54 MR. OGILBY'S MONOGRAPH 



it generally remains a much longer time before being cast ; a young Leucoryx in the 

 museum at Frankfort, with horns eighteen or twenty inches long, has the points still 

 bent, exactly as in another specimen where they are only two inches long. 



Now this permanence or deciduousness of the horns — for in a general sense, and 

 especially as contrasted with the solid organs of the Deer kind, the hollow horn may 

 always be considered as permanent — is a constant and invariable character, which has 

 a direct and powerful influence upon the habits and oeconomy of the animals. The Deer 

 kind invariably affect particular localities at the period of casting and renewing their 

 horns : their manners then undergo a complete change ; from bold and daring, they 

 become timid and irresolute ; they lose their flesh, abandon the open hills and upland 

 plains for the thick cover of the forest, and, foregoing their gregarious habits, desert 

 their companions, and pass the period of weakness in solitude and seclusion. As soon, 

 however, as the new horn acquires strength and solidity, the Stag resumes his usual 

 habits and regains his former confidence. Hollow-horned Ruminants present no such 

 phenomena ; the habits and manners of the same species are similar at all seasons, and 

 the differences which we observe in different species depend upon other causes, which 

 will be developed in the sequel. The modifications of organic structure which produce 

 these different effects are too permanent and influential to be neglected among the cha- 

 racters of a natural classification of the Ruminants. Nor have they been overlooked by 

 zoologists ; it may be said, indeed, with truth, that they constitute the only really im- 

 portant characters hitherto employed to distinguish the genera of these animals. 



3. The presence or absence of horns in different species and sexes furnishes another 

 character which has already been partially employed in the distinction of genera, though 

 not to the full extent it is susceptible of, or that its importance merits. The Camelidce, 

 so anomalous in many other respects, differ also from the generality of other Ruminants, 

 in the total deprivation of horns. So Hkewise do the Musks, a much less abnormal 

 family ; and these two groups comprise all the known Ruminants in which the males 

 want these organs as well as the females. About half the remainder, however, exhibit 

 this character partially, by having the horns confined to the male sex ; and this struc- 

 ture has a very powerful and evident influence upon the habits of the animals. The 

 whole of the solid-horned family, with the exception of the Reindeer, are in this pre- 

 dicament, as are likewise about thirty of the hollow-horned species hitherto classed 

 among the Antelopes. In the former case — that, namely, in which both sexes are 

 hornless — the weight of the character has been duly appreciated by zoologists ; in the 

 latter it has been totally neglected as a generic distinction. Its influence, indeed, is more 

 obvious and powerful in the one case than in the other ; but if we consider the neces- 

 sary consequences of even a partial deprivation, and apply the principles thence derived 

 to the study of the animal oeconomy ; if we compare, with this intention, the character 

 of those Ruminants which have horns in both sexes, such as the Oxen, Bubals, and 

 Oryxes, with the habits and manners of those species which have them confined to the 



