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
[U] Pallas thinks that the saiga which is found in Hungary,
Transylvania, Wallachia, and in Greece, is also to be found in the
island of Candia; and he thinks that the _strepsiceros_ of Belon ought
to be considered as such. Buffon, however, was not of that opinion, who
referred the _strepsiceros_ of Belon to the class of sheep.
THE GAZELLES, OR ANTELOPES.
There have been thirteen species, or, at least, thirteen distinct
varieties made of these animals; in this uncertainty, whether they
are varieties, or species, we thought it best to treat of them all
together, assigning to each a particular name. The first of these
animals, and the only one to which we retain the generic name of
_gazelle_, is the common _gazelle_, (_fig. 153._) which is found in
Syria, Mesopotamia, and the other provinces of the Levant, as well as
in Barbary, and in all the northern parts of Africa. The horns of this
animal are about a foot long, entirely annulated at the base, lessening
into half-rings towards the extremities which are smooth. They are
not only surrounded with rings, but also furrowed longitudinally by
small streaks. These rings mark the years of their growth, which is
commonly about twelve or thirteen. The gazelles in general, and this
tribe in particular, greatly resemble the roe-buck in the proportions
of the body, natural functions, swiftness, and the brightness and
beauty of the eyes. These resemblances would tempt us to think, as
the roe-buck does not exist in the same countries with the gazelle,
that the latter was only a degeneration of the first; or, that the
roe-buck is a gazelle, whose nature had been altered by the influence
of the climate and effects of food, did not the gazelles differ from
the roe-buck in the nature of their horns; those of the roe-buck are
a kind of solid _wood_, which fall off, and are renewed every year,
like those of the stag; the horns of the gazelles, on the contrary,
are hollow and permanent like those of the goat. The roe-buck has also
no gall-bladder, which is to be found in the gazelle. The gazelles
have, in common with the roe-bucks, deep pits under the eyes, and they
resemble each other still more in the colour and quality of the hair,
in the bunches upon their leg, which only differ in being upon the
fore-legs of the gazelle, and upon the hinder legs of the roe-buck.
The gazelles, therefore, seem to be intermediate animals between the
roe-bucks and goats; but, when we consider that the roe-buck is an
animal which is to be found in both continents, and that the goats, on
the contrary, as well as the gazelles, belong only to the old world,
we shall be induced to conclude that the goats and gazelles are more
nearly related to each other, than they are to the roe-buck. The only
characters peculiar to the gazelles, are the transversed rings and
longitudinal depressions on the horns, the bunches of hair on the
fore-legs, the thick streaks of black, brown, or red hair upon the
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