'OPHER (thy; Arabic algophro), in the Song of Solomon (ch. iv. 5), denotes the calf or fawn of a stag [AIL] ; it occurs in no other book of Scripture, is unknown in the Syriac and Chal dee, and appears to be only a poetical application of a term more strictly belonging to fawn-like animals ; for in the above passage it is applied to couples feeding in a bed of lilies—indications not descriptive of young goats or stags, but quite appli cable to the antilopine groups which are charac terized in Griffith's Cuvier, in subgenus x. Cepha lophus, and xi. Neotragus ; both furnishing species of exceeding delicacy and graceful diminutive struc tures, several of which habitually feed in pairs among shrubs and geraniums on the hilly plains of Africa ; and as they have always been and still are in request among the wealthy in warm climates for domestication, we may conjecture that a species designated by the name of Opher was to be found in the parks or royal gardens of a sovereign so in terested in natural history as Solomon was, and from the sovereign's own observation became alluded to in the truly apposite imagery of his poetical diction (Cant. iv. 12). Among the species
in question, in which both male and female are exceedingly similar, and which might have reached him by sea or by caravan, we may reckon Cepha lofihus Grimmia, C. Perftusi1la, C. Philantomba, all marked by a small black tuft of hair between their very short horns, as also the Neotragus Pyg, mea, or Guevei, the smallest of cloven-footed animals, and the Madoka, with speckled legs ; all these species being natives of Central Africa, and from time immemorial brought by caravans from the interior, for sale or presents.—C. H. S.