748 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



that "it is larger than that of any other quadruped of 

 its size. By a careful comparison of the living eye with 

 the taxidermists' scale, to enable me to order eyes of 

 the proper size for mounting specimens, I found it neces- 

 sary to select the next to the largest. Indeed, the eye is 

 very nearly the size of that of the elephant, and much 

 larger than that of the horse or the ox." After record- 

 ing much more about this organ, he says of the ear 

 that "it always stands erect when the animal is standing 

 at ease. When it becomes excited, the ears are projected 

 forward to catch the least sound, which imparts a look 

 of animation to the animal. The ear is five inches long, 

 three inches broad at the widest part, terminates in a 

 pretty sharp point, and is covered with hair inside and out." 



The matter of the growth, development, and shedding 

 of the horns of the 

 American antelope 

 has always been a 

 question of decid- 

 ed interest. For a 

 long time it was 

 stoutly disputed 

 ithat the animal 

 shed its horns, and 

 the subject con- 

 stantly found its 

 way into the sport- 

 ing journals and 

 magazines of popu- 

 lar natural history. 

 I had the honor of 

 being in at one of 

 these, and the ques- 

 tion arose by at- 

 tention being called 

 to it in a sporting 

 magazine of the 

 time, contributed 

 by a retired officer 

 of the Army. In 

 a somewhat elabo- 

 rate article, this 

 writer strongly de- 

 nied that the ante- 

 lope ever shed its horns, and the editor of the aforesaid 

 magazine invited me to take the matter up for him. My 

 opinion was that his correspondent was wrong, as the 

 shedding of the horns of this animal has now been known 

 to science for many years, and has been carefully studied 

 and described by a great many competent naturalists. 

 Caton studied the entire process in his private deer parks 

 years ago ; it has been observed in the Zoological Society's 

 Garden at London, and I have published a full account 

 of it, giving illustrations showing the growth of the 

 new horn. 



Not satisfied with my answer, however, and turning 

 to his copy of Audubon, as many a writer before him 

 has done, to ascertain what he had to say on this point, 

 he found that the "great bird man" agreed with him ; so 



A PAIR OF YOUNG ANTELOPES 



Figure 2. This is reproduced from a published photograph in Animal Life made by Mr. W. 

 Rau, of Philadelphia. The male is the one with the horns. They are difficult to rear in captivity. 



lie published a rejoinder in the same magazine, which I 

 met by the following: "Some people may be curious to 

 know why I entitle this communication 'Sledge-hammer 

 Science.' My excuse for doing so is that it came into 

 my head when I read what the captain had to say about 

 Audubon's method of 'proving' that the antelope does 

 not shed its horns. It will be remembered that Audubon 

 knocked off the horns of a buck antelope not in the 

 shedding season to prove that Antilocapra did not shed 

 those appendages, and this to a lot of hunters at old 

 Fort Union many, many years ago! Now, although 

 Audubon was a very distinguished pictorial ornithological 

 artist, he was by no means a well-informed scientist, 

 neither in ornithology nor mammalogy. There was alto- 

 gether too much sledge-hammer science in his day, and 



there are those who 

 are only too ready 

 to use it in these 

 days. Audubon 

 might just as well 

 have taken his 

 hammer and knock- 

 ed off the antlers 

 of a bull elk in' the 

 wrong season, to 

 prove that those 

 enormous horns are 

 not reproduced an- 

 nually. Quoting a 

 malobservation of 

 Audubon's carries 

 no weight with it 

 at all, and in refer- 

 ence to the Fort 

 Union episode, Ca- 

 ton says : 'The 

 hunters were right 

 and the scientist 

 wrong; but we see 

 how near Mr. Au- 

 dubon came to dis- 

 covering the truth. 

 Had he been a lit- 

 tle more patient in 

 his investigations, and a little less wedded to precon- 

 ceived opinions, he would have had the honor of this 

 important discovery.' 



"I wonder if your correspondent has ever opened a 

 copy of Judge Caton's 'Antelope and Deer of Ameri- 

 ca,' from which I have just quoted. If not, I would 

 advise him to do so, and read the Judge's method of 

 showing how Antilocapra sheds its horns. It is not the 

 Audubonian method, but the true, scientific one ; not the 

 sledge-hammer method, but the one employed by the 

 patient investigator. The entire process of this unique 

 phenomenon exhibited on the part of our antelope was 

 also carefully studied in the Zoological Gardens of 

 London, in the case of a fine, healthy buck. Mr. W. A. 

 Forbes, F. Z. S., gave an account of it, with beautiful 



