NEW YORK ZOOLOOICAL PARK. 39 



Colorado is the only state wliicli really is protecting its ante- 

 lope, and because of this fact the last prong-horn will die in 

 that state. Professor Osborn reports that in Jnly and Aug- 

 ust, 1899, he saw hundreds of antelope in Garfield County. 

 In 1898. Mr. Carl Rungius, the animal painter, reported an 

 abundance of them in Uintah County, Wyoming, but later 

 he saw with astonishment and dismay that the herds had 

 disappeared as if the earth had opened and engulfed them 

 all. 



For a century the Prong-Horn has been, next to the buf- 

 falo, the chief object of interest on our western plains. 

 Their graceful forms and fleet movements have for long re- 

 lieved the landscapes of the treeless country from utter 

 barrenness, from the lifelessness which to every overland 

 traveller presently becomes unbearably monotonous. It is 

 not pleasant to think of the thousands of square miles of 

 "divides," "coulees," "bad lands" and plains absolutely 

 devoid of antelopes, and tenanted only by coyotes and gray 

 wolves. 



Structurally, the Prong-Horn is so peculiar it has been 

 found necessary to create for it a special zoological family, 

 called Antilocapridac, of which it is the sole member. This 

 is due to the following facts: (1) This is the only living 

 mammal possessing hollow horns (growing over a bony eorej 

 which sheds them annually; (2) it is the onlj' animal pos- 

 sessing a hollow horn which bears a prong, or bifurcation; 



(3) it has no "dew claws," as other ruminant animals have; 



(4) the horn is placed directlj- above the eye; (5) the long 

 hair of the body and neck is tubular; and (6) that on the 

 rump is erectile. 



In size the Prong-Horn is the smallest ruminant animal in- 

 habiting North America north of Mexico, unless it becomes 

 necessary to place below it the small deer of Texas. It is 

 nimble-footed and graceful at all times, save when it runs 

 with its head carried low, like a running sheep. The doe 

 brings forth two kids at a birth, usuallj' in Ma.y or June, and 

 during the summer months the bands are quite broken up. 

 The winter coat is shed — in great bunches — during late 

 spring and early summer, and the new coat of short, gray 

 hair makes the Prong-Horn look strange and unnatural. Bj' 

 October, however, his new coat is at its brightest, he is fat 

 and vigorous, and in everj^ way at his best. As winter 

 approaches (November) the antelope assemble until great 

 herds are formed, sometimes a hundred and fifty animals 

 being found together. 



