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CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE GNU AKD OETX ANTELOPES. 



The family of mammalia known as antelopes, is one wHcli includes 



a most bewildering number of species and varieties, but some of 



them are very closely allied. They are ungulates, or hoofed 



animals, and are classified in the sub-division of ruminants, or 



those that chew the cud.^ 



Among the antelopes are to be found some of the most graceful 



and symmetrically-proportioned animals in existence. Although 



each species differs from the others in some important particular, 



yet they all agree in many of their chief characteristics. For 



instance, their horns are hollow like those of the Bovidm, not solid 



like the antlers of the deer ; neither are they deciduous, that is, 



shed at certain periods, but, with few exceptions, are permanent 



and persistent throughout life. Both sexes are generally provided 



with these appendages, which are slender, straight, taper 



gradually to a point, and in some species are curved and spiral, 



but only in one or two aberrant varieties are they ever branched. 



Their hair is generally short and smooth, the eyes bright and 



' The singular process called " chewing the cud," which is to be observed in all 

 the ruminant group of mammals, and is the remastication of food returned to the 

 mouth after a previous deglutition, may be briefly described as follows. In all these 

 animals the stomach has four compartments. The first of these, which is known as 

 the paunch or rumen, and in the adult animal is the' largest division, receives aU the 

 herbage cropped during grazing, which is but slightly broken up by the short 

 mastication it has undergone. Erom this receptacle it is transmitted in small 

 portions into the second stomach, which is merely an appendage of the first, called 

 the reticulum or honeycomb-bag. Herein the juices act upon the sodden food, and 

 it is compressed into small masses or balls, which, when the animal is in a state of 

 repose, are thrown back successively into the mouth for a second and more complete 

 chewing. On its being rgsw^llowed, when thoroughly masticated, it passes into the 

 third compartment, the psalterium or manyplies, where it is prepared for digestion, 

 and from thence passed into the fourth, the abomasum, which is the stomach ana- 

 logous to the simple one of ordinary animals, and where the true digestion takes place. 



