Buffon's Natural History. Volume 08 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &cBuffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History. Volume 08 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
It now remains to enquire what these two animals, mentioned by Seba,
by the false names of _mazame_ and _temamaçame_ really are. The
bare inspection of the figures, independently of his description,
demonstrates, that these animals belong to the goats or gazelles, and
not to the stags or roe-bucks. The want of a beard, and the shape of
the horns, prove, they are not goats, but gazelles; and, by comparing
Seba's figures with the gazelles which we have described, I found that
his pretended _temamaçame of New Spain_, is the _kob_, or _little brown
cow of Senegal_. The figure, colour, and size of the horns are the
same; the colour of the hair is also the same, and differs from that of
other gazelles, by not being white, but yellow under the belly and upon
the flanks. With respect to the pretended mazame, although it resembles
the gazelles in general, yet it differs in particular from all those
we have before enumerated; but we saw in M. Adanson's cabinet, where
he has collected the most rare productions of Senegal, a stupid animal
which we call _nagor_, by reason of the resemblance of its horns with
those of the nanguer. This animal is found in the neighbouring island
of Goree, from whence he was sent to M. Adanson by M. Andriot, and
possesses all the characters which Seba gives to his pretended mazame;
its body is of a pale red, and its belly is not white, like the other
gazelles; it is of the size of the roe-buck; its horns are not six
inches long, almost smooth, and slightly bent forwards, but not so much
as those of the nanguer. Therefore this animal, mentioned by Seba, by
the name of _mazame_, or _American stag_, is only an African goat, or
gazelle, which we have added here by the name of the _nagor_ to the
twelve other gazelles, whose history we have already given.
THE COUDOUS.
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