MAMMALIA. 13 
the genera, for all Goats have not erect horns, if any have, and 
it is the same with the other genera; and we all know that 
the Antelopes have tubular horns, in the sense that word is used 
by Linneus, as much as the Oxen, Sheep and Goats; but this 
error of Gmelin has had its fluence up to this time, for the 
horns of Antelopes in Cuvier’s first and last edition of Le Régne 
Animal are described as having ‘the nucleus of the horn solid, 
and without pores or sinuses, like the horns of the Stags.’ 
*« M. Geoffroy, perceiving that the characters furnished by Lin- 
neus were not sufficient to separate the Antelopes from the 
other genera, examined the structure of the promimences of the 
frontal bones which form the core or support of the horns of the 
Antelopes, and he describes the core of the horns of the Ante- 
lopes to be solid and without sinuses, while he characterizes the 
cores of the horns of the Goats, Sheep and Oxen as im great part 
occupied with cells which communicate with the frontal sinus, 
and Cuvier, Latreille and most authors have without re-exami- 
nation adopted these characters. 
‘Some years ago I examined the cores of the horns of many 
species of Antelopes for Colonel H. Smith, and found they were 
all more or less cellular within, and these cells had a communi- 
cation with the frontal sinus; certainly the cells are not so nu- 
merous as in the thick horns of some Oxen, but they are quite 
as numerous for the thickness of the core ; but it is to be remem- 
bered that the general character of the horns of Antelopes is to 
be slender and elongated, and consequently there is not so much 
room for cells, as their presence would destroy the strength of 
the core, so as not to form a fit support for the horns; and thus 
this character is merely reduced to one dependent on the small 
size or slenderness of the horns, which, though usual, is not uni- 
versal in the genus, for example in the A. Oreas and others. 
** Colonel Smith, aware of this difficulty, divided these animals 
imto two families: Capride, characterized by having the horns 
‘vagmating upon an osseous nucleus totally or nearly solid,’ 
containing the genera Antilope, Capra, Ovis, and a new genus 
which he called: Damalis for the Antelopes with high withers ; 
and second, the family Bovide, with horns ‘ vaginatmg upon a 
bony nucleus not solid, but more or less porous and cellular,’ 
including the genera Catoblepas or Gnu, Ovibos or Musk Oz, 
and Bos*. . 
“This arrangement shows that much reliance is certainly not 
to be placed on M. Geoffroy’s character for the genus Antilope, 
* I may remark that Cuvier says that the genus Bos has a large naked 
muffle, yet two species which he refers to it have a hairy muzzle like . 
the Sheep, viz. B. moschatus. 
