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Show 498 DR. J. MURIE ON SAIGA TARTARICA. [June 9, ously the case, the fleece annually is pushed off en masse, or in great patches, by a more or less uniform fresh growth beneath, and at such times the alteration of appearance is very marked. The Ovine fashion is that which S. tartarica follows. Secondly, the hair of the Saiga has the inherent quality of felting. This property, opposed to its comparative absence in Anti-lopidae and Cervidae, is conspicuously prominent in the whole of the Ovidae. The tenuous underwool (fig. 13, B, C ) which works out in flat masses, weaving and binding together the coarser fibres (the process of felt), is not so fine and delicate as in some ruminants, e. g. the Prongbuck; but its cohesive wool-properties are undoubted. Fig. 13. Microscopical structure of the Hair and Wool of the Saiga. A. Portion of a hair-shaft, showing the large cellular medulla and thin cortical layer. B. Magnified view of wool; and C. Portion of the same under a higher power, displaying the central cavity and pith-cells. Thirdly, very critical evidence of the consanguinity of Saiga to Ovis is shown in the microscopic constitution of the hair. Indeed in this respect it would appear to have affinities or leanings more towards the Cervine than the Antelope type. The finer filaments, or wool sui generis, need no further mention ; but the thicker brittle fibres, or true hair, have relatively and absolutely a very thin cortex, whilst the medulla is composed of unusually large cells, somewhat hexagonal in contour, though with evident tendency to a transverse wide ellipse (fig. 13 A ) . These characters cling to the hair of all Sheep, and gradate towards the rather smaller-sized, many-sided, cellular structure of the Deer's hair. In the Antelope group, A. cervicapra, for example, the cortex is much thicker, the cells extremely small and so compressed that under low powers they seem as if but transverse striae. The hair of the mountain-loving Chamois, however, is well nigh identical with that of Saiga. The Goats have hair which may be said to stand midway between the Antelope's and Deer's, inasmuch as the cells are of diminished size, oval, but considerably compressed in the long direction of the hair; the cortical layer, moreover, is dense. Amongst habits peculiar to the Saiga, and which in some senses |
