Antelope, an animal of the family antiIopeœ, ruminating mammalia, with hollow horns, conical, bent back, cylindrical or compressed, ringed at the base. The occipital plane forms an obtuse angle with the frontal plane. The core of their horns is thin, consisting of a dense bone, often with a clear sinus at the base within. Teats two or four. Feet pits in the hind feet, and generally in the fore feet also. Perhaps the most certain characteristic of the antelopes is the cylindrical and annulated form of their horns, which are never angular, or provided with prominent longitudinal ridges, like those of the sheep and goats. They are also generally distinguished by having the lachrymal sinuses peculiar to the solid-horned animals of the cervine family, and possessed by the antelope alone of the hollow-horned ruminants, though not by all the species. In other respects, the different species of antelopes vary as widely as can be conceived. Many approach the deer so closely that the hornless females of the two families can hardly be distinguished apart; although the difference would appear on dissection, the true solid-horned deer being possessed of neither gall bladder nor gall duct, which belong to all the hollow-horned ruminants.

They are the fleetest, as they are the most beautiful and most graceful of quadrupeds. They are, generally speaking, both gregarious and migratory, occasionally uniting in vast herds. Africa is the headquarters of the antelope family in regard to variety, beauty, and numbers. Madagascar and Australia possess no antelopes; Hindustan and Further India have several varieties; western Europe and America; each but a single species. - Originally, all species of antelopes were referred to a single family; but they are now distinguished into two great divisions: the antelopes of the fields, whose nostrils are smooth and free from hairs, and the antelopes of the desert, which are bearded and have bristly muzzles. The antelopes of the fields are again subdivided into three groups: the true antelopes, which have a light, elegant body, slender limbs, small hoofs, short tails, lyrate or conical horns, placed above the eyebrows; the cervine antelopes, with short, deer-like bodies, strong, slender limbs, long tails, cylindrical at the base, with the hair longer at the ends, and muzzles like those of the cervine ruminants; and the goat-like antelopes, which have a short heavy body, strong hoofs and false hoofs, very short tail, flat and hairy above, and recurved conical horns. - Of the true antelopes, the most remarkable are the gazelles of Egypt, Barbary, and Turkey in Asia; the Ariel gazelle of Egypt and Kordofan; the pal-lah, antilope œpyceros melampus, of southern Africa, with its annulated, lyrate horns, and its sleek hide, painted with brilliant rust color and white, divided by coal-black lines; the common antelope of India, A. cervicapra; the madoqua, A. saltrara, the smallest of all horned animals, not exceeding a hare in size; the steinbok, the ourebi, the grysbok, the klipspringer, and the bush goat, with the red reed buck, the water buck, and the sable antelope, of southern Africa. The red reed buck (called rietbok in the Dutch settlements) is about five feet high and five long; its color is gray above and white beneath.

The sable antelope, a very rare and beautiful animal, is one of the noblest types of the genus; its back and sides are black, and its belly white; its horns arc more than three feet in length, and are covered with bold ridges. - Of the cervine antelopes, by far the most remarkable are the gemsbok, oryx gazella, and the oryx, oryx leucoryx. The former stands 3 1/2 feet high at the shoulder, with long straight horns, annulated at the base. His hide is of a . deep blue-gray above and snow-white below, divided by marked lines of jet black. Even the lion seldom dares attack him. The oryx is a native of Nubia and Senegal. Another cer-vine antelope, not far inferior in size to the last, I is the addax of Senegal, which has preserved its name unaltered since the days of Pliny. A species less familiar than either of those just named is the Siberian antelope (saiga coins or Tartarica), an animal inhabiting the region of the Caucasus, northern Persia, and Siberia. It is of medium size, resembling a deer in form, and has a peculiarly curved forehead and face. Its horns are of a light color and semi-transparent, and are much valued.

The animal is gregarious and migratory in its habits. - Of the goat-like antelopes there are several of the oriental species; but the two most conspicuous are the European chamois, or antelope of the Alps, rupicapra tragus, resembling a goat without a beard, with short erect horns, suddenly curved backward at the tip, and coarse hair, beneath which lies a close coat of wool (see Chamois); and the American prong-horn, A. Americana, which has considerable affinity to the chamois; its horns only differ from that antelope's in turning inward at the tip, and in having a short anterior, medial prong. The winter coat of this antelope differs from that of any other known animal; the hairs, which stand out to the length of two inches at right angles to the body, being tubular, like the quills of a bird, and nearly as brittle as glass. This antelope is fully described in Dr. Richardson's Fauna Boreali-Americana. - The antelopes of the desert are divided into two groups, the equine antelopes and the bovine antelopes.

Of the equine antelopes there are but two species: the gnu, A. gnu, of South Africa, called the wildebeest by the Boers, which is nearly of the size of the ass, and has precisely the body, neck, mane, tail, and paces of a small horse, with the limbs, hoofs, and horns of an antelope; and the brindled gnu or gorgon, cato-blepas gorgon, called by the Boers the blauw wildebeest, of the same country. (See Gnu.) The bovine antelopes are the A. bubalis of northern Africa, equal in size to the largest stag, called by the Arabs bekker-el-wash, or the wild ox, the hartebeest, the blesbok, the bontebok, and the sassabee of southern Africa; the korrigum of Senegal; and the doria, or gilded antelope, of western Africa. - To these, which complete the list of antelopes as scientifically distinguished, may be added the highly interesting group of strepsicerœ. This group of antilopean ruminants includes the koodoo, strepsiceros kudu, which is fully 4 feet high at the shoulder, with horns nearly as long as the male is high, reflected in a beautiful sweeping spiral of 2 1/2 turns; the eland, oreas canna, which is as large as a horse, weighs from 7 to 9 cwt., unlike most antelopes is always fat, and is said to furnish meat superior to beef (see Eland); and the great nil-ghau, portax trago-camelus, one of the largest of antelopes, having much the character of the ox, with the horns, head, and muzzle of an antelope, the flat compressed neck of a horse, with a thin erect mane, increasing into a tufted bunch on the shoulders, and a singular beard-like tuft of stiff hair growing out of the middle of its throat, peculiar to itself alone.

Its fore legs are somewhat longer than its hind ones, and its withers rise so much as to give it the appearance of having a hump. Its color is deep slaty blue, with a white spot on each cheek, and a large white patch on the throat. It is a native of the dee]) forests of India, where it is a vicious and dangerous animal, but it has been taken to England, where it lives and breeds.

Red Reed Buck (Eleotragus arundinaceus).

Sable Antelope (Aigocerus niger).

Addax nasomaculatus.

Siberian Antelope (Saiga Tartarica).

Prong-born (American Ante.ope).