2 
MR.  E.  T.  BENNETT  ON  THE  M'HORR  ANTELOPE. 
monly  applied  to  such  a  purpose,  could  have  been  of  foreign  origin  and  brought  from 
beyond  the  seas  ;  and  it  is  therefore  natural  to  conclude  that  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  last- 
mentioned  writers  refer  to  a  different  animal  from  that  of  Pliny,  and  probably  to  our 
own  Fallow-deer,  the  name  of  which,  in  almost  every  language  of  modern  Europe,  is 
evidently  derived  from  the  same  root  with  the  Latin  Dama.  If  this  supposition  be  ad- 
mitted, the  name  of  Dama  can  no  longer  be  regarded  as  improperly  applied  to  the 
Fallow-deer,  merely  because  Pliny  has  thought  fit  to  transfer  it  to  an  exotic  animal,  and 
to  adoj^t  for  the  European  species  the  name  of  Platyceros,  given  to  it  by  the  more 
scientHc  Greeks. 
The  first  attempt  to  identify  the  "  Dama  Plinii "  in  modern  times  was  made  by  our 
learned  countryman  John  Caius,  who  communicated  to  Conrad  Gesner'  the  drawing 
of  an  animal  which  he  suspected  to  be  the  same  with  that  of  Pliny.  In  a  letter  to 
Gesner,  he  states  that  an  English  friend  of  his  had  assured  him  that  such  animals  were 
found  in  the  northern  parts  of  Britain.  BufFon^  conjectures  the  figure  in  question  to 
be  that  of  a  Goat,  with  the  horns  accidentally  curved  forwards  ;  but  the  resemblance 
of  the  horns  to  those  of  the  animal  described  by  himself  under  the  name  of  Nanguer, 
raises  a  doubt  upon  this  point,  and  at  least  excuses  Caius  and  Gesner  for  regarding  it 
as  the  Dama  of  Pliny,  of  which  this  form  of  horns  is  the  most  clearly  distinctive  mark. 
In  a  subsequent  communication  Caius  writes  that  he  had  since  learned  from  his  friend 
that  the  animal  was  indeed  found  in  the  North  of  Britain,  but  that  it  had  been  intro- 
duced ;  and  that  he  had  seen  it  in  the  possession  of  a  nobleman,  to  whom  it  had  been 
presented.  I  have  heard,  he  adds,  from  some,  that  it  is  a  native  of  Spain.  From  all 
this  it  is  evident  that  the  locality  from  whence  it  was  derived  was  by  no  means  posi- 
tively determined ;  and  an  inspection  of  the  figure  will  show,  that  notwithstanding  the 
addition  of  a  beard  and  the  length  of  its  hair,  as  well  as  the  comparative  shortness  of 
the  legs  and  neck,  it  is  far  from  impossible  that  it  was  rudely  sketched  from  an  Ante- 
lope, rather  than  from  a  Goat.  It  is  further  stated  to  have  been  "  colore  Dorcadis," 
of  the  colour  of  the  roebuck,  a  very  unusual  colour  for  a  goat. 
In  1764  BufFon^  published,  as  his  ninth  species  of  Gazelle,  the  figure  and  description 
of  an  animal  brought  from  Senegal,  w^here  Adanson  stated  that  it  was  named  Nangueur, 
or  Nanguer.  This  animal  agreed  so  well  with  the  principal  character  assigned  by  Pliny 
to  his  Dama,  that  Buffbn  did  not  hesitate  to  regard  it  as  identical ;  and  Pallas*  adopted 
the  idea  in  his  Monograph  of  the  genus  AnfAlope,  published  three  years  afterwards,  in 
which  the  Nanguer  was  introduced  under  the  name  of  Antilope  Dama,  which  it  has  ever 
since  retained.  Pallas  states  that  he  had  only  seen  the  head  and  horns  ;  and  adds,  on 
what  authority  it  is  therefore  difficult  to  conjecture,  that  the  female  is  equally  furnished 
with  horns. 
'  Gesner,  Quadr.  (ed.  1620.)  p.  306.  ^  Hist.  Nat.  torn.  xii.  p.  214. 
^  Hist.  Nat.  torn.  xii.  p.  213.  pi.  xxxiv.  the  animal;  and  pi.  xxxii.  f.  3.  the  horn. 
■*  Spic.  Zool.  fasc.  i.  p.  8. 
