SKELETON OF THE CAMEL. 177 



ruminant: the rest of the hind-foot deviates in the same 

 manner and degree from the ordinary ruminant type, as 

 does the fore-foot. 



The camel tribe have no horns ; some small deer of 

 the musk-family are compensated for the want of horns 

 by very long and sharp upper canine teeth ; the rest of 

 the ruminants, either in the male sex or in both sexes, 

 are endowed with the weapons of offence and defence, 

 developed from and supported by the head, called "horns" 

 and " antlers." The term " horn" is technically restricted 

 to the weapon which is composed of a bony base, covered 

 by a sheath of true horny matter. Such horns are never 

 shed ; and as, in order to diminish the weight of the head, 

 the horn-core is made as hollow as is consistent with 

 strength, the ruminants with such horns are called hollow- 

 horned ; the ox, the sheep, and the antelope are examples. 

 Antlers consist of bone only. During the period of their 

 growth they are covered by a vascular, short-haired skin 

 like velvet; but when their growth is completed, this 

 skin dries and peels off, leaving the antler a solid, naked, 

 and insensible Aveapon. Being deprived, however, of its 

 vascular support it dies, and, after a certain period of ser- 

 vice, is undermined by the absorbents and cast off. The 

 process of growth and decadence of the antlers is re- 

 peated each year ; and in the fallow-deer the antlers pro- 

 gressively acquire greater size and more branches to the 

 sixth year, when the animal is in its prime. Good evi- 

 dence has been obtained that the same law of growth, 

 shedding, and annual renewal prevailed in the gigantic 

 fossil deer of Ireland, in which upwards of eighty pounds 

 of osseous matter must have been developed from the 

 frontal bones every year in the full-grown animal. The. 

 ruminants of the deer and elk tribes are those which have 



