77            Prong-horned Antelope


                          ANTILOCAPRA AMERICANA.--Ord.


                             PRONG-HORNED ANTELOPE.
                            [Pronghorn.  ENDANGERED]

                        PLATE LXXVII.  MALE and FEMALE.


     Cornibus pedalibus compressis, intus planis, antiae granulatis striatisque
propugnaculo compresso procurvo cum cornum parte posteriore retrorsum uncinata
furcam constitutiente; colore russo fuscescente, gutture, cluniumque disco
albis:  statura, Cervus Virginianus.
                               CHARACTERS.

     Horns compressea, flat on the inner side, pearled and striated, with a
compressed snag to the front; colour, reddish dun; throat and disk on the
buttocks, white.  Size of the Virginia deer.


                                   SYNONYMES.

     TEUTHLAMACAMAE.  Hernandez, Nov.-Hispan, p. 324, fig. 324.  An. 1651.
     LE SQUENOTON.  Hist. d'Amerique, p. 17.  An. 1723.
     SQUINATON.  Dobbs, Hudson's Bay, p. 24.  An. 1744.
     ANTILOPE, CABRE OR GOAT.  Gass Journal, pp. 49, 111.
     ANTILOPE.  Lewis and Clarke Journ., Vol. i., pp. 75, 208, 396; Vol. ii.,
       p. 169.
     ANTILOPE AMERICANA.  Ord, Guthrie's Geography.  1815.
     CERVUS HAMATUS.  Blainville, Notiv-Ball. Society.  1816.
     ANTILOCAPRA AMERICANA.  Ord, Jour. de Phys., p. 80.  1818.
     ANTILOPE FURCIFER.  C. Hamilton Smith, Lin. Trans., Vol. xiii., plate 2.
       An. 1823.
     ANTILOPE PALMATA.  Smith, Griffith, Cuv., Vol. v., p. 323.
     ANTILOPE AMERICANA.  Harlan Fauna, p. 250.
     ANTELOPE AMERICANA.  Godman, Nat. Hist., Vol. ii., p. 321
     ANTILOPE FURCIFER.  Richardson, F. B. A., p. 261, plate 21.


                                  DESCRIPTION.

     The Prong-horned Antelope possesses a stately and elegant form, and
resembles more the antelope than the deer family.  It is shorter and more
compactly built than the Virginia deer; its head and neck are also shorter and
the skull is broader at the base.  The horns of the male are curved upwards and
backwards with a short triangular prong about the centre, inclined inwards, not
wrinkled.  Immediately above the prong the horn diminishes to less than half the
size, below the prong the horn is flat and very broad, extremity of the horn
sharp and pointed, and of the prong blunt.  There are irregular little points on
the horns of the male, two or three on each side.  One specimen has two on the
inside of each horn and one on the outside irregularly disposed.
     Nostrils large and open, placed rather far back, eyes large and prominent,
ears of moderate size, acuminate in shape; on the back of the neck in winter
specimens there is a narrow ridge of coarse hairs resembling a short mane.  In
summer there only remains of this mane a black stripe on the upper surface of
the neck; eyelashes profuse; there is no under-fur.  The hairs are of a singular
texture, being thick, soft, wavy and slightly crimped beneath the surface:  they
are brittle, and when bent do not return to their original straight form,
interiorly they are white, spongy and pithy; scrotum pendulous.  There is not
the slightest vestige of any secondary hoofs on either of its fore or hind legs,
such as are seen in deer and other animals.  The hoofs are strong and compact,
small and diminishing suddenly to a point.


                                    COLOUR.

