46 The Ottawa Naturalist. [June 



settlers educated to care for, and not destroy, this almost unique 

 creature. The vast herds of buffalo had to go, the huge savage 

 bovine defied the settler; but this swift and timid animal would 

 keep out on the lonely waste far from danger, and would sur^ive, 

 ( were anything done to prevent merciless slaughter. 



Antilocapra amencana, Ord., is dissociated in every way from 

 the typical antelopes of the old world and is neither a deer, a goat, 

 a sheep, nor an ox. One American author says, "It is like an 

 island in a vast sea, unrelated," though it would be more true 

 to say that it is a connecting link related to many diverse 

 branches of the Ruminantia. Its horns are hollow like the 

 Bovidas, but deciduous like the Cervidae; yet it has the gall- 

 bladder which no deer possesses. Scent glands which antelopes 

 and deer -exhibit , the prong-horn lacks, nor has it the tear sinus, 

 nor the posterior hoof or "deer claw." Mr. Roosevelt charac- 

 terizes it as "the extraordinary prong-buck, the only hollow- 

 horned ruminant which sheds its horns annually" and it is the 

 sole species in the family Antilocapridae, a family all by itself. 

 It combines features of the deer, antelope, goat and sheep, and 

 can be compared only to the giraft'e in this respect as occupying 

 an isolated zoological position amongst the Ungulates. 



In confinement it makes a great pet, but rarely lives long 

 and, until June, 1903, none had been known to have been 

 born in captivitv. It is difficult, if not impossible, to domesticate 

 completely and, since it was first scientifically described in 1855, 

 and its peculiar features studied in a captive specimen in the 

 Zoological Gardens, London, its numbers have continued to 

 decrease so that it bids fair to soon become one of the rarest of 

 our interesting larger native mammals. 



AVINTER BIRDS AT POINT PELEE. 

 Bv W. E. Sauxders, London, Ont. 



The most southerly piece of land in Canada is the south 

 end of Point Pelee, the latitude being about 41' 55, while 

 London is almost exactly 43' and Ottawa about 45' 25. It 

 will readily be seen that there is sufficient \-ariance between 

 these places to make a radical difference in the winter bird 

 population and it was, therefore, with niuch interest that Mr. 

 J. S. Wallace and I undertook this year a couple of journeys 

 to determine what the winter population of the Point actually 

 was. 



In the midst of a mild season it happened tlvat the two 

 closing days of January and the Ist of February produced the 



