OBJECTS OF BREEDING WILD MAMMALS 143 



The flesh of both is said to be excellent. These small deer are less than 

 20 inches tall at the withers and, if domesticated in our Southern 

 States, would furnish farmers a much needed form of meat which could 

 be provided fresh every day or two as needed. Aside from fowls, most 

 of our domestic animals are too large for immediate consumption by the 

 ordinary farmer's family; and there is a distinct demand for a food 

 animal of smaller size than the sheep for farm use. Some of the smaller 

 African antelopes, as the red duiker, might perhaps be made to supply 

 the demand. 



In Africa there are nearly a hundred species of the antelope family, 

 many of them hardy and some of them producing the best of venison. 

 More than a dozen species would be promising subjects for experiments 

 in acclimatizing and breeding in America. Some of them for instance, 

 as the gazelle, undoubtedly would be found especially adapted for the 

 arid range country of the Southwest and might be used to restock parts 

 of the country from which the American antelope has disappeared. 



The eland is the largest of the antelope family and is threatened 

 with extermination in South Africa. The average weight of this animal 

 is from 800 to 1,100 pounds and old males sometimes attain 1,400 to 

 1,500 pounds. The eland has often been recommended for experiments 

 in domestication. It was first introduced into Holland in 1783 by the 

 Prince of Orange. It was acclimatized in England by the Earl of Derby 

 in 1842 and was bred successfully in his parks. At his death his herd 

 passed into the possession of the London Zoological Society in 1851, and 

 continued to increase in numbers for many years. In 1879, the Duke 

 of Bedford had a fine herd of 14 elands in his park at Woburn Abbey. 

 The flesh of the eland is highly eulogized by Harris, the African trav- 

 eller, in these words: "Both in grain and colour it resembles beef, but 

 it is far better tasted and more delicate, possessing a pure game flavour 

 and exhibiting the most tempting looking layers of fat and lean, the 

 surprising quantity of the former ingredient with which it is interlarded , 

 exceeding that of any other game quadruped with which I am ac- 

 quainted. The venison fairly melts in the mouth, and as for the brisket, 

 that is absolutely a cut for a monarch." 



Besides the eland, the sambar, the nilgai, and other foreign deer 

 have given promising results when bred in enclosures. All told, there 

 are perhaps 150 species of exotic ungulata useful for food, that might 

 become promising subjects for experiments in acclimatizing and breed- 

 ing in the United States. The cost of introducing and caring for ten or 

 more of each species until acclimated would be small When compared 

 with the important results that would follow success with even a very 

 few species. 



For those who would engage in growing deer for profit, however, 