     The nose is yellowish brown, eye lashes black, the orbits with a blackish
brown border, outer edge and points of the ears brownish black.  There is a
white-band about two inches wide in front of and partly encircling the throat,
narrowing to a point on each side of the neck; beneath this is a brown band
about the same breath, underneath which is a grayish white spot of nearly a
triangular shape; this is formed by a patch on each side of the throat of
yellowish brown.  The chest, belly, and sides to within five or six inches of
the back are grayish white.  A large light-coloured patch of nine inches in
breadth exists on the rump, similar to that on the Rocky Mountain sheep and the
elk.  This whitish patch is separated by a brown-yellowish line, running along
the vertebrae of the back to the tail.  Legs, pale brownish yellow, approaching
to dull buff colour, all the upper surface yellowish brown; underjaw and cheek,
pale or grayish white; lips, whitish.
     Female.--The female is a size smaller than the male.  The neck is shorter.
The form is similar, except that the markings are rather fainter; the brownish
yellow which surrounds the different whitish or grayish white spots and bands
being much paler than in the male.  The horn is destitute of a prong; it is only
three inches in length, nearly straight, and running to an acute point.  The
female possesses no mane


                                  DIMENSIONS.

                                                        Feet.   Inches.

     From point of nose to root of tail,.  .  .  .  .  .  4        2
     Height, to shoulder from end of hoof, .  .  .  .  .  3        1
     Length of ear,.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .           4
     Length of prong, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .           6


                                    HABITS.

