For some subtle reason which we can not explain, these animals—like the chamois and mouflon quartered in small pens near the Small-Mammal House—do not thrive in any of the large, rock-bound corrals of Mountain Sheep Hill. They are kept in a rock-paved corral near the Pheasant Aviary and the Crotona Entrance, and to their use has been devoted a rustic barn, which they shelter in or climb over, according to the weather. To see them walking nonchalantly over the steep roof, or perching upon its peak, is one of the drollest sights of the Park.
The White Goat, sometimes mistakenly called “goat antelope,” belongs to a small group known as the Rupicaprines or rock antelopes. It inhabits many different kinds of territory, but usually the rugged sides and summits of high mountains, at irregular intervals from southwestern Montana and northern Washington, northward to the head of Cook Inlet on the coast of Alaska. (See map of distribution, with label.) The valley of the upper Yukon contains practically no goats. They are most abundant in southeastern British Columbia, where in a very small area, in September, 1905, Mr. John M. Phillips and the writer actually counted 239 individuals.
Of the five animals now exhibited in the Park, three were captured a few days after their birth, in May, 1905, about seventy miles north of Fort Steele, British Columbia. They arrived here October 9, 1905, and up to this date they have thriven as well, and grown as rapidly, as they would have in a state of nature. Their food consists of the best clover hay obtainable, and crushed oats. When they shed their coats, in the spring, they are almost as white as snow, but with months of use, their pelage becomes soiled and slightly discolored.
A fully adult male mountain goat stands from 39 to 41 inches in shoulder height, and weighs, on scales, from 258 to 300 pounds.
THE PRONG-HORNED ANTELOPE.
The Prong-Horned Antelope, (Antilocapra americana), is an animal in which Americans should now take special interest. Structurally, the Prong-Horn is so peculiar that it has been found necessary to create for it a special zoological family, called Antilocapridae, of which it is the sole member. This is due to the following facts: (1) This is the only living mammal possessing hollow horns (growing over a bony core) which sheds them annually; (2) it is the only animal possessing a hollow horn which bears a prong, or bifurcation; (3) it has no “dew claws,” as other ruminant animals have; (4) the horn is placed directly above the eye; (5) the long hair of the body and neck is tubular; and (6) that on the rump is erectile. Beyond all possibility of doubt, it will be our next large species to become extinct, and if we may judge by the rate at which the bands have been disappearing during the last fifteen years, ten years more will, in all probability, witness the extermination of the last individuals now struggling to exist outside of rigidly protected areas. It was the intention of the Society to make liberal provision for the study of the species while it is yet possible to obtain living specimens, for fifty years hence our graceful and zoologically interesting Prong-Horn will be as extinct as the dodo. Unfortunately, however, it fares so badly on the Atlantic coast, there will, no doubt, be periods wherein this species will be temporarily absent from the Park.
AMERICAN PRONG HORNED ANTELOPE.
Forty years ago this animal inhabited practically the whole of the great pasture region which stretches eastward from the Rocky Mountains to the western borders of Iowa and Missouri. Northward its range extended far into Manitoba; southward it went far beyond the Rio Grande, and it also ranged southwestward through Colorado and Nevada to southern California. Its chosen home was the treeless plains, where the rich buffalo grass and bunch grass afforded abundant food, but it also frequented the beautiful mountain parks of Wyoming and Colorado. It even lived contentedly in the deserts of the southwest, where its voluntary presence, coupled with the absence of water, constituted a problem which has puzzled the brain of many a desert traveller.
