THE PRONGHORN. 11 



the new environment. Adaptation may sometimes be judged from 

 the history of former attempts to acclimatize it or its near relatives. 

 In a country so extensive and varied as the United States the same 

 principles should be considered before transferring a native species 

 from one locality to another. 



Some of the large game mammals whose partial domestication in 

 the United States has been favored are briefly considered under the 

 following subheads: 



THE PRONGHORN, OR AMERICAN ANTELOPE. 



The pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) is a game animal not 

 closely related to any other living form. While its general characters 

 ally it, as well as the antelopes of the Old World, to the cattle and 

 sheep family (Bovidse), it differs from other living ruminants in its 

 deciduous and forked horn sheaths, and is usually considered as the 

 type of a distinct family. 



A half century ago the range of the pronghorn in the plains region 

 extended from the valley of the Missouri River westward to the Cas- 

 cades and from the Saskatchewan in latitude 53° north, south- 

 ward to the Mexican border. In Mexico the species is represented by 

 a paler local race. The eastern limit of the original range of the 

 antelope is not definitely known. According to Baird it was 

 abundant in Minnesota on the plains of the Red River in 1850, a and 

 it still occurred in the southwestern counties of that State in the early 

 eighties. Pike found it common in eastern Kansas in 1806. The 

 statements of the explorers of the plains indicate that it was about as 

 abundant as the buffalo, although not seen in such vast herds. 



The present distribution and numbers of the pronghorn are a sad 

 commentary upon earlier game protection in the West. A few fugi- 

 tive bands are now to be found in the cattle country from longitude 

 101° westward. The story of their decrease in all of the States is 

 practically repeated in the statements of D. C. Nowlin, state game 

 warden of Wyoming, in his annual report for 1906. He says that 

 antelope have decreased to an alarming extent throughout the State ; 

 for instance, in three years the Green River herd had diminished 

 from about 6,000 to less than 2,000 head. Hundreds had perished 

 through lack of food during storms, by depredations of wild animals, 

 and through slaughter by Ute Indians. He repeats the recommenda- 

 tion of previous reports that the legislature should prohibit all kill- 

 ing of antelope for a term of years. 



In 1909 the legislature of Wyoming at last heeded the repeated 

 recommendations of the game warden by passing a law protecting 



a Report U. S. Com. Patents (Agriculture) for 1851, p. 121, 1852. 