     Reader, let us carry you with us to the boundless plains over which the
prong-horn speeds.  Hurra for the prairies and the swift antelopes, as they
fleet by the hunter like flashes or meteors, seen but for an instant, for
quickly do they pass out of sight in the undulating ground, covered with tall
rank grass.  Observe now a flock of these beautiful animals; they are not afraid
of man--they pause in their rapid course to gaze on the hunter, and stand with
head erect, their ears as well as eyes directed towards him, and make a loud
noise by stamping with their forefeet on the hard earth; but suddenly they
become aware that he is no friend of theirs, and away they bound like a flock of
frightened sheep--but far more swiftly do the graceful antelopes gallop off,
even the kids running with extraordinary speed by the side of their parents--and
now they turn around a steep hill and disappear, then perhaps again come in
view, and once more stand and gaze at the intruder.  Sometimes, eager with
curiosity and anxious to examine the novel object which astonishes as well as
alarms them, the antelopes on seeing a hunter, advance toward him, stopping at
intervals, and then again advancing, and should the hunter partly conceal
himself, and wave his handkerchief or a white or red rag on the end of his
ramrod, he may draw the wondering animals quite close to him and then quickly
seizing his rifle send a ball through the fattest of the group, ere the timid
creatures have time to fly from the fatal spot.
     The Indians, we were told, sometimes bring the antelope to within
arrow-shot (bow-shot), by throwing themselves on their backs and kicking up
their heels with a bit of a rag fastened to them, on seeing which moving amid
the grass the antelope draws near to satisfy his curiosity.
     The atmosphere on the western prairies is so pure and clear that an
antelope is easily seen when fully one mile off, and you can tell whether it is
feeding quietly or is alarmed; but beautiful as the transparent thin air shews
all distant objects, we have never found the great western prairies equal the
flowery descriptions of travellers.  They lack the pure streamlet wherein the
hunter may assuage his thirst--the delicious copses of dark, leafy trees; and
even the thousands of fragrant flowers, which they are poetically described as
possessing, are generally of the smaller varieties; and the Indian who roams
over them is far from the ideal being--all grace, strength and nobleness, in his
savage freedom--that we from these descriptions conceive him.  Reader, do not
expect to find any of the vast prairies that border the Upper Missouri, or the
Yellow-Stone rivers, and extend to the Salt Lakes amid the Californian range of
the Rocky Mountains, verdant pastures ready for flocks and herds, and full of
the soft perfume of the violet.  No; you will find an immense waste of stony,
gravelly, barren soil, stretched before you; you will be tormented with thirst,
half eaten up by stinging flies, and lucky will you be if at night you find wood
and water enough to supply your fire and make your cup of coffee; and should you
meet a band of Indians, you will find them wrapped in old buffalo robes, their
bodies filthy and covered with vermin, and by stealing or begging they will
obtain from you perhaps more than you can spare from your scanty store of
necessaries, and armed with bows and arrows or firearms, they are not
unfrequently ready to murder, or at least rob you of all your personal property,
including your ammunition, gun and butcher knife!
     The Prong-horned Antelope brings forth its young about the same time as the
common deer:  from early in May to the middle of June; it has generally two
fawns at a birth.  We have heard of no case in which more than that number has
been dropped at a time, and probably in some cases only one is fawned by the
dam.  The young are not spotted like the fawn of the common deer, but are of a
uniform dun colour.  The dam remains by her young for some days after they are
born, feeding immediately around the spot, and afterwards gradually enlarging
her range; when the young are a fortnight old they have gained strength and
speed enough to escape with their fleet-footed mother from wolves or other
four-footed foes.  Sometimes, however, the wolves discover and attack the young
when they are too feeble to escape, and the mother then displays the most
devoted courage in their defense.  She rushes on them, butting and striking with
her short horns, and sometimes tosses a wolf heels over head, she also uses her
forefeet, with which she deals severe blows, and if the wolves are not in strong
force, or desperate with hunger, puts them to flight, and then seeks with her
young a safer pasturage, or some almost inaccessible rocky hill side.
     The rutting season of this species commences in September, the bucks run
for about six weeks, and during this period fight with great courage and even a
degree of ferocity.  When a male sees another approaching, or accidentally comes
upon one of his rivals, both parties run at each other with their heads lowered
and their eyes flashing angrily, and while they strike with their horns they
wheel and bound with prodigous activity and rapidity, giving and receiving
severe wounds,--sometimes like fencers, getting within each others "points," and
each hooking his antagonist with the recurved branches of his horns, which bend
considerably inwards and downwards.
     The Prong-horned Antelope usually inhabits the low prairies adjoining the
covered woody bottoms during spring and autumn, but is also found on the high or
upland prairies, or amid broken hills, and is to be seen along the margins of
the rivers and streams:  it swims very fast and well, and occasionally a herd
when startled may be seen crossing a river in straggling files, but without
disorder, and apparently with ease.
     Sometimes a few of these animals, or even only one or two by themselves may
be seen, whilst in other instances several hundreds are congregated in a herd.
They are remarkably shy, are possessed of a fine sense of smell, and have large
and beautiful eyes, which enable them to scan the surface of the undulating
