116 



ORDEES OF MAMMALS— HOOFED ANIMALS 



of animals of all sizes, many of them odd, and 

 many of them noted for their beauty. The stu- 

 dent who has a special liking for the large hoofed 

 animals surely will find pleasure in making 

 the acquaintance of such superb creatures as 

 the sable antelope, the koodoo, the water-buck, 

 the eland, the oryx, the gnu, the pallah, and the 

 hartebeest of Africa. We have reason to envy 

 Africa her exclusive possession of all those fine 

 creatures, not to mention her other hoofed ani- 

 mals, great and small. 



The Prong-Horned Antelope 1 is found only 



cent bullet flies true to the mark, it will destroy 

 an animal more wonderful than the rarest or- 

 chid that ever bloomed. 



Remember the ages which Nature has spent 

 in fashioning this wonderful combination of keen 

 eye, fleet foot and graceful limb, and preserving 

 it from the extermination which overtook the 

 great reptiles, rhinoceroses, and toothed birds of 

 the vast inland sea now known as the Uintah 

 Basin. Surely this animal is worth perpetual 

 protection at our hands, rather than needless, 

 cruel and inexcusable slaughter. It cannot 



Painted by Carl Rungius 



PRONG-HORNED ANTELOPE. 



in North America, and it possesses so many ana- 

 tomical peculiarities, found in no other animal, 

 that zoologists have created for it a separate 

 Family, which it occupies in solitary state. It 

 is like an island in a vast sea, unrelated. Let 

 him who hereafter may be tempted, either law- 

 fully or unlawfully, to raise a death-dealing rifle 

 against one of these beautiful prairie rovers, 

 remember two things before he pulls the trigger: 

 In this land of plenty, no man really needs this 

 creature's paltry pounds of flesh ; and if his two- 

 1 An-ti-lo-cap'ra americana. 



be perpetuated by breeding in captivity; and 

 unless preserved in a wild state, it will become 

 extinct. 



Behold the list of characters, in which this 

 animal differs from all other antelopes: Al- 

 though its horns grow over a bony core, they are 

 shed and renewed every year; the horn bears a 

 prong, and is placed directly over the eye: the 

 feet have no "dew-claws"; the hair consists of a 

 hollow tube filled with pith, coarse, harsh, straw- 

 like and easily broken; and all the hair on the 

 rump is fully erectile, like the bristles of swine. 



