42 AUDUBON 



amazed at the differences of opinion respecting the shed- 

 ding — or not shedding — of the horns of the Antelope;^ 

 and this must be looked to with the greatest severity, for 

 if these animals do shed their horns, they are no longer 

 Antelopes. We are about having quite a ball in honor of 

 Mr. Chardon, who leaves shortly for the Blackfoot Fort. 



Jujie 20, Tuesday. It rained nearly all night; and 

 though the ball was given, I saw nothing of it, and heard 

 but little, for I went to bed and to sleep. Sprague fin- 

 ishe'd the drawing of the old male Antelope, and I mine, 

 taking besides the measurements, etc., which I give here. 

 . . . Bell has skinned the head and put it in pickle. 

 The weather was bad, yet old Provost, Alexis, and Mr. 

 Bonaventure, a good hunter and a first-rate shot, went 

 over the river to hunt. They returned, however, without 

 anything, though they saw three or four Deer, and a Wolf 

 almost black, with very long hair, which Provost followed 

 for more than a mile, but uselessly, as the rascal out- 

 witted him after all. Harris and Bell are gone too, and 

 I hope they will bring some more specimens of Sprague's 

 Lark and the new Golden-winged Woodpecker. 



To fill the time on this dreary day, I asked Mr. Char- 

 don to come up to our room and give us an account of the 

 small-pox among the Indians, especially among the Man- 

 dans and Riccarees, and he related as follows : Early in 

 the month of July, 1837, the steamer " Assiniboin " arrived 

 at Fort Clark with many cases of small-pox on board. 



Golden-winged and Red-shafted Flickers are mixed and obscured in every 

 conceivable degree. We presently find Audubon puzzled by the curious 

 birds, whose peculiarities have never been satisfactorily explained. — E. C. 



1 The fact that the Aiitilocapra aniericana does shed its horns was not 

 satisfactorily established till several years after 1843. ^^ ^^^^ first brought 

 to the notice of naturalists by Dr. C. A. Canfield of California, April 10, 

 1858, and soon afterward became generally known. (See Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 Lond. 1865, p. 718, and 1S66, p. 105.) Thereupon it became evident that, 

 as Audubon says, these animals are not true Antelopes, and the family 

 Antilocaprid(E was established for their reception. On the whole subject 

 see article in Encycl. Amer. i., 1S83, pp. 237-::42,figs. 1-5. — E. C. 



