TRANSACTIONS 
OF 
THE   ZOOLOGICAL  SOCIETY. 
I.  On  the  M'horr  Antelope.    By  E.  T.  Bennett,  Esq.,  F.L.S.,  Sec.  Z.S. 
Communicated  January  8,  1833. 
Pliny  appears,  with  one  exception,  to  be  the  only  author  of  antiquity  who  distin- 
guishes the  Dama  of  the  classical  ages  by  any  tangible  characters ;  and  even  his  slight 
notices  are  confined  to  its  transmarine  origin',  and  the  forward  curvature  of  its  horns^ 
In  other  writers  the  word,  although  of  frequent  occurrence,  is  accompanied  only  by 
vague  epithets,  indicative  for  the  most  part  of  gentleness,  timidity,  and  velocity.  Thus 
we  have  in  Horace^  the  epithet  "pavidse";  in  Virgil ^  "timidi";  in  Martial,  "raolles% 
imbelles"";  in  Seneca^  "veloces";  and  in  Columella^  "  velocissimse " ; — all  applied 
to  the  Dames,  which  appear,  from  the  constant  references  made  to  them  about  that 
period,  to  have  been  well  known  at  Rome  in  the  times  of  the  earlier  Csesars.  The  ex- 
ception above  noticed  occurs  in  the  fragment  of  the  Halieuticon,  generally  ascribed  to 
Ovid  and  at  all  events  written  by  a  contemporary  author,  and  merely  determines  the 
animal  to  have  had  a  fawn-coloured  back,  and  to  have  been  an  object  of  the  chased 
In  this  latter  particular  the  writer,  whoever  he  may  have  been,  is  confirmed  by  Virgil'" 
and  Columella".    It  seems  scarcely  probable  that  an  animal  so  well  known,  and  com- 
'  "  Sunt  et  damse,  et  pygargi,  et  strepsicerotes,  multaque  alia  baud  dissimilia — haec  transmarini  situs  mit- 
tunt."  Lib.  viii.  cap.  53. 
'  "  Cornua — in  rupicapris  in  dorsum  adunca,  damis  in  adversum."  Lib.  xi.  cap.  37. 
Carm.  lib.  i.  Od.  2.         '  Eel.  8,  28  ;  and  Georg.  lib.  iii.  539.    «  Epig.  Ub.  iv.  35. 
Epig.  lib.  xiii.  91.  '  Hippol.  61.  »  De  Re  Rust.  (ed.  Schn.)  lib.  vii.  cap.  12. 
"  Altera  pars  fidens  pedibus  dat  terga  sequenti : 
Ut  pavidi  Lepores,  ut  fulvo  tergore  Damse 
Et  capto  fugiens  Cervus  sine  fine  timore." — Hal.  (ed.  Gesn.)  p.  4. 
Georg.  lib.  iii.  410.  "  loc.  cit. 
VOL.  I.  B 