prairie and detect the lurking Indian or wolf, creep he ever so cautiously
through the grasses, unless some intervening elevation or copsewood conceal his
approach.  It is, therefore, necessary for the hunter to keep well to leeward,
and to use extraordinary caution in "sneaking" after this species; and he must
also exercise a great deal of patience and move very slowly and only at
intervals, when the animals with heads to the ground or averted from him, are
feeding or attracted by some other object.  When they discover a man thus
stealthily moving near them, at first sight they fly from him with great speed,
and often retire to the broken grounds of the clay hills, from which they are
not often tempted to stray a great distance at any time.  As we have already
mentioned, there are means, however, to excite the timid antelope to draw near
the hunter, by arousing his curiosity and decoying him to his ruin.  The
antelopes of the Upper Missouri country are frequently shot by the Indians
whilst crossing the river; and, as we were informed, preferred the northern side
of the Missouri; which, no doubt, arises from the prevalence on that bank of the
river of certain plants, trees or grasses, that they are most fond of.  Males
and females are found together at all seasons of the year.  We have been told
that probably a thousand or more of these animals have been seen in a single
herd or flock at one time, in the spring.
     It was supposed by the hunters at Fort Union, that the prong-horned
antelope dropped its horns; but as no person had ever shot or killed one without
these ornamental and useful appendages, we managed to prove the contrary to the
men at the fort by knocking off the bony part of the horn, and showing the hard,
spongy membrane beneath, well attached to the skull and perfectly immoveable.
     The Prong-horned Antelope is never found on the Missouri river below L'eau
qui court; but above that stream they are found along the great Missouri and its
tributaries, in all the country east of the Rocky Mountains, and in many of the
great valleys that are to be met with among these extraordinary "big bills."
None of these antelopes are found on the shores of the Mississippi, although on
the headwaters of the Saint Peter's river they have been tolerably abundant.
Their walk is a slow and somewhat pompous gait, their trot elegant and graceful,
and their gallop or "run" light and inconceivably swift; they pass along, up or
down hills, or along the level plain with the same apparent ease, while so
rapidly do their legs perform their graceful movements in propelling their
bodies over the ground, that like the spokes of a fast turning wheel we can
hardly see them, but instead, observe a gauzy or film-like appearance where they
should be visible.
     In autumn, this species is fatter than at any other period.  Their liver is
much prized as a delicacy, and we have heard that many of these animals are
killed simply to procure this choice morsel.  This antelope feeds on the short
grass of the prairies, on mosses, buds, &c.; and suffers greatly during the hard
winters experienced in the north-west; especially when the snow is several feet
in depth.  At such times they can be caught by hunters provided with snow shoes,
and they are in this manner killed, even in sight of Fort Union, from time to
time.
     It is exceedingly difficult to rear the young of this species; and,
although many attempts have been made at Fort Union, and even an old one caught
and brought within an enclosure to keep the young company, they became furious,
and ran and butted alternately against the picket-wall or fence, until they were
too much bruised and exhausted to recover.  WILLIAM SUBLETTE, Esq., of St.
Louis, Missouri, however, brought with him to that city a female antelope,
caught when quite young on the prairies of the far west, which grew to maturity,
and was so very gentle, that it would go all over the house, mounting or
descending the stairs, and occasionally going on to the roof of the building he
lived in.  This female was alive when we first reached St. Louis, but not being
aware of its existence, we never saw it.  It was killed before we left by a
buck-elk, belonging to the same gentleman.
     Whilst on our journey in the far west, in 1843, on one occasion, we had the
gratification of seeing an old female, in a flock of eight or ten antelopes,
suckling its young.  The little beauty performed this operation precisely in the
manner of our common lambs, almost kneeling down, bending its head upwards, its
rump elevated, it thumped the bag of its mother, from time to time, and reminded
us of far distant scenes, where peaceful flocks feed and repose under the
safeguard of our race, and no prowling wolf or hungry Indian defeats the hopes
of the good shepherd who nightly folds his stock of the Leicester or Bakewell
breed.  Our wild antelopes, however, as we approached them, scampered away; and
we were delighted to see that first, and in the van of all, was the young one!
     On the 21st July, 1843, whilst in company with our friend, EDWARD HARRIS,
Esq., during one of our hunting excursions, we came in sight of an antelope
gazing at us, and determined to stop and try if we could bring him toward us by
the trick we have already mentioned, of throwing our legs up in the air and
kicking them about, whilst lying on our back in the grass.  We kicked away first
one foot and then the other, and sure enough, the antelope walked slowly toward
us, apparently with great caution and suspicion.  In about twenty minutes he had
advanced towards us some two or three hundred yards.  He was a superb male, and
we looked at him for several minutes when about sixty yards off.  We could see
his fine protruding eyes; and being loaded with buck-shot, we took aim and
pulled trigger.  Off he went, as if pursued by a whole Black-foot Indian
hunting-party.  Friend HARRIS sent a ball at him, but was as unsuccessful as
ourselves, for he only ran the faster for several hundred yards, when he stopped
for a few minutes, looked again at us, and then went off, without pausing as
long as he was in sight.  We have, been informed by LAFLEUR, a man employed by
the Company, that antelopes will escape with great ease even when they have one
