CHAP. vi. HORNS AND ANTLERS. 89 



never shed. There is, however, in America, a curious 

 antelope which differs from other horned creatures in that 

 its horns are branched or forked (from which it is called 

 the prong-horn), and in that they are periodically shed. 

 In December and January all the bucks seem to be young 

 ones, because the developing horns are so small, whereas 

 iu the spring and summer months most of them appear to 

 be old ones, because their developed horns are so large and 

 noticeable. When the horn is newly shed the skin of the 

 horn-core has an abundant covering of long, straight, silky 

 and light-coloured hairs ; but these soon become matted 

 or felted together, and fuse into a solid mass at the points, 

 and this felting and fusion continues during the growth 

 and development of the horns. This helps to tell us the 

 secret of the structure of horns. They are formed of 

 strangely modified hairs which fuse together and agglutinate 

 into a solid horny mass. 



And what is the special use of these curious and beau- 

 tiful appendages ? Old writers say that the huge-horned 

 ibex goats use their great strong ribbed and gracefully 

 curved horns to break their fall in leaping from a height. 

 But though Mr. Hutton says that he has seen captive 

 wild goats use the horns for this purpose, most hunters 

 seem to think that this is at any rate not the main purpose 

 of these appendages, and that their employment in this 

 way is, to say the least of it, unusual. Some people, again, 

 have believed that the chamois of which strange stories 

 have been told uses his hooked horns to hitch himself on 

 to rocky ledges in places where he cannot obtain certain 

 foothold. But the truth is, that the main use of the horns 

 is for fighting. It may be, indeed, that Madame Chamois 

 admires the delicately-curved horns of her lord, which are 

 finer and stronger than her own, just as Mrs. Goat, like 

 other ladies, admires the beard of her spouse, and delights 



