Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 10.djvu/704

684 the arch thus formed. Although this deer still lingers in the mountainous regions of Pennsylvania, and perhaps in a few other places in the eastern part of our country, it is confined mainly to the western and northwestern portions of North America, and south of the fifty-seventh parallel of latitude. In some cases it is found in large herds,



all the members of which follow one of the males which is their leader, and whose movements they more or less closely imitate. The color of the wapiti is grayish in winter, and chestnut-red in summer. This deer is the analogue of the stag or red deer (C. elephas) of Europe, and was formerly regarded as identical with the latter; but it is a very much larger animal than its European relation, and is in every way a distinct species.

The antelopes differ from all the deer in having their horns permanent and hollow, and, like a sheath, covering a conical process of the frontal bone. In this respect the antelopes are like sheep, goats, and oxen. The antelopes have the horns round, curved, ringed, or wrinkled, and always black. There are many species of antelopes, no less than ninety having been described. Of these, two are found in North America, two in Europe, and all the rest in Asia and Africa.

Our most interesting species of antelope is the prong-horn (Antilocapra Americana, Fig. 5) of the western portions of North America. It is about the size of the Virginia deer, and is covered with coarse,