THE CERVID^E, OR DEER. 171 



occupies a perfectly isolated position. Apart from 

 its strange shape the result of a lengthening of the 

 vertebrae of the neck and of the different lengths 

 of its fore and hind limbs, descriptive zoology 

 has very rightly laid stress upon the frontal deco- 

 rations which adorn both sexes, and which have 

 been said to be neither horns nor antlers. The 

 two horn-like unbranched protuberances are 

 covered with a hairy skin which never dries up as 

 in the case of the deer, and hence they do not fall 

 off periodically. These skin-covered bony protuber- 

 ances cannot, however, be compared to the bony 

 protuberances of the Oxen, as might be supposed, 

 that is, to the processes of the frontal bone covered 

 by the horn sheath. On the contrary, like the 

 antlers proper, they begin as ossifications of the 

 skin, and grow precisely in the same manner as 

 antlers, but never become perfectly attached to the 

 frontal bone. In order briefly to distinguish the 

 character of the formations it may be said that 



Hollow-horned animals have frontal processes 

 without antlers, 



The Deer processes with antlers, 

 The Giraffes antlers without processes. 

 Hence Eiitimeyer calls the giraffes ' a most fantastic 

 form of deer.' 



