802 MR. E. R. ALSTON ON A FOUR-HORNED CHAMOIS. [Dec. 16, 



Peron, Fr., et Lesueur, C. A. — Tableