The Cambridge Natural History Part 24

_Aepyceros_, with two species, is African. The Palla (_Ae. melampus_) is a large Antelope, with longish lyrate horns in the male, which are half-ringed.

The Saiga Antelope, genus _Saiga_, is one of the most remarkable types of Antelope in its outward appearance. Its nose is very large and inflated, the two nostrils being quite widely separated, a depression indeed lying between them dorsally. The horns are lyrate in the male, absent in the female. The "ovine expression" of this bovine animal is more p.r.o.nounced in the female. Corresponding with the clumsy nose are very short nostrils, the commencement of the narial aperture being therefore very far back. It is almost suggestive of _Macrauchenia_ in this respect. The fleece is also Sheep-like. The genus occurred in this country during the Pleistocene. It is now an inhabitant of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The only species is _S. tartarica_.

The Chiru, _Pantholops_, is allied to the Saiga. The horns of the male are long and nearly straight; they are ringed in front. The muzzle is swollen in the male; the nostrils are large, and provided with extensive sacs internally. The colour of this animal, which is exclusively Thibetan in range, is a pale fawn. The hair, in accord with its habitat, is very woolly. No living specimens have ever been brought to Europe. This creature has acc.u.mulated much {312} legend. Its blood is believed by the Mongols to possess virtues, and by means of the rings on the horns fortunes are told.

Naturally the animal is on these grounds hard to stalk and shoot.

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FIG. 161.--Loder's Gazelle. _Gazella loderi._ 1/10.

The Gazelles, genus _Gazella_, are fairly numerous in species, which are both Palaearctic and Ethiopian. There are altogether twenty-five of them.

The genus as a whole is characterised by the small or moderate size, the sandy coloration with white belly, the presence of dark and light stripes on the face and on the flanks. These streaks, however, are not always present, and their presence or absence serves to differentiate some of the species. The horns are usually present in both s.e.xes. The horns are of fair length, ringed, and of lyrate form.

The Springbok is separated from the rest of the Gazelles, to which genus it is clearly most nearly related, as a genus _Antidorcas_. This genus differs from _Gazella_ by having only two lower premolars as in _Saiga_. Otherwise it resembles the Gazelles; there is but a single species, _A. euch.o.r.e_, which is African. {313}

_Ammodorcas_ is closely allied to the Gazelles, but differs from them in having an elongated neck and also a long tail. _A. clarkei_, the only species, is limited to Somaliland.

_Lithocranius_, not unlike the last, has a still longer neck, which makes it almost Giraffe-like; its tail, however, is short. The scientific name is derived from the "solid stony character of the cranium." In running, this Gazelle carries the head forward in a straight line with the body. It is African.

_Dorcotragus_ with one species, _D. megalotis_, is a pigmy Gazelle restricted to Somaliland. Its likeness, on account of size and in some other superficial features, to the Klipspringer, led to its original confusion with that genus (_Oreotragus_).

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FIG. 162.--Sable Antelope. _Hippotragus niger._ 1/20. The horns of the specimen figured have not nearly reached their full dimensions.

A sub-family Hippotraginae, or Hippotragine section, includes a number of Antelopes which agree in the possession of four mammae, and of molars more like those of the true Oxen, of {314} horns of some length, present in both s.e.xes, and of a longish tail. They are all African in range.

The type genus _Hippotragus_ has its horns placed above the orbits; they are not twisted, but curved backwards. There are three species in the genus. Of these the best known is _H. niger_, the beautiful Sable Antelope.

Its general colour is a rich, dark, glossy brown with white stripes on the face, and with a white belly. The other species are the Roan Antelope, _H.

equinus_, and the Blaaubok, _H. leucophaeus_, of which the last specimen was probably killed in 1799.[213]

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FIG. 163.--Beatrix Antelope. _Oryx beatrix._ 1/16. (From _Nature_.)

