are not unfrcquently present. In 

 many cases the tear-pits, or larmiers, so characteristic of the deer, are 



Fig. 83, — PiitiNaiiUcK (Aniilocapra amcrkana). 



