SKELETON OF THE STAG. 



767 



Fig. 388. 



all have well-developed incisor teeth in the lower jaw, but none in the 

 upper. The patient and thirst-enduring Camel, the stately Giraffe, the 

 Ox, the Sheep, the Goat, the nimble Antelope, and the fleet and elegant 

 Stag are all examples of this extensive order ; but it is the skeleton of 

 the last-mentioned alone that we shall select for delineation (fig. 388). 



(2206.) The most remarkable feature observable in the Ruminant 

 order of quadrupeds is, that, with the exception of th^ Camel tribe and 

 the Musk-deer, the males, and sometimes the females, are provided with 

 two horns attached to 

 the os frontis, appen- 

 dages not met with in 

 any other Yertebrata. 

 In some, as the Giraffe, 

 these horns consist 

 merely of a bony pro- 

 tuberance developed 

 from each frontal 

 bone, which is coated 

 with a hairy skin de- 

 rived from the com- 

 mon integument of 

 the head. In others, 

 as in the Ox, Goat, 

 Antelope, <fcc., the 

 bony nucleus of the 

 horn is covered over 

 with a sheath of cor- 

 neous matter, giving 

 it a hard and smooth 

 surface. 



(2207.) Both the 

 above kinds of horns 

 are persistent ; but in 

 the Deer tribe the de- 

 fences of the head, 

 which are large and 

 branched, are deei- Skeleton of the stag. 



duous, being formed every year from a vascular skin that covers them 

 externally during the period of their growth, but shrivels up and dries 

 when they are completed. These horns fall off after a certain time, to 

 be renewed again the following season. The mode of their formation, 

 however, will be examined in another place. 



(2208.) In consequence of the weight of the horns in such species as 

 possess weapons of this description, the head is necessarily extremely 

 heavy ; and in genera where the horns are wanting or feebly developed, 



