THE ANTELOPE, OR PRONO-HORN. 365 



the growth of the horns;. but they will not seek refuge in 

 it even then, if it is in any way dense, and is not surrounded 

 by prairies. When startled there, instead of trying to con- 

 ceal itself in the undergrowth, it breaks away at once for 

 the plains, as if it depended more on speed than any other 

 quality for safety. It is a fine specimen of grace and nim- 

 bleness, and, when in motion, is an ideal representative of a 

 quadruped in flight. 



It is interesting to naturalists from the position which it 

 occupies in the animal world, it being the only species of 

 its genus thus far discovered. It might really be called a 

 combination of the deer, antelope, and goat, for it has some 

 of the characteristics of all three. It differs from the true 

 antelopes in having a branch or snag on its horns, in hav- 

 ing no lachrymal sinus, and in being destitute of the pos- 

 terior or accessory hoofs. It is smaller than the ordinary 

 deer, an adult male seldom exceeding four feet four inches 

 in length, and three feet in height at the shoulder, while the 

 weight rarely exceeds seventy pounds. The head is rather 

 short and broad ; the ears are small and erect ; the neck is 

 short and erect ; the body is short and round ; the tail is so 

 small as to be scarcely visible at any distance ; and the legs 

 are long, thin, and tapering. The horns, which are its most 

 characteristic feature, and which cause it to differ widely 

 from all other ruminants, are worn by both sexes ; but they 

 are little more than rudimentary in the female until she is 

 full grown, and even then they seldom exceed three or four 

 inches in length. I have known them to measure fourteen 

 inches on the male, by following the curve ; to have the 

 snags five and a half inches from the base of the horns, and 

 to be over twelve inches apart; whereas the horns, where 

 they rise from the skull, are only from three to three and a 

 half inches apart. The great peculiarity of these corneous 

 appendages is, however, that while they are hollow, like 

 those of the goat, the cow, and other ruminants, they are 

 deciduous like those of the deer. This fact, which was 

 acknowledged by the scientific world only after receiving 

 overwhelming evidence of its truth, has given the animal a 



