206 



KNOWLEDGE 



[September 1, 1890. 



Great variation occurs in the fonn assumed by the 

 antlers of the difl'ereut species of deer. Thus, as wo have 

 said, in the Eoc the antlers are simply forked, while in the 

 fully-developed Red Deer they may have as many as six- 

 teen points. In the Fallow-Deer the extremities only 

 (Fig. 1) are distinctly palmated ; but in the Elk, or Moose, 

 the palmation embraces nearly the whole of the antler, 

 and attains an enormous development. Of the species 

 with cylindrical antlers those which attain the greatest 

 development in this respect are the Canadian Wapiti, the 

 great stag of the Thian Shan range, and some allied 

 species from Sikkim and Persia. But the antlers which 

 are found fossil in the peat and cavern-deposits of this 

 country indicate that the predecessors of our own Red 

 Deer attained equally gigantic dimensions. The extinct 

 Irish Deer had, however, the finest antlers of any member 

 of the family, their expanse fi'om tip to tip exceeding 11 

 feet. Alone among the deer-tribe, the Reindeer of the 

 northern regions of Europe and America has antlers in 

 the female as well as in the male ; thus indicating that in 



Fig. 2. — Skull of an Ox, showiag the bases of the Horn-cores. 



this instance the function of these appendages is connected 

 with something else besides the combats of the males 

 during the breeding season. 



Having said thus much in regard to antlers, our next 

 theme is that of horns, which we shall find to be of a 

 totally different nature. The woodcut (Fig. 2) shows the 

 bony skull of an extinct species of Ox, with the bases of 

 the bony horn-cores ; the tips having been cut away in 

 order to save space. It will be seen that these horn-cores 

 are bony prominences arising from the forehead, without 

 any "burr" at their base, and forming, in fact, part and 

 parcel of the skull itself. During life they are permeated 

 by blood-vessels which traverse the whole of their interior, 

 and they are coated by the hollow sheaths, to which the 

 term horn is properly restricted. In structure these horny 

 sheaths are merely a specially modified kind of sldn, some- 

 what analogous to our own nails ; and they are connected 

 with the underlying horn -core by soft tissue and blood- 

 vessels. Thus the horns of an Ox, Sheep, Goat, or Ante- 

 lope, are essentially li\'iug structures — as we may see for 



ourselves in the case of an Ox or Cow which has had the 

 misfortune to wrench off its horn from the bony horn- 

 core ; and are thereby totally different from the dead 

 Antlers of the Deer. Moreover, with one remarkable ex- 

 ception, of which more anon, horns are never branched, 

 and are never shed from their bony cores. In many in- 

 stances, as in the Oxen, they are also common to the male 

 and female ; although those of the former are the larger. 

 As in the case of Deer, however, we find that the earliest 

 Oxen and Antelopes were devoid of horns, and that these 

 appendages show a gradual increase in size as we ascend 

 in the Tertiary period to tlie present .day. 



The one exception among the hollow-horned Ruminants 

 (as the animals with true horns are often called), in which 

 the horns are branched and are annually shed from their 

 cores, is the Prong-buck of North America. In this ele- 

 gant Antelope the horns have a single branch, and curve 

 backwards in a hook-like manner. Another type of 

 cranial appendage is exhibited by the well-known Gn-affe, 

 of Afi'ica, which has a pair of short bony horn-cores on 

 the forehead difi'ering from those of any of the pre- 

 ceding forms. These horn-cores, which are some three 

 inches in length, are cones of bone resting upon the fore- 

 head, from which in the young state they are entirely 

 separate, although in old animals they become firmly 

 united by bone with the skull. They are completely 

 covered with skin, and appear to be of no possible use to 

 their owner. They may, perhaps, be regarded as rem- 

 nants of larger appendages found in certain extinct 

 animals, which appear to have been in some respects inter- 

 mediate between antlers and true horns. 



The creature in which this intermediate type of cranial 

 appendages occurs is the huge extinct Sivathere, of the 

 Upper Tertiary deposits of Northern India, wluch is the 

 largest known representative of the Ruminants, or cud- 

 chewing Mammals. This animal was provided with huge 

 wide-spreading antlers (although it is here difticult to say 

 whether we should use the term antler or horn), somewhat 

 like those of the Elk, but apparently permanently attached 

 to the skull, since they show no " burr " at the base. 

 These antlers were, in all probability, always covered 

 either with skin or with very thin horn, and thus seem 

 to indicate that the difference between an antler and a 

 horn is not so great as appears to be the case when our 

 studies are confined to living animals. 



The last form of horn we have to mention among exist- 

 ing animals is that found in the Rhinoceroses. And here 

 we have to observe that whereas the antlers of the Deer 

 and the horns of the Oxen are placed in pairs on either 

 side of the skull, in the Rhinoceroses the horns or horn 

 (for there may be either two or one) are placed in the 

 middle line — one in front of the other when two are pre- 

 sent. In structure these horns would be comparable to 

 the horn of an Ox, if the latter had no bony core, and were 

 filled up internally with the same horny material as that 

 which forms its outer surface. These horns have no sohd 

 attachment to the underlying bone, and are thus only ex- 

 cessive developments of skin-structure, more analogous in 

 structure to warts than to anything else with which we 

 can compare them. 



The extinct animals from the tertiary of the United 

 States known as Titanotherer, which were somewhat akin 

 to Rhinoceroses, are distinguished by having a transverse 

 pair of bony horn-cores above the nose, wliich during life 

 were doubtless sheathed in horn. Again, the Uintatheres, 

 of the same region, were another type of huge Ungulates, 

 having as many as three pairs of bony horn-cores ; and 

 thus being the most extraordinary creatures of this group 

 of animals at present known to us. 



