. The great and small game of Europe, western & northern Asia and America; their distribution, habits, and structure . .Sclater and Thomas have excluded the animal from the Book of Antlclopcs^we presume that we must regard the question as answered in the negative,and that it is no longer permissible to speak of the chamois as the Europeanantelope. Not that this means that there is no antelope in Europe, forthe goitred gazelle ranges into the Caucasus. Assuming the chamois tobe allied to the serows and goral of the Himalaya (see Great uiul SmallCuinh of India, etc), and that to call them antelo
. The great and small game of Europe, western & northern Asia and America; their distribution, habits, and structure . .Sclater and Thomas have excluded the animal from the Book of Antlclopcs^we presume that we must regard the question as answered in the negative,and that it is no longer permissible to speak of the chamois as the Europeanantelope. Not that this means that there is no antelope in Europe, forthe goitred gazelle ranges into the Caucasus. Assuming the chamois tobe allied to the serows and goral of the Himalaya (see Great uiul SmallCuinh of India, etc), and that to call them antelopes is inappropriate, acollective name for the group is much wanted, for such terms as goat- Mem. I list. Nut. Emp. C/iiioii, vol. ii. p. 230 (1S94). Gemse ^11 antelopes, goat-like antelopes, or caprine antelopes are neither euphoniousnor convenient. Chamois is, of course, the French name of the presentanimal, and gemse, or gems, its German equivalent. The transference ofthe latter name, in the form of gemsbok, by the Boers to the South Africanoryx is one of many curious instances of misapplications of names. Had. Fig. 40.—Caucaiian Chamois on the watch. (From Prince DcmidoftsHunting Trips in the Cauciisui.) that name been given to the klipspringer there would have been but littleat which to cavil. From all ruminants the chamois (inclusive of its different local races) isat once distinguished by the peculiar and characteristic curvature of itscylindrical short black horns, which are smooth and polished at the tips,but marked by fine transverse and longitudinal striae elsewhere. They 2 A 178 Game of Europe, W. & N. Asia & America rise perpendiculiirly, or nearly so, for some distance trom the forehead, afterwhich they bend sharply backwards and downwards to form the pointedhooks so familiar to all Alpine travellers. The longest pair ot chamoishorns on record (Fig. 41) are in the possession of Count Alfred Teleki,and were obtained from Retyezat, in the Carpathians. They measure
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1901
