DUIKERS AND SMALL ANTELOPES 571 
The Klipspringers 
Subfamily Oreotragince 
The klipspringers are distinguishable from all other 
African antelopes by their coarse, bristly, and pithy hair 
and by the very narrow, cylindrical hoofs, the extreme tips 
of which alone support the animal's weight. Besides these 
peculiarities the skull exhibits a marked brevity of snout 
with immense anteorbital glands on its sides, which open in 
front of the eye by a large, rounded pore. The horns are 
short, seldom exceeding the head in length, and project ver¬ 
tically above the eyes, being wide apart basally and parallel 
throughout their length. The body is rather heavily built, 
and the legs are short. The hoofs are rounded at the tips 
and the false hoofs are very broad. The inguinal region is 
without pits or sacks in the skin. The female has four 
mammae. The skull is remarkable for the large size of its 
anteorbital fossa, which covers the entire side of the snout, 
almost equalling the orbit in area. The nasal bones are 
very broad and short, spreading out posteriorly so as to 
make them triangular in shape. The sinus between the 
nasal bones and the lachrymal is small and narrow or 
obsolete. 
The Klipspringer 
Oreotragus 
Oreotragus A. Smith, 1834, S. Af. Quart. Journ., II, p. 212; type 0 . oreotragus. 
The klipspringer is the only African antelope which has 
made an attempt to occupy the place in nature taken by the 
wild sheep and goats of the northern hemisphere, the 
chamois of Europe, the goral of Asia, and the white ante¬ 
lope goat of America. He has succeeded remarkably well 
and has widely differentiated himself from his kin. In the 
matter of hoofs fitted for rock-climbing he has become 
specialized beyond all other hoofed mammals, and has pro¬ 
duced for himself a very narrow but elongate hoof upon the 
extreme tip of which he walks, instead of upon the whole 
base. The narrow tips give him a firm footing on the 
steepest of rocks where often no foothold is visible on the 
