American Big Game in its Haunts 



out of the hoofed beasts all but the bovines and 

 their near allies, and are thus far advanced toward 

 our definition of a bison, but from this point we 

 shall not find it easy to draw sharp distinctions, 

 for while the Bovidte, as a whole, are well enough 

 distinguished from all other animals, their charac- 

 teristics are so much mixed among themselves that 

 it is hardly possible to find any one or more strik- 

 ing features peculiar to one group, and for most of 

 them recourse must be had to associations of a 

 number of lesser characters. 



Oxen, antelopes, sheep and goats agree in hav- 

 ing hollow horns of material similar to that of 

 which hair and nails are formed, permanently fixed 

 upon the skull in all but one species ; none of them 

 have more than the two middle digits functionally 

 developed, one on each side of the axis of the leg; 

 none have the lower ends remaining of the mcta- 

 podial bones belonging to the two accessory digits; 

 and none have either incisor or canine teeth in the 

 upper jaw. 



From animals so constructed we may first take 

 out goats and sheep, in which the female horns are 

 much smaller than those of males, and in some 

 species are even absent. In nearly all of them the 

 horns are noticeably compressed in section, either 

 triangular or sub-triangular near the base, and are 



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