teeth. Canines large. Cranium Cervine with the two planes gra No inguinal pits. Calcic tuft and gland external and posteal. Large preputial gland and sac secreting the substance called musk, proper to males only. Teats four. False hoofs very large, acute, and touching the ground. Canines in both sexes: of males, large and exserted; of females, small. Types, 1, Moschiferus. 2, Chrysogaster. 3, Leucogaster. Inhabit the great snowy mountain barriers of high Asia from the Himalaya to the Altai, and from the Beluttag to the Peling and Gajar. The Musks are confined to the snowy region amid the glassy precipices of which they leap with a power and security far more than Caprine, though owing to the unequal length of their legs they can descend slopes only with difficulty and falling are caught. They cannot climb at all, as Goats do, and are solitary. They rut in winter and produce young in summer (May-June), gestating 160 days. In 6 weeks the young can shift for themselves and the mother drives them off. They can procreate ere they are a year old, and live 10 to 15 years. One usually is produced at a birth in the cavities of the rocks. Intestines 33 to 36 feet, whereof the small are 23 to 24, and the great 10 to 12 feet. Cœcum simple, 8 to 9 inches by 1; mean diameter of gut 1 inch. Gall bladder* constant. (See Journal, Nos. 87 and 118, and Gleanings, No. 34.) Prof. Owen doubts this. I have tested it a dozen of times since Dr. Campbell and I made the first examination in Nepaul. No preputial bag. Four teats. False hoofs, ordinary, small. Canines not exserted, and confined to males? Type, Meminna Indica. Pisora and Pisai. Inhabits the forests of India in all parts, near to, but without the various ranges of Hills. CAVICORNICE MINORES. Lesser hollow-horned Ruminants or Flocks. Hoofs cloven. Occipital plane of scull forming a small or large angle with frontal plane. Horns hollow, sheathed, persistent, with thin and dense, or thick and porous cores. Mufle small, for the most part, or wanting. Front teeth 8 below. None above. Canines present or absent. Molars & or . Teats 4 or 2. Eye, feet, and groin, pits, present or absent. ANTELOPIDE. Occipital plane of scull forming an obtuse angle with the frontal plane. Core of the horns thin, consisting of dense bone often with a clear sinus at the base within. Horns seated on the superior surface, below the crest of the frontals, and apart at bases. Canines frequent. Mufle present or absent. Teats normally 4 or 2. feet or only in the hind ones. Eye-pits present or absent. Feet-pits in all 4 Groin-pits present or absent. N. B. These animals have also occasionally maxillary, intermaxillary and post-orbital sinuses, the number and high development of these organs being one decided characteristic of the Family. Types, 1, Chikara. 2, Quadricornis. 3, Subquadricornutus. 4, Iodes. 5, Pacceróis. (See Calcutta Journal Natural History for May, 1847.) Inhabit the forests of India generally. Avoid mountains and open plains. Not gregarious. Rutting season, summer. Breeding season, winter. Gestate 6 months, most young born in January, February. They are very shy, and when hunted lie close or go off far ahead, bounding like the common antelope, and hence one of their names, from Chouk, a leap. Eye-pits, medial, very mobile, linear, vertically oblique. Inguinal pits large and clearly defined. Calcic tufts ? Mammæ two. Type, Cervicapra. Black Antelope. Báránt and Sásin. Very gregarious on the open dry plains of India generally. I have no notes of their intestines or of the breeding. Type, Antelope bennetti vel christii, found generally amid ravines of dry plains of India, and called Chikara and Kalsipi by natives; Ravine Deer by Europeans. Not gregarious. These animals have the lyrate horns common to both sexes, the knee tufts, lines along the flanks and ovine hairy nose of the Gazelles: but they are wholly void of eye-pits. The dark lustre of their large* eyes is as striking as in the 2 last groups. Gazelles differ from Antelopes in that their horns are lyrate, and that the females also carry The Tragops differ from both by the total absence of sub-orbital sinuses, or eye-pits. them. Large intermaxillary sacs like double nostrils. Type, Antelope hodgsonii, Abel. The Chirú. Habitat open plains of Tibet. Gregarious, rutting season, winter. Breeding season, the summer. Gestate 6 months. One young at a birth. They are very pugnacious and jealous, and in their contests. often break off their long horns one of them. Hence the rumour of Unicorns in Tibet. (See Gleanings and Journal Asiatic Society, Nos. 2 and 27.) This is one of the marks by which the Antelopine family may be distinguished from the small pale-eyed Goats or Caprine family. Inhabits ravines on the open plains of Tibet in small herds or families. See Journal Asiatic Society, No. 173. Type, Antelope Goral. The Goral. Habitat the Sub-Himalayas as far towards the snows as the great forests extend, to which exclusively these animals adhere. Dwell in families 4-6 together. Breed amid crags and rocky recesses. Young mostly born in May, June: gestate 6 months. Rutting season January, February. Produce one young at a birth. Eye-pits round and furnished with a very large gland. Feet-pits extremely large in all 4 feet. Groin pits none. Calcic tufts none, nor gland. Mammæ four. Type, Antelope thár. The Thár or Saraw. Habitat the Sub-Himalayas as far north as the great forests extend. Also, Antelope Sumatrensis of the Islands of India. The Gorals and Thárs have the round black and ringed horns of Antelopes, which otherwise they little resemble, being stout clambering mountain animals, but not, as supposed, affined to the Bovines. The Gorals differ from the Thárs by wanting the very glandulous eye-pits of the latter, and both are sundered from the Hemitrages by their large Sumatrensis is Col. Smith's type, and Mr. Ogilby says this is identical in structure with the Thar, Mr. O.'s. type of Capricornis. If so, Col. Smith's generic name will have the priority; if not, it will be the type of Nemorhedus and the Thar of Capricomis. Col. Smith's several species of Nemorhedus are as heterogeneous as Mr. Ogilby's of Kemas. |