The genus _Oryx_ (chiefly African, but also Arabian and Syrian) also contains a number of species, which are fairly familiar through the fact that several of them are always on view in the Zoological Society's Gardens. The genus differs from _Hippotragus_ in that the horns, present in both s.e.xes, are placed behind the orbits, and slant backwards in a line with the face. They are annulated. The Leucoryx (_O. leucoryx_) is of a pale colour, but {315} this is not so marked as in _O. beatrix_, which is largely white with, however, brown legs. The Gemsbok is a handsome creature with greyish tawny colour, much darker on the legs, and with a Gazelle-like, dark, side stripe. It has received its vernacular name on account of its supposed likeness to the Chamois ("Gemse"), just as the Rehbok was so-called from its supposed likeness to the Roe Deer, and the Eland to the Elk. The Beisa (_O. beisa_) is of a similar tawny colour to the last, and also with darker stripes.

The Addax (_Addax_) of North Africa, Arabia and Syria, has but one species (_A. nasomaculatus_). The horns are spirally twisted.

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FIG. 164.--Speke's Antelope. _Tragelaphus spekii_ ([female]). 1/16.

The Tragelaphine section includes the Kudus, Elands, Nilgais, and Harnessed Antelopes. They are all long-horned (when the horns are present in both s.e.xes), the horns being twisted; the nose is naked with a slight median groove, and all are Ethiopian or Oriental in range.

The genus _Tragelaphus_ includes the Harnessed Antelopes, so called on account of the direction of the stripes suggesting harness. The females are hornless, and the colours of the two s.e.xes are different. The hoofs are long and the toes rather unusually separable, which state of affairs is in accord with the {316} swampy country affected by many. _T. gratus_ and _T.

spekei_ are larger forms; the Boschbok, _T. sylvaticus_, is smaller.

The Kudus, genus _Strepsiceros_, have more markedly twisted horns, which are absent in the female. The body is vertically striped with white. The largest species is _S. kudu_; a smaller form, _S. imberbis_, is from Somaliland.

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FIG. 165.--Eland. _Orias canna._ 1/25.

The last genus of this section or sub-family is the African Eland, genus _Oreas_[214] (which it appears should be spelt _Orias_). The Elands are perhaps more Ox-like in appearance than the other members of this group, and in both s.e.xes have horns, in which the spiral twisting is more close.

_Orias canna_ is the name of the common Eland. _O. livingstonii_ has been applied to an East African variety, which has thin and faint lateral stripes like the other members of the group to which it belongs.

The genus _Boselaphus_ includes only _B. tragocamelus_, the Nilgai, which is purely Indian in range. The female is hornless, and the horns of the male are smooth and not long. {317}

The members of the Bovine section or Oxen are to be distinguished from other hollow-horned Ruminants by their stouter build and by the fact that the horns stand out from the sides of the skull and are simply curved, not twisted; and smooth, not annulate like those of other Ruminants. The m.u.f.fle is naked, broad, and moist. The Oxen are widely distributed; but are entirely absent from the Australian region and from South America and Madagascar.

The true Oxen are perhaps best considered to form but a single genus, _Bos_. They have, however, been divided into a number of genera. Even the supposed aberrant _Anoa depressicornis_ of Celebes hardly differs sufficiently to warrant its separation. In favour of this view, too, is the extraordinary ease with which different "genera" will cross with each other and produce fertile offspring. The following is the pedigree of an animal lately living in the Zoological Society's Gardens. The female offspring of a male Zebu and a female Gayal was mated with a male Bison. The female calf was again mated with a Bison and produced a calf, also a female, which contained therefore the three species, _Bos indicus_, _Bibos frontalis_, and _Bison america.n.u.s_. It is clearly unwise in view of this fact to insist too much upon generic distinctions in any of those types.[215]

Of this genus the Oriental Gaur (_Bos gaurus_), the Gayal (_B. frontalis_), and the Banteng (_B. sondaicus_) form a well-marked section, characterised by their dark coloration and by the somewhat flattened horns.

The Gaur, _Bos gaurus_, has a more concave forehead than its allies; the horns are less curved than those of the Banteng, and less so than the horns of the Gayal (_Bos frontalis_). It inhabits the Indian Peninsula; and extends through Burmah to the extremity of the Malay Peninsula. The Malay name of this animal is Sakiutan, which simply means wild cattle. It chiefly frequents wooded hills and is an excellent mountain climber.