limb broken, as they can run fast enough upon three legs to defy any pursuit.
Whilst we were encamped at the "Three Mamelles," about sixty miles west of Fort
Union, early one morning an antelope was heard snorting, and was seen by some of
our party for a few minutes only.  This snorting, as it is called, resembles a
loud whistling, singing sound prolonged, and is very different from the loud and
clear snorting of our common deer; but it has always appeared to us to be almost
useless to attempt to describe it; and although at this moment we have the sound
of the antelope's snort in our ears, we feel quite unable to give its equivalent
in words or syllables.
     The antelope has no lachrymal pits under the eyes, as have deer and elks,
nor has it any gland on the hind leg, so curious a feature in many of those
animals of the deer tribe which drop their horns annually, and only wanting (so
far as our knowledge extends) in the Cervus Richardsonii, which we, consider in
consequence as approaching the genus Antilope, and in a small deer from Yucatan
and Mexico, of which we had a living specimen for some time in our possession.
     The prong-horned antelope often dies on the open prairies during severe
winter weather, and the remains of shockingly poor, starved, miserable
individuals of this species, in a state of the utmost emaciation, are now and
then found dead in the winter, even near Fort Union and other trading posts.
     The present species is caught in pens in the same manner nearly as the
bison, (which we have already described at p. 97) but is generally despatched
with clubs, principally by the women.  In the winter of 1840, when the snow was
deep in the ravines, having drifted, Mr. LAIDLAW, who was then at Fort Union,
caught some of them by following them on horse-back and forcing them into these
drifts, which in places were as much as ten to twelve feet deep.  They were
brought to the fort in a sleigh, and let loose about the rooms; they were to
appearance so very gentle that the people suffered their children to handle
them, although the animals were loose.  They were placed in the carpenter's
shop, one broke its neck by leaping over a turning-lathe, and the rest all died;
for as soon as they had appeased the cravings of hunger, they began to fret for
their accustomed liberty, and regained all their original wildness.  They
leaped, kicked and butted themselves against every obstacle, until too much
exhausted to recover.--These individuals were all captured by placing nooses,
fixed on the end of long poles, round their necks, whilst they were embedded in
the soft and deep snow drifts, to which they had been driven by Mr. LAIDLAW
     There are some peculiarities in the gait of this species that we have not
yet noticed.  The moment they observe a man or other strange object producing an
alarm, they bound off for some thirty or forty yards, raising all their legs at
the same time. and bouncing, at it were, from two to three feet above the
ground; after this they stretch their bodies out and gallop at an extraordinary
speed.  We have seen some which, when started, would move off and run a space of
several miles, in what we thought did not exceed a greater number of minutes!
     From what we have already said, it will be inferred that the wolf is one of
the most formidable enemies of this species.  We have, however, not yet
mentioned that in some very cold and backward seasons the young, when first born
at such times, are destroyed by these marauders in such numbers that the hunters
perceive the deficiency and call them scarce for the next season.  Antelopes are
remarkably fond of saline water or salt, and know well where the salt-licks are
found.  They return to them daily, if near their grazing grounds, and lay down
by them, after licking the salty earth or drinking the salt water.  Here they
will remain for hours at a time, in fact until hunger drives them to seek in
other places the juicy and nourishing grasses of the prairie.  This species is
fond of taking its stand, when alone, on some knoll, from which it can watch the
movements of all wanderers on the plains around, and from which a fair chance to
run in any direction is secured, although the object of its fear may be
concealed from view occasionally by a ravine, or by another projecting ridge
like its own point of sight.
     We had in our employ a hunter on the Yellow-Stone River, who killed two
female antelopes and broke the leg of a third at one shot from an ordinary
western rifle.  The ball must have passed entirely through the two first of
these animals.
     We have represented on our plate two males and a female in the fore ground,
with a flock of these timid creatures running at full speed in the distance.
     We subjoin the following account of the Antelopes seen by J. W. AUDUBON and
his party on their overland journey through Northern Mexico and Sonora to
California.
     "Leaving Altar, Sonora, the country was flat and uninteresting, except that
large patches of coarse grass, sometimes miles in length, took the place of the
naked clay plains we had been riding through.  The tall cactus, described by
FREMONT and EMORY, in its eccentric forms was remarkable enough even by
daylight, but at night, a very little superstition, with the curved and
curiously distorted forms, produced in some cases by disease of the plant, or by
the violent gales that periodically sweep those prairies, might make the
traveller suppose this was a region in which beings supernatural stalked abroad.
The shrill whistle of the Antelope, new to us all, added to the wild and
unearthly character of the scene.  The Maricapos Indians were said to be
friendly, but we did not know it, and after our long watchings against Comanche,
Apatche, Wako and Paramanii, who among us, as we knew how Indians sometimes
personate the animals of the section they live in, but listened with intense
interest to the slightest noise foreign to our previous knowledge.  The short
quick stampings of impatience or nervousness, continually repeated by the
animals, were, however, soon distinguished in the stillness of our prairie camp
at night, and feeling thus assured that only one of the deer tribe was the cause
