ZOOLOGY. 297 



though he does not " wish that its extraordinary peculiarities 

 should be undervalued," he does " not want them to be un- 

 duly magnified at the expense of those of the fauna of New 



Zealand." 



The Wild Camel. 



Little is known of the camel in a truly untamed condition 

 that is, not in simply a feral state ; but during the past 

 year observations have been recorded respecting the wild 

 animals occurring-; in Central Asia. The camel is still found 

 in an aboriginal condition in the Desert of Gobi. It is two- 

 humped, and, according to Mr. Harkloff, "the size is nearly 

 that of the tame; but it is larger and higher on the legs. It 

 is of a darker color than the tame; and the white around 

 the nose is much clearer and paler. In the spring they pair, 

 and the time of gestation is the same as that with the tame 

 camel. The Tano-uts and Kiroizes hunt the wild camel and 

 eat its flesh ; also they use the hair. The wild camel is said 

 not to be shy, and accordingly not difficult to obtain." Ac- 

 cording to Major Tichannoif, it cannot easily, if at all, be 

 tamed. The voice is not so strong as that of the tamed 



camel. 



Deer's Antlers. 



The morphology of the antlers of the deer has been inves- 

 tigated by Messrs. A. H. Garrod and Theodore Gill. Pro- 

 fessor Garrod has suggested that the typical antler is com- 

 posed of a primarily bifurcate beam and a brow antler spring- 

 ing from its base anteriorly, and that the differences between 

 the species result from the greater or less development, or 

 the atrophy, of one or other of these elements. Several cases, 

 however, are not explicable by this hypothesis. Professor 

 Gill considers the antlers " either as simple spikes or with a 

 tendency to bifurcation, especially (but not exclusively) in 

 the direction of the varying greatest or axial growth," and 

 has applied a new terminology to indicate at once the or- 

 der of development and as a convenient device for descrip- 

 tive zoology. (1) The simple spikes of the first year and 

 their after-growths are designated protoceres; (2) the ante- 

 rior offshoots of the second year deuteroceres / and the suc- 

 ceeding (3) third, (4) fourth, and (5) fifth anterior offshoots, 

 respectively, (3) tritoceres, (4) tetartoceres, and (5) pemptoceres. 

 The chief differences in the several genera of deer with com- 



N2 



