RUMfNANTIA CAVICORNIA ANTILOCAPRA AMERICANA. 667 



This animal is larger than the domestic sheep, while its proportionally much longer legs, 

 and longer and more erect neck, give to it a much greater altitude. 



The hair is everywhere very coarse, thick, and exceedingly spongy and easily torn apart ; 

 it is tubular, slightly crimped or waved, and has much the appearance of short lengths of 

 coarse thread, cut off abruptly at the extremity. I have not noticed any woolly hairs between 

 the coarse ones just mentioned, though they may exist in winter skins. 



The head is broad, much hollowed on the forehead, the ridge of the muzzle narrow, high, 

 and convex ; the outline of the head very narrow and tapering. The horns are situated very 

 far back, their posterior faces only about as far from the occiput as their own diameter. The 

 orbits are nearly circular, and project much laterally ; they are situated almost immediately 

 under the base of the horn, so that the eye does not pass beyond the anterior outline of the 

 latter in the males. The horns themselves are much compressed antero-posteriorly, with a 

 broad compressed pointed snag directed upwards and forwards (generally in the plane of the 

 basal portion of the horn) ; beyond this anterior snag the horn becomes rounded and tapers to 

 an acute and compressed tip ; when near the tip the direction of the horn, instead of being 

 upwards with a slightly outward divergence, changes abruptly and bends inwards and a little 

 backwards. The terminal portion of the horn is smooth and polished ; the basal, on the con 

 trary, is generally warty, and roughened by angular tubucles of greater or less size. 



There is a very considerable variation in the shape of the horns ; so much so, that authors 

 have attempted to establish several species on some of their numerous modifications. Thus the 

 basal portion is sometimes one-half the total length, sometimes one-third, sometimes two-thirds. 

 The antero-posterior thickness of the horn is sometimes twice, sometimes thrice the transverse 

 diameter. The anterior snag varies very much also. The curve or hook at the end of the horn 

 is variable in its direction and angle, sometimes less, sometimes more than a right angle. The 

 tip is generally compressed or flattened, and separated from the more conical portion by a con 

 spicuous collar. In one instance the horn lacks the entire anterior snag, leaving the shape 

 quite similar to that of the cham'ois, though without its annulated wrinklings. These variations 

 are shown in an accompanying plate. 



The female sometimes has no horns externally ; frequently, however, there is a short pointed 

 horny tubercle of a few lines, occasionally two inches long. It does not show any curve, how 

 ever, although usually warty at the base. When horns appear wanting in the female, they 

 may sometimes be found concealed among the hair of the head. 



The eye of this species is large and full ; there is no larmier either externally or in the skull. 

 There is a prominent ciliation of bristles or eyelashes on the upper lid. 



The end of the muzzle is hairy, only parted along the median line by a narrow naked space of 

 about two lines, extending from the edge of the upper lip to the anterior end of the nostrils, 

 then bifurcating and extending along the entire upper edge of the nostrils. The nostrils are 

 much more horizontal than in the deer, and their anterior extremities more elevated above the 

 edge of the lip, and much closer together, the septum measuring but little over a quarter of an 

 inch. 



The hoofs are similarly shaped on both feet ; the anterior rather largest. They are very 

 narrow and acute, about three times as broad as long ; the lateral outlines nearly straight, the 

 exterior even a little concave, very different from the deer. Their postero-external border, 



