PREFACE. 
A sort Introduction, stating the general plan of this work, was given in the 
first number of ‘The Book of Antelopes, published in August 1894. On 
completing the work by the issue of the last Part it has been determined 
by the Authors to explain its origin and object a little more fully, and this 
portion of the task has been intrusted to me. 
It should be quite understood, in the first place, that, as has been stated 
in the Introduction, the original conception of the work is due to the genius 
and energy of the late Sir Victor Brooke, under whose supervision the 
greater number of the plates and other illustrations were prepared, and I 
need hardly say that it is greatly regretted by the authors that Sir Victor did 
not live to carry out his plan. Sir Victor was elected a Fellow of the 
Zoological Society of London in 1864, at which time I knew him only as an 
ardent sportsman, much attached to Natural History. Some time in the year 
1870, I think it was, he called upon me at my office, and stated that he had 
been attending Sir William (then Professor) Flower’s lectures at the College 
of Surgeons, and had quite determined to commence serious work in Natural 
History, being deeply interested in that subject. After talking over the 
matter with him for some time it was suggested that the Ruminant Mammals, 
with many of which Sir Victor as a sportsman was well acquainted, offered 
an excellent subject for work, and I promised that I would take every 
opportunity that fell in my way of putting at his disposal specimens of this 
