Pygarg CptJ'nl. dishon, from dush, "r"~. to tread, or perhaps duts, H'T '■> leap; Sept. iruyapyoc, Vulg. pygargus) occurs only i Deut xiv. ."> i in the list of .dean animals, being the name apparently of some ;
. though it i- by no means easy to identify it.
PYGARG
821
PYNCHON
The Greek irvyapyoQ denotes an animal with a " white rump," and is used by Herodotus (iv, 192) as the name of some Libyan deer or antelope. JSlian (vii, 19) also mentions the -xvyapyoc,, but gives no more than the name; comp. also Juvenal {Sat, xi, 138). It is usual to identify the pygarg of the Greek and Latin writers with the addax of North Africa, Nubia, etc. (Addax nasomaculatus), known to the ancient Greeks under the same title (Oryx addax, Lieht.), which has been recognised as a beast of chase in the old Egyptian sculptures. It is widely spread over Central Africa, extending to the borders of the Nile in Nubia, and is well known to the Arabs, who still distinguish it by its ancient name, with the familiar prefix of Abu, or father — Father Addas. The addax is a coarse and heavy antelope, three feet high at the withers, with a large clumsy head and stout legs. The horns exist in both sexes, are long, twisted outwards, covered with rings nearly to the points, which are sharp ; the tail is long and tufted. The head and neck are of a deep red- dish brown color, with a band of white across the face ; the forehead and throat are clothed with coarse black hair, and all the rest of the body and limbs is of a whitish gray hue. It is one of that group of antelopes in which we may clearly discern an approach to the bovine race. See Ox.
\m
Addax Antelope {Oryx addax). Against this identification of the dishon with the ad- dax, however, there are some considerable objections. In the first place, this antelope does not present at all the required characteristic implied by its name; and, in the second, there is much reason for believing, with Ruppell (Atlas zu der Iieise im nord. Afrihi. p. 21) and Hamilton Smith (Griffith's Cuvier's Anim. Kingdom, iv, 193), that the addax is identical with the strepsia ros of Pliny (N. II. xi, 37), which animal, it must be ob- served, the Roman naturalist distinguishes from the j)ygarcjus (viii, 53). Indeed, we may regard the iden- tity of the addax and Pliny's strepsiceros as established ; for when this species was, after many years, at length rediscovered by Hemprich and Ruppell, it was found to be called by the Arabic name of akas or adas, the very name which Pliny gives as the local one of his strepsi- ceros. The pygargus, therefore, must be sought for in some animal different from the addax. The required characters seem to be found in a group of antelopes de- scribed by Mr. Bennett (Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. i). They have many peculiarities in common with the group which includes the spring-bok (Antidorcas euchore ) and the houte-bok (Damalis pygarga), those fine white- ramped species of South Africa, but are distinguished by the characters of the horns, which are larger, thick- er, more bovine, and of bolder curvature, turning first almost horizontally backwards, and then hooked ab- ruptly forwards. The legs are long, the neck long and slender, and there is a white patch on the throat in all the species. The group is confined to the northern half of the African continent. The best-known species is the mhorr (Antilope mhorr, Bennett), which stands
two feet eight inches high at the croup. The horns are ringed from the base about half-way up, whence to the tip they are round, smooth, and obtusely pointed. The expression of the face is gentle; the eye large, dark, and liquid. The tail is long, close-haired at the base, but tipped with a tuft of long black hair — a very ox-like character. The general hue of the coat, which is short and sleek, is a deep brownish red; the line of the belly and the inner surface of the limbs are white. But the whole region around the base of the tail is pure white, abruptly separated from the dark red of the Hanks; the patch running forwards in a point on each hip, and downwards on the posterior surface of the thighs. The strong contrast of the two colors has a very singular effect, and would probably be seized on to form a de- scriptive appellation. Two males of this beautiful spe- cies were sent to the Zoological Society from Morocco; they were not, however, indigenous to that country, but had been brought from the eastern side of the des- ert. The species is hunted by the Arabs for the sake of the stomachal concretion called bezoar, to which it is peculiarly subject, and which is so highly valued in Oriental pharmacy. These stones are called in Mo- rocco baid el-mhorr, or mhorr's eggs. There is, how- ever, another species, considerably larger than the mhorr, but having the same general form and the same distributions of the colors. It is the addra (A. rufi- collis), a fine beast found in the wastes of Nubia by Ruppell, and by Hemprich and Ehrenberg in Uongola. This animal stands about three feet three inches high at the croup, and is five feet four inches in length. It is seen in considerable flocks on the eastern borders of the Great Desert, and may well have been the pygarg of the ancients. — Smith ; Fairbairn. See Tristram, Nat. Hist, of the Bible, p. 126; Wood, Bible Animals, p. Ill sq. ; Bible Educator, ii, 24, 135, 167. Comp. Ante- lope.