ANTI LOPE/E, in Zoology, a family of Ruminating Mammals, belonging to the Hollow-llornes1 group, and distinguished by the following characters. The horns conical, bent back, cylindrical, or compreesed, and ringed at the ban. The knee (or wrist) in the middle 0 f the fore-leg. The occipital plane of the skull forms an obtuse angle with the frontal plane. Coro of the horns thin, consisting of dense bone, often with a clear sinus at the base within. Teats two or four. Feet-pits in hind-feet and generally also in the fore ones.
Perhaps the most general character belonging to the Antelopes consists in the form of the horns being round and annulated, or at least never exhibiting the prominent angles and ridges which distinguish those of the Sheep and Goats. In their particular forms and curvatures, however, they vary in almost every different species, as among domestic sheep they do even in different varieties of the same species. Some times they form a single bend forwards or backwards, sometimes they are what is commonly called lyrated, or bent first backwards and then point forwards, in such a manner as, when opposed to one another, to assume the figure of an ancient lyre, the brachia or aides of which instrument were frequently made of the horns of the Dorcas or Common Gazelle, as appears from the engravings of antique gems still preserved. In many of the smaller species the bony core, or process of the os frontis which is inserted into the hollow sheath of the horn itself, is almost solid, or at least the osseous substance of it is penetrated only by very minute pores.
The possession of 'lachrymal sinuses,' or as they are vernacularly called with reference to the stag and fallow-deer, tear-pits,' is another circumstance which distinguishes the greater number of the Antelopes, but which, like all their other characters, is far from being general. Many zoologists suppose these organs to communicate with the nostrils, so as to enable the animals to breathe freely during their long and rapid flights when pursued or frightened. Some even suppose them to be subservient to the sense of smell, and to serve for detecting the noxious qualities of the numerous poisonous' plants which grow in the deserts, or spring up among the rank vegetation of tropical climates. It is certainly true that all these animals possess
a most delicate sense of smell, and that no konown quadrupeds can surpass, and very few equal them in the course. It has been supposed that these organs are used when the animal drinks. The anatomy of the parts demonstrates that no internal communication exists between the lachrymal sinus and the nose, or indeed any other organ. The sinus itself is simply composed of a sac or fold of the akin, of greater or less extent according to the species, but always capable of being opened or shut at the will of the animal, and furnished at the bottom with a gland which secretes an oily viscous substance of the colour and consistence of car-wax, but which hardens and tunas black upon exposure to the air. The precise function of these organs is uncertain ; all that we know with certainty at present is, that many of the Antelopes which are most commonly brought to Europe and preserved in menageries, such as the common Indian Antelope and the Gazelle, make continual use of this organ when any strange sub stance is presented to their notice, particularly if it be odoriferous, and appear to derive great pleasure from protruding the lachrymal sinus and rubbing its interior surface against the odorous body.
It has been already hinted that the Antelopes are not the only ruminants which possess suborbital sinuses : in fact, these organs are more universally found in the deer kind than in the present family ; but, on the other hand, as these are the only animals belonging to the hollow-horned family which exhibit this character, it thus becomes sufficiently appropriate, and, as far as it goes, serves readily to dis tinguish the Antelopes from the Goats and Sheep, with which they are most liable to be confounded. In this respect, as well as in the absence of horns in the females of many species, they form an inter mediate link between the rest of the hollow-horned ruminants and the cervine or solid-horned family : so nearly indeed do some species of Antelopes approach to the deer kind in general, and so perfectly similar are they in all their most prominent and essential characters,the horns alone excepted, that it is often next to impossible to distinguish the hornless females of the one genus from those of the other.