of our anxiety, blankets and tent soon covered us, and we left the beautiful and
innocent creatures, now that we knew them, to their own reflections, if any they
made, as to who and what we were, until morning.
     At day light, RHOADES and VAN HORN, two hunters good as ever accompanied a
train across the broad prairies ranged over by Buffalo, Elk, or Deer, looked out
the trails, and reported Antelopes; but brought none to camp; not expecting to
see any more of this herd, we started on our tramp towards the great Sonora
Desert.
     STEVENSON had a new horse, and as he had never been mounted without
blindfolding him, after the Mexican fashion with young horses, being wild, his
owner, by way of making him more gentle, commenced beating him with a stick that
might have been selected to kill him; before I had time to know what was going
on and interfere for the poor horse, he had looked to his own interests, pulled
away, and with a bounding gallop went off, like an escaped prisoner, leading
four of our best men and horses some ten miles ahead of the train, and when the
runaway was at length overtaken, VAN HORN, PENNYPACKER, MC. CUSKER, and myself
were greatly in advance; the curve we had made from the road was slight, and on
reaching it again, no trail told that the company had passed, so we had time to
look about us, and loitered to rest our tired horses, when simultaneously we saw
the back of a deer or Antelope; its head was hidden by the tall grass in which
it was grazing on the soft juicy young shoots at the roots of the old tussocks:
VAN HORN, with his unerring aim and Mississippi rifle, the eccentric twist of
which, no doubt taken from WESSON's patent, renders these guns superior to all
we have tried, was told to kill it.  For a few seconds he was lost to our sight,
though only a hundred yards from us, so low did he squat in the sparse tufts of
dead grass and stinking wormwood.  How curious it is to stand waiting the result
of the skill and caution of the well tried hunter, at such a time; again and
again we saw the back of the Antelope, as he passed one bunch of shrubbery after
another, but never saw our hunter:  at every moment we expected to see the wary
animal with sense of smell so keen as nine times out of ten to save him from his
enemies, bound away; but how different was his bound when he did leap, not
forward, but straight upward.  And now we saw VAN HORN, a quarter of a mile off,
running to where the last leap was made by his prey, and then came on the
sluggish air, the crack of his rifle, almost after we had forgotten to listen
for it, as a rifle cracks nowhere except on prairies, where neither woods, rocks
or hills send back the sound.  When I saw this beautiful creature, a most
magnificent male, the first I had ever seen in the flesh, though the drawing for
the 'Quadrupeds' had been long made and published, how I wished to redraw it!
delicate even to the descriptions of the gazelle muscular and sinewy as the best
bred grey hound that Scotland ever produced.
     I anticipated a treat, as VAN HORN gave me a hind quarter for our men,
which I tied doubly secure to my saddle.  But when night came, after ten hours'
ride, although we enjoyed our steaks, the deer of the Cordilleras was too fresh
in our memories to permit us to say that this Antelope was the best meat we had
eaten."
     * * * "The eastern spurs of the coast range were just behind us; the
black-tailed deer was scarcely past, for a few miles back, high up on one of the
conical velvety hills of this range, we had seen three, looking at us from under
one of the dwarf oaks that grow at a certain altitude, in forms peculiar to this
country; above or below, either a different formation or total absence of
shrubbery occurring.  We were winding along the base of a moderate line of hills
of the Sierra Nevada, when what we took for a flock of sheep, the trail of which
we had been following for three days on the way to the mines from Los Angeles,
was discovered.  and we hoped for mutton, to say nothing of the company we
anticipated; but our flock of sheep was like the 'Phantom Bark,' for it 'seemed
never the nigher,' au contraire, turning a hill went out of sight, and we never
got another view; we saw another flock some miles on, and at first, supposing it
the same, wondered how they could travel so fast.  This was probably another
portion of the one we had trailed for so many days.  We were gratified by the
whole flock running near us, from which we argued we were in the chosen country
of the Antelope, the broad Tule valley.  The flock ran 'shearing' about, as the
formation of the land compelled them to turn to the right or left, showing their
sides alternately in light and shade.  When they are on the mountain sides and
discover a foe, or any object that frightens them, the whole flock rush headlong
for the plains, whether the enemy is likely to intercept them or not, and they
seem to fly with the single idea, that they are in a dangerous place, and must
change it for some other, no matter what; at times a whole flock would run to
within shot of our company, determined as it were to go through the line, and I
believe in one or two instances would have done so, if they had not been shot at
by our too impatient party.  When on the plains, the same desire possesses them
to get to the hills, and back they go a hundred or two in a flock, seldom
slackening their speed, except for a few seconds to look again, and be more
frightened than ever at what had first startled them.  The rolling hills of the
western line of the Sierra Nevada were their most favourite locality in this
valley, as far as we saw, but LAYTON and myself met an occidental individual or
two, nearly up to Sacramento city, as we travelled through the beautiful,
park-like scenes of this portion of California to the diggings of the head
waters of the " American Fork."
     As to the shedding of the horns of this species, I never was able to
ascertain it, but a fine buck we killed, late in November, had a soft space
between the head and horn, over the bone, that looked as if it had grown that
length in one season.  A young Antelope is better eating than a deer, but an old
one, is decidedly goaty.


