172 AGE OF THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



any noticeable difference in the length, size, or curve of the 

 horns, it may be assigned to some previous injury, disease, or 

 accidental cause. 



According to the character, habits, and surroundings of the 

 various races and individuals, we find the horns more or less 

 modified in size, shape, and strength. 



In the semi-wild races, like those of Asia, Hungary, Spain^ 

 Texas, and South America, the horns may attain enormous size, 

 — five feet in length ; while in the most civilized, domesticated 

 races, like the Durham, Dutch, and Channel-Island cattle, the 

 horns tend to diminish in size, and may be but a few inches 

 long. 



The bull has strong, stout, short, straight horns, dense in 

 structure, which seem to be as much points of hold for his 

 massive, heavy head as actual weapons in times of warfare ; the 

 female has longer, sharper, more delicate horns, designed to use 

 in emergencies. The steer has horns which are a compromise 

 between those of the two sexes, — longer than those of the bull 

 and larger than those of the cow. 



The horns have for a basement two cores^ or conical, bony 

 projections of porous structure, richly supplied with blood-vessels, 

 and containing air-cells which communicate with the sinuses of 

 the frontal, occipital, and maxillary bones. 



The cores are covered by a dense, fibrous, vascular mem- 

 brane, from the outer face of which, corresponding to the chorion 

 of the skin, the horns grow. The horns themselves are conical 

 tubes more or less curved, consisting of concentric layers of 

 epithelial growth. 



Soon after birth the calf shows two little, hard, rounded 

 points at either side of the frontal bone, which slowly emerge 

 from the skin. At eight or ten days the point is through the 

 skin and shows the color which the horns will have later ; at 

 three weeks a distinct little flexible horn has appeared. At five 

 or six months the horn has commenced to curve on its long axis 

 and assume the direction it will have later. Up to this time, 

 and during the first year, the horn is covered by an epidermic 



