The Prong- Horned Antelope 
37 
Antelope with drooping horns. 
From photograph in Recreation, June, 1897, by W. H 
who got them at Laramie, Wyoming, in 1893. 
them useless for attack. It seemed as 
though a simple, straight spike would be so 
much more effective. The incurved point 
and its half-way snag seemed like buttons 
on the rapier, like efforts to disarm the well- 
armed knight while leaving him in posses- 
sion of his weapons. But many observa- 
tions made on the Antelope in the Washing- 
ton Zoo Park, while Iwas painting their por- 
traits, showed me how true it is that not the 
smallest detail in nature is without a distinct 
purpose for which it 
has been carefully 
adapted through ages 
of experiment. From 
these I learned that 
the prong, so far from 
being the button on 
the rapier, is a hilt 
that protects the bare 
flesh farther up, as de- 
scribed later in the 
paragraph on the 
duel; and the re- 
curved point enables 
the buck to strike his 
adversary in the 
throat where the 
skin is thinnest. 
Another remarkable detail of the Ante- 
lope's anatomy is the white area on each 
buttock. Although it seems at first like the 
rest of his spots, a mere patch of white coat, 
it is found to be specialized for an important 
service. It is composed of hair graded 
from short in the centre to long at the front 
edges. Under the skin of the part is a cir- 
cular muscle by means of which the hair can, 
in a moment, be raised and spread radially 
into two great blooming twin chrysanthe- 
mums, more or less flattened at the centre. 
When this is done in bright sunlight, they 
shine like tin pans, giving flashes of light 
that can be seen farther than the animal it- 
self, affording a conspicuous identification 
mark that must be of great service to the 
species. [Page 38.] 
As soon, therefore, as an Antelope sees 
some strange or thrilling object, this mus- 
cle acts, and the rump patch is instantly 
changed into a great double disc of white 
that shines afar like a patcli of snow; and 
by its flashing spreads the alarm. This, it 
will be seen, is simply a heliograph. Man 
flatters himself that he was the inventor of 
flash communication; but he is wrong; the 
R., 
Antelope had it first. They used it thousands 
of generations before man ever dreamed of it. 
The bristling mane of the species is erect- 
ed under excitement at the same time with 
the discs. 
Many animals are furnished with glands 
that produce a strong-smelling stuff that in 
some cases serves as a defence, but mostly 
as a method of intercommunication. A 
Peccary has a scent gland on his back, a 
Deer has one on each foot and on the hock, 
a Goat has them 
about the head. The 
Antelope has every 
one of these kinds of 
smeUers, each taint- 
ing the adjoining air 
in a way of its own, 
and doubtless for a 
purpose that none 
other could answer. 
Judge Caton thinks 
that these many 
pungent odors 
help to protect the 
Antelope from flies 
and mosquitoes; 
but it seems likely 
that their chief 
service is for intercommunication. 
Those on the jaw seem related to the sex- 
ual system, as they are largest in the buck 
and most active in rutting time; those on 
the rump, have a place in their heliographic 
code; and the purpose of the others though 
not yet understood, is almost certainly to 
serve in conveying news. 
The uniform of the species is itself an im- 
portant means of intercommunication. Its 
conspicuous coloring labels the creature 
afar that this is surely an Antelope, for in- 
formation of a friend or foe. Thus one re- 
alizes that it is useless to follow, and the 
other that it is needless to flee. 
It is interesting to note that the Antelope's 
tail does not count in its code of expression, 
although in the Whitetailed Deer — which is 
not furnished with the disco-graph — the tail 
is greatly developed and specialized as a 
means of communication. Parallel cases 
are the Wapiti, whose tail is inert, but whose 
crupper-patch is very active, and theMoose, 
whose tail is a dummy, or sleeping member 
of the firm, but whose hip on each side is 
furnished with an erectile patch that seems 
to serve the purpose of expression. 
