98 Vertebrata. 



The other ruminants have neither canine nor 

 incisor teeth in the upper jaw, and most of them 

 possess horns. In the giraffe, the tallest and longest- 

 necked of the mammals, these horns are short pro- 

 cesses of the frontal bone covered with hairy skin. 

 In the cows, antelopes, goats and sheep, these horns 

 are made up of an outer hard, horny sheath, placed 

 over a bony core or process of the frontal or forehead 

 bone. In the ox and cow group, the horns are 

 directed forwards, and are smooth, while in the 

 antelopes, which are mostly natives of Africa, the 

 horns are directed backwards, and are often ringed 

 or waved. One American species, the pronghorn, 

 sheds its horns periodically like the true deer. The 

 goats and sheep have compressed angular wrinkled 

 horns, often coiled. Our domestic sheep are possibly 

 derived from the mountain sheep of South Europe 

 and Asia. 



The deer family possess solid horns composed of 

 bony processes of the frontal bone, often branched in 

 various ways. These antlers are annually shed and 

 renewed, each new growth being usually larger than 

 its predecessor. The best known examples are the 

 Virginian deer, the fallow deer, and the roebuck. 

 In most of these ruminants the dentition is repre- 

 sented by the formula 



/2 -o ^-o 3-3 



33 i i 33 33 