_Bos frontalis_, the Indian Gayal, has a white caudal disc like the last species, but the forehead is flat and the horns curve but little. It is chiefly known as a tame animal, and its occurrence in the wild state has been doubted. It has furthermore been suggested that it is merely a tame race of the Gaur altered {318} slightly through domestication. It is, however, said not to cross in a state of nature with the Gaur.[216]

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FIG. 166.--Gayal. _Bos frontalis._ 1/20.

The Banteng, _B. sondaicus_, is distributed through Chittagong, Tena.s.serim, and the Malay Peninsula to Java and Borneo. There are apparently two races of this animal. The species differs from the others by the fact that the horns are smaller and more curved; there is a white caudal disc; the forehead is narrower and the skull longer than in the others.

The American Bison and the European Aurochs form another section; they are indeed extremely alike, specific differences being hardly recognisable. The Bison of America, formerly present in such numbers that the prairies were black with countless herds, has now diminished to about a thousand head.

One of the largest of existing Bovidae is the Aurochs, Wisent, or European Bison, _Bos bonasus_ (or _Bison europaeus_). It is exceedingly like its American relative. Formerly the animal was much more widely spread than it is now, extending its range from Europe into North America. It is now limited to certain districts on the Urals, in the Caucasus, and a herd of them are kept up through the fostering care of the Emperor of Russia in the forest of Bielovege in Lithuania. The term "Aurochs" should not really be applied to this species but to the Wild Cattle, _Bos taurus_. It is, however, so generally used for the Wisent (which is the German name) that it {319} is not necessary to change it. The Sclavonic name is Zubr or Suber. It is a great beast, standing 6 feet or so in height at the shoulder. It ranged further over Europe well within the historic period. In the days of Charlemagne it was spread over Germany and was a beast of the chase. In the year 1848 the Emperor of Russia presented a pair of these Oxen to the Zoological Society of London. At the time of their presentation an interesting communication was made to the Society by M. Dolmatoff, on the method of the capture of these two examples. The creature is not easy to capture and is alarming to confront. "The eyes," says an old writer, "are red and fiery; the looks are furious and commanding." It has of course the s.h.a.ggy mane and hump of the American animal. The herd in Lithuania was said to be 1900 in the year 1856. Mr. E. N. Buxton,[217] who has lately visited the forest, quotes M. Neverli to the effect that at present the numbers are not more than 700.

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FIG. 167.--Bison. _Bison america.n.u.s._ 1/25.

Allied to this animal, and apparently still nearer to the American Bison, is the extinct _B. priscus_ of Europe. The Pleistocene Bisons of North America, _B. antiquus_ and _B. latifrons_, are not remote from the living forms. Finally, the Miocene _B. sivalensis_ from India, and the Pliocene _B. ferox_ and _B. alleni_ of North America, take back this group to as remote a period as any other genus of Oxen. {320}

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FIG. 168.--Yak. _Bos grunniens._ 1/15.

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FIG. 169.--British Wild Ox. _Bos taurus._ From Vaynol Park, Bangor. 1/20.

The Yak, _Bos grunniens_, is a long-haired peculiar type, confined to the Thibetan plateau. _B._ (_Anoa_) _depressicornis_ of Celebes is characterised by its straight horns; allied to it is _B. mindorensis_ (Philippine Islands), supposed, however, to be a hybrid between {321} it and some other species. Africa has at least two Buffaloes. We may finally mention the Wild Ox of Europe, _B. primigenius_, the supposed progenitor of our domestic cattle, believed to be still surviving in the herds at Chillingham, Chartley, and elsewhere. This animal is sometimes called the Aurochs. The Romans spoke of it as the Urus, and it appears to have formerly attained to more gigantic proportions than at present. It is the small size of the present race that is the chief objection to tracing them back to the large Oxen existing near London in 1174, and found sub-fossil in the Cambridgeshire fens.

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FIG. 170.--Punjab Wild Sheep. _Ovis vignei._ 1/10.