                           GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.

     The Prong-horned Antelope is an inhabitant of the western portions of North
America, being at no time found to the east of the Mississippi river.  Its most
northerly range is, according to RICHARDSON, latitude 53 degrees on the banks of
the north branch of the Saskatchewan.  They range southerly on the plains east
of the Rocky Mountains into New Mexico.  The precise latitude we have not been
able to ascertain, but we have seen specimens that were said to have been
obtained along the eastern ridge of the mountains within the tropics in Mexico.
The account given by HERNANDEZ, as well as his bad figure of his Teuthlamacame,
can apply to no other species; this was obtained in Mexico.  LEWIS and CLARKE
found it on the plains west of the Columbia River, and it is now known to be an
inhabitant of California.  It has, therefore, a very extensive geographical
range.


                                GENERAL REMARKS.

     We have after much reflection and careful examination, concluded to adopt
Mr. ORD's genus Antilocapra for this species.  It differs in so many particulars
from the true Antelopes, that naturalists will be compelled either to enlarge
the character of that genus, or place it under one already formed.  Its horns
are branched, of which no instance occurs among all the species of Antelope; it
is destitute of crumens or lachrymal openings, and is entirely deficient in the
posterior or accessory hoofs, there being only two on each foot.
     Major HAMILTON SMITH, (Cuv. Animal Kingdom, Vol.  v., p. 321,) formed a
genus under the name of Dicranocerus, under which he placed a second species
which he named A palmata.  Although the generic name given by SMITH is in many
respects preferable, as being more classically correct, still, if we were to be
governed by the principle that we should reject a genus because the compound
word from which it is derived is composed of two languages, or if it does not
designate the precise character of the species, we would be compelled to abandon
many familiar genera, established by LINNAEUS himself.
     The specific name of ORD, we have also adopted in preference to the more
characteristic one "furcifer" of SMITH, under a rule which we have laid down in
this work not to alter a specific name that has been legitimately given.
     We have added the A palmata, palmated Antelope of Major SMITH, as a
synonyme.  We have compared so many specimens differing from each other in
shades of colour and size of horns, that we have scarcely a doubt of his having
described a very old male of the Prong-horned Antelope.