The steinbok (Rhaphiceros campestris) and the grysbok (R. melanotis) are the best-known representatives of a group characterized by the vertical direction of the horns and the small gland-pit in the skull; lateral hoofs being absent in the first-named and present in the second. A bare gland-patch behind the ear serves to distinguish the oribis or ourebis, as typified by Oribia montana of the Cape; lateral hoofs being present and the face-pit large.
From all the preceding the tiny dik-diks (Madoqua) of North-East Africa differ by their hairy noses, expanded in some species into short trunks; while the widely spread klipspringer (q.v.), Oreotragus saltator, with its several local races, is unfailingly distinguishable by its rounded blunt hoofs and thick, brittle, golden-flecked hair.
In some respects connecting the last group with the Cervicaprinae is the rhebok, or vaal-rhebok (Pelea capreolus), a grey antelope of the size of a roebuck, with small upright horns in the bucks recalling those of the last group, and small lateral hoofs, but no face-glands. In size and several structural features it approximates to the more typical Cervicaprinae, as represented by the reedbuck (Cervicapra), and the waterbucks and kobs (Cobus or Kobus), all of which are likewise African. These are medium-sized or large antelopes with naked muzzles, narrow sheep-like upper molars, fairly long tails, rudimentary or no face-glands, and pits in the frontal bones of the skull. Reedbuck (q.v.), or rietbok (Cervicapra), are foxy-red antelopes ranging in size from a fallow-deer to a roe, with thick bushy tails, forwardly curving black horns, and a bare patch of glandular skin behind each ear. They keep to open country near water. The waterbuck (q.v.), Cobus, on the other hand, actually seek refuge from pursuit in the water. They have heavily fringed necks, tufted tails, long lyrate horns in the bucks (fig. 4) but no glandular ear-patches. The true waterbuck (C. ellipsiprymnus), and the defassa or sing-sing (C. defassa), are the two largest species, equal in size to red deer, and grey or reddish in colour. Of the smaller forms or kobs, C. maria and C. leucotis of the swamps of the White Nile are characterized by the black coats of the adult bucks; the West African C. cob, and its East African representative C. thomasi, are wholly red antelopes of the size of roedeer; the lichi or lechwe (C. lichi) is characterized by its long horns, black fore-legs and superior size; while the puku (C. vardoni), which is also a swamp-loving species from South-Central Africa, differs from the three preceding species by the fore-legs being uniformly foxy.
| Fig. 4.—Waterbuck (Cobus ellipsiprymnus). |
The duikers, or duikerboks (Cephalophus), of Africa, which range in size from a large hare to a fallow-deer, typify the subfamily Cephalophinae, characterized by the spike-like horns of the bucks, the elongated aperture of the face-glands, the naked muzzle, the relatively short tail, and the square-crowned upper molars; lateral hoofs being present. In the duikers themselves the single pair of horns is set in the midst of a tuft of long hairs, and the face-gland opens in a long naked line on the side of the face above the muzzle. The group is represented in India by the chousingha or four-horned antelope (Tetraceros quadricornis), generally distinguished by the feature from which it takes its name (see [Duiker]).
The last section of the true antelopes is the Bubalinae, represented by the hartebeest (q.v.), Bubalis, blesbok and sassaby (Damaliscus), and the gnu (q.v.) or wildebeest (Connochaetes, also called Catoblepas), all being African with the exception of one or two hartebeests which range into Syria. All these are large and generally more or less uniformly coloured antelopes with horns in both sexes, long and more or less hairy tails, high withers, small face-glands, naked muzzles, tall, narrow upper molars, and the absence of pits in the frontal bones. The long face, high crest for the horns, which are ringed, lyrate and more or less strongly angulated, and the moderately long tail, are the distinctive features of the hartebeests. They are large red antelopes (fig. 5), often with black markings on the face and limbs. In Damaliscus, which includes, among many other species, the blesbok and bontebok (D. albifrons and D. pygargus) and the sassaby or bastard hartebeest (D. lunatus), the face is shorter, and the horns straighter and set on a less elevated crest. The colour, too, of these antelopes tends in many cases to purple, with white markings. From the hartebeest the gnus (fig. 6) differ by their smooth and outwardly or downwardly directed horns, broad bristly muzzles, heavy manes and long horse-like tails. There are two chief types, the white-tailed gnu or black wildebeest (Connochaetes gnu) of South Africa, now nearly extinct (fig. 6), and the brindled gnu, or blue wildebeest (C. taurinus), which, with some local variation, has a large range in South and East Africa.
| Fig. 5.—Cape Hartebeest (Bubalis cama). |
| Fig. 6.—White-tailed Gnu, or Black Wildebeest (Connochaetes gnu). |
In concluding this survey of living antelopes, reference may be made to the subfamily Rupicaprinae (typified by the European chamois), the members of which, as already stated, are in some respects intermediate between antelopes and goats. They are all small or medium-sized mountain ruminants, for the most part European and Asiatic, but with one North American representative. They are heavily built ruminants, with horns of nearly equal size in both sexes, short tapering tails, large hoofs, narrow goat-like upper molars, and usually small face-glands. The horns are generally rather small, upright, ringed at the base, and more or less curved backwards, but in the takin they are gnu-like. The group is represented by the European chamois or gemse (Rupicapra tragus or R. rupicapra), broadly distinguished by its well-known hook-like horns, and the Asiatic gorals (Urotragus) and serows (Nemorhaedus), which are represented by numerous species ranging from Tibet, the Himalaya, and China, to the Malay Peninsula and islands, being in the two latter areas the sole representatives of both antelopes and goats. In the structure of its horns the North American white Rocky Mountain goat (Oreamnus) is very like a serow, from which it differs by its extremely short cannon-bones. In the latter respect this ruminant resembles the takin (Budorcas) of Tibet, which, as already mentioned, has horns recalling those of the white-tailed gnu. Possibly the Arctic musk-ox (Ovibos) may be connected with the takin by means of certain extinct ruminants, such as the North American Pleistocene Euceratherium and the European Pliocene Criotherium (see [Chamois], [Goral], [Serow], [Rocky Mountain Goat] and [Takin]).
Extinct Antelopes.—Only a few lines can be devoted to extinct antelopes, the earliest of which apparently date from the European Miocene. An antelope from the Lower Pliocene of Northern India known as Bubalis, or Damaliscus, palaeindicus indicates the occurrence of the hartebeest group in that country. Cobus also occurs in the same formation, as does likewise Hippotragus. Palaeoryx from the corresponding horizon in Greece and Samos is to some extent intermediate between Hippotragus and Oryx. Gazelles are common in the Miocene and Pliocene of both Europe and Asia. Elands and kudus appear to have been represented in India during the Pliocene; the European Palaeoreas of the same age seems to be intermediate between the two, while Protragelaphus is evidently another European representative of the group. Helicophora is another spiral-horned European Pliocene antelope, but of somewhat doubtful affinity; the same being the case with the large Criotherium of the Samos Pliocene, in which the short horns are curiously twisted. As already stated, there is a possibility of this latter ruminant being allied both to the takin and the musk-ox. Palaeotragus and Tragoceros, of the Lower Pliocene of Greece, at one time regarded as antelopes, are now known to be ancestors of the okapi.
For antelopes in general, see P.L. Sclater and O. Thomas, The Book of Antelopes (4 vols., London, 1894-1900).