MAMMALS OF MINNESOTA. 285 



mentary, and the little horn may be moved about appreciably. 

 After this the core grows pretty rapidly and soon fixes the 

 horn more firmly in its position. On an early kid, in my 

 grounds, this little horn matured and was cast off on the 2d 

 day of January, when I found it quite thrown off the core and 

 suspended by a slight fibre on one side, so I saved it. The 

 next day I found the other horn in the same condition, which I 

 likewise saved. At this time the horn was fully one inch 

 long." 



"The new horn had already commenced its growth, and 

 the tip was already hardened into perfect horn, and was ex- 

 tended appreciably above the core, which at that time was less 

 than nine lines long. The new horns grew very rapidly 

 through the winter, so that in six weeks the cores had more 

 than doubled in length, and the horns were extended more 

 than an inch above the cores, and the hardened perfected 

 horns had extended down to near the top of the cores." 



4 'But this process is better observed on the adult males. 

 This law seems to govern the times of shedding of the antelope, 

 the older the animal, the earlier the horn matures, and the 

 sooner it is cast. On old bucks the horn is shed in October, 

 while on the early kids it is shed in January, and still later 

 on later kids, or else it is carried over till the next year. On 

 a late kid in my grounds on the first of December, the horn 

 was not more than a quarter of an inch above the skin. It 

 grew slowly all winter, and till the time of its death in May 

 following." 



"Let us observe the horn of the- adult male antelope, which 

 is shed in October. If we make our examination so soon as 

 the horn is cast off, we can readily understand the process by 

 which it is removed. By looking into the cavity of the cast-off 

 horn, we shall see that it extends but about half way its length, 

 or a little way above the prong ; and we shall also see that it 

 contains a large number of coarse lightish colored hairs, all 

 of which are firmly attached to the horn, and many of them, 

 towards the lower part, passing quite through it. We see the 

 core of the horn is covered with the same kind of hairs as 

 those seen in the cavity of the horn. We now appreciate that 

 these hairs grew from the skin, and more or less penetrated 

 the shell or horn, and when this was removed some were torn 

 from the skin and others from the horn." 



' 'We observe, further, that the new horn had commenced its 

 growth a considerable time before the old one was cast, for the 



