RUMINANTIA. 359 



cast off once a-year, and are reproduced again, this taking 

 place immediately before the breeding season ; but some 

 Indian deer do not throw off their horns so often. In the 

 Middle Miocene Procervulus, moreover, the horns seem to 

 have been persistent throughout life. 



The antlers of the Cervidce are bony throughout, and are 

 produced by a process very similar to that by which injuries 

 of osseous structures are made good in man. Each antler 

 consists of a main stem or " beam," and usually of one or 

 more branches or " tynes," and when first produced they 

 are covered with a finely-haired and vascular integument. 

 When fully formed there is produced, just above the base 

 of attachment to the frontal bone, a circular ridge of bone, 

 which is known as the " burr ; " after which the " velvet " 

 or external integument dies and peels off, leaving the antler 

 as a naked process of bone. In the second year after 

 birth in all Deer possessing horns, and in a few forms 

 throughout life, the antlers consist only of the " beam," 

 and are dagger-shaped and unbranched. In the horns 

 of the next year, we find that the beam develops a 

 basal branch or "brow-tyne" (fig. 650, c). This condition 

 of matters may be compared with the permanent form of 

 the antler in the Miocene Dicroceros (fig. 650, a), in which 

 there is only a single " tyne " on the " beam." In the next 

 year of life — the fourth after birth — in addition to the 

 " brow-tyne " one or more tynes are developed nearer to the 

 free end of the antler ; and we may now compare the state 

 of things to what is permanently the condition of the antler 

 in many of the Pliocene Deer (such as Cervus Matheroni and 

 C. pardinensis, fig. 650, b). In succeeding years of life, in 

 many Deer, the antlers become, every time they are repro- 

 duced, more and more complex, by increase in the number 

 of the " tynes," and by augmentation of their length and 

 size. Lastly, it may be mentioned that in the singular 

 Asiatic Muntjak (Cervus Muntjak) the antlers exhibit the 

 peculiarity of being supported upon long bony pedicles or 

 processes of the frontal bones (fig. 650, e). 



As regards the distribution of the Cervidce, no undoubted 

 members of the family are known to have existed during 



