MAMMALS OF UTAH 25 



Professor Marcus E. Jones says that antelopes are 

 still seen occasionally on all the plains of western Utah 

 from Lund to Antelope valley, Nevada. In 1891 he saw 

 a herd of twenty at Gold Hill, Nevada, just over the Utah 

 line, and believes that their range extended undoubtedly 

 into this state. 



F. W. Parker says that there was a herd of three hun- 

 dred antelopes on Judd Creek, thirty miles west of Tintic, 

 Juab County, in 1911, and that sheepherders report that 

 they are still there. He saw them every day during one 

 summer. They would come in early each morning to visit 

 a well known salt lick; and when chased they invariably 

 ran southward into a district of such loose sand that a horse 

 could not run in it at all. This protective part of the desert 

 may for a long time prevent the extermination of this par- 

 ticular band. 



Habits — Swift as an arrow and as graceful as Hyperion, 

 the antelope is truly the Ladas of the woods, the fleetest 

 animal of the wilds. Elegance, too, is its natural attribute, 

 for its delicate shape is second only to its wondrously beau- 

 teous eyes. 



A level stretch of open country two miles across seems 

 sufficient for an antelope's individual range; and if the 

 winters are mild and enemies scarce this patch is apt to be 

 made the permanent residence. In eastern Utah, when the 

 snow flies, antelopes congregate in the sheltered valleys of 

 the mountains. 



The horns of the antelope are shed each year, a fact 

 discovered by Rufus B; Sage in 1841. The buttocks of each 

 antelope are white ; and the hair can be raised at will. This 

 discograph, when raised, shines in the sun like a tin pan. 

 From glands in the center of each hair disc is issued in times 

 of danger a musk, which so scents the air that other ante- 

 lopes can smell it actually for miles, and thus avoid the 

 wolf or whatever excited it. 



The voice of the antelope to her kid is a querulous, 

 grunting bleat, though adults of both sexes give shrill 

 whistles or snorts when alarmed and bark when very cu- 

 rious. The kid utters a bleat or squeak. 



The seraphic eyes of the antelope are larger and prob- 

 ably milder than those of any other animal of the same size. 

 The poor creatures actually shed tears when in terror or 

 despair. 



Being creatures of the dry plains, antelopes live on 

 grass, cactus, and sage, but they never browse on twigs and 



