Antelope
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Antelope. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a group of animals placed by scientists midway between cattle and goats. The antelope resembles the deer in habits and appearance, but is entirely distinct. The so-called prong-horned antelope of the West belongs to another family. Antelopes proper are found only in the Old World. By far the greater number of one hundred species belong to Africa. The gazelle of Syria is noted for grace and the beauty of its eye. The pigmy antelope of African forests is only thirteen inches in height. It is the smallest known cudchewer. The eland of South Africa ranks with cattle in weight. The Dutch colonists of Cape Colony and South Africa found antelopes so numerous and tame that they could be depended upon for meat as though they were domestic cattle; but several species have been exterminated, and others bid fair to become extinct. Both sexes have horns which are retained like those of domestic cattle. These, and their fleetness of foot, are their only protection against beasts of prey. They are the fleetest of quadrupeds. The lion lives chiefly on antelopes. Dr. Livingstone's Travels give many authentic anecdotes of antelopes and their speed, and ofttimes successful defense against the lion and other enemies. See Gazelle ; Pronghorn; Deer ; Horn ; Chamois ; Gnu ; Uganda
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the name given to the members of a large family of ruminant ungulata or hoofed mammalia, closely resembling the deer in general appearance, ut essentially different in nature from the latter animals. They are included ANT EATER with the sheep and oxen in the family of the cavicornia or "hollow-horned" ruminants. Their horns, unlike those of the deer, are not deciduous, but are per- ADDAX ANTELOPE manent; are never branched, but are often twisted spirally, and may be borne by both sexes. They are found in greatest number and variety in Africa. Well known species are the chamois (European), the gazelle, the addax, the eland, the koodoo, the gnu, the springbok, the spr sasin or Indian antelope, and the prongbuck of America.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's confidence in 1910 that antelopes form "a group of animals placed by scientists midway between cattle and goats" no longer holds: biologists now treat "antelope" as a convenience label for the horned bovids left over once cattle, sheep and goats are named, not a natural group, and the pronghorn Aiton dismissed as "so-called" is indeed the last survivor of its own American family, Antilocapridae. Both entries state that horns "may be borne by both sexes", true of some but not of gazelles and many others, where only males carry them. The fear that "several species have been exterminated, and others bid fair to become extinct" proved sound: the addax, once widespread across the Sahara, is down to a few dozen animals in the wild, and the saiga of the Central Asian steppe crashed by over 90 percent in the 1990s and again in a 2015 bacterial die-off. Against that, 1992 brought a surprise from Vietnam's Annamite mountains, the saola, a large forest bovid unknown to science when either account was written.
Written for this edition, 2026.