A 



222 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



the protection of Antelope. Some of them have even declared 

 a close season for a term of years. It is probable, therefore, 

 that we may yet keep the Pronghorn from going the way of 

 the wild pigeon and the Buffalo. 



HORNS The horns are perhaps the most remarkable feature of 



this remarkable animal. Though true horns like those of a 

 cow or goat, they are yet branched in shape, and shed each year 

 like the antlers of a Deer. This last fact was first announced 



by Rufus B. Sage, who 

 wrote, about 1841, of the 

 Antelope:^' "The male, 

 however, is equipped with 

 hook-shaped antlers, ebony 

 coloured, and 6 or 8 inches 



Fig. p7— Diagram of buck Antelope's horns in his four 1^1 lengtll, WniCll lie SneClS 



successive autumns. ii • ,i ,i _r 



annually m the months ot 



The black part is the new horn coming inside. "^ 



November and Decem- 

 ber." Dr. C. A. Canfield, of Monterey, Cal., made the dis- 

 covery independently in 1858.'* 



Judge Caton investigated-^ the growth of horns in detail. 

 His observations show that the male Antelope has, at birth, a 

 little bump over each eye. At four months old (that is, at the 

 end of September) this breaks through the skin as a small and 

 somewhat movable horn. In January, usually when about 

 an inch long, this is dropped or pushed off by the new horn 

 growing below it, on the top of the bony core, which also grows 

 rapidly, so that in a couple of months the whole horn is about 

 3 inches long. The next year the shedding takes place earlier, 

 but the bony core (now much bigger, of course) remains. 

 The prong is developed above the bony core. 



Old bucks shed in October — that is, immediately after 

 the rut. They have an advantage over members of the Deer 

 tribe in one particular — a Deer is hornless for some time after 



« Rocky Mt. Life, 1857, p. 56. 



^* Pub. in Proc. Smith. Inst., 1866. See Caton, Antelope and Deer of America, 1877, 

 p. 26. 



^^ Antelope and Deer of America, 1877, pp. 25-35. 



