326 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Arrangement of the Ruminants. 



rank with Bovidse and Giraffidse, between which families it 

 ought to be placed. 



The Ruminants may be divided, according to their horns, 

 thus : — 



I. The males and generally the females furnished with a 

 bony process on each frontal bone, which is permanent during 

 the lives of the animals. 



In the BoviDiE this bony process is covered with a permanent 

 horny coat. 



The horn [coleocera) has the same appearance, form, struc- 

 ture, and is enlarged in the same manner as the hoofs over the 

 toes. 



In the Antilocaprid^ the bony process is covered with a 

 porous horny coat, which falls off and is renewed annually. 



The horn or pseudo-horn [komecera) of the Cabrit is sui generis. 

 It seems to be formed of the matted or felted hair of the skin that 

 covers the core. It loosens and falls off in the mass when the 

 new coat of matted hair is formed beneath it. The horns may 

 be compared to the annual coat of matted hair which is shed by 

 the American bison and some other ruminants ; but in that 

 animal the hair only forms a kind of blanket, and falls off in 

 flakes of different sizes. 



In the GiRAFFiD^ the bony process is covered with a skin 

 like the rest of the body, and equally permanent, and the horn 

 [dermocera) covered with hair that is shed and renewed like the 

 hair of the body. 



II. The males and sometimes the females are periodically 

 furnished with horns, which, during development or expansion, 

 are covered with a vascular skin coated with down, the skin 

 falling off when the horns are perfect and solidified, and the 

 horns themselves falling off at the end of the season. In some 

 few the horns spring from the end of a permanent elongated 

 bony process, as in the Muntjac. (CEHViDiE.) 



The antlei'S [epochocera) of the deer differ from the horns of 

 the other ruminants in being periodical developments of bone, 

 which is at first covered with a hairy skin, that dries up and 

 falls off. 



III. Neither sex provided with any horn-like process of the 

 frontal bone, as the musk (Moschid^), camels, llama (Came- 



LID^) . 



