SKINNER — THE PRONG-HORN 
83 
Antilocapra americana peninsularis Nelson, 1912. Described from forty-five 
miles south of Calmalli, Lower California. This animal is probably confined to 
the peninsula of Lower California, Mexico. 
Although this animal is known all through the west, and throughout 
American literature, as the antelope, we have no true antelopes in 
this country,^ for all the existing animals of the group, including the 
gazelles, are Old World species and mainly of African habitat. This is 
the only animal in the United States that approaches them at all in 
form and habits. It is the sole representative of its genus and family, 
for the peculiarities of the horns and their growth are deemed sufficient 
to justify a separate family, intermediate between the giraffes and the 
Bovidse, It is known generally as American Antelope, Prong-horn, 
or Prong-buck, and was called Cabree and Cabrit by the Canadian 
French trappers. 
A full-grown prong-horn is smaller than most adult American deer. 
The bucks are slightly larger than the does. The robust and somewhat 
chunky body, which supports a short, thick-set neck carrying erect a 
large head, is quite different in form from that of a deer. The tail 
is very short, and the limbs are slim and rather short. 
The coloring is made up of white and fawn, with black and brown 
markings about the head and neck. The white occupies all of the under 
surface of the body, extending down the inner side of the limbs and 
also well up on the sides of the body, where a rectangular area between 
the shoulder and hip is formed. The rump, with the exception of a 
narrow fawn strip usually connecting the upper surface of the tail 
with the colored area of the back, is white; and when erected in fright 
or excitement, it catches the sun and gleams out brightly. The lips 
and chin are white; in the mouth parts, the mucous membrane and 
naked areas are coal black. White also are areas on the cheeks, throat, 
and inner surface of the ears, besides which the neck, underneath, is 
beautifully marked with a white crescent above, and a white shield 
below. Fawn occupies the back and most of the neck, extending down 
the outer sides of the limbs until it encircles them low down, and also 
extending backward in a narrow line dividing the rump and terminat- 
ing on the basal part of the tail. This fawn color becomes more tawny 
on the neck, and the elongated hairs of the short, erect mane are russet, 
tipped usually with black in varying amount. The head, which varies 
from creamy white on the sides to wood brown above, is marked with 
2 The Kocky Mountain goat is the nearest approach to the Old World “ante- 
lopes’^ among the American Bovidse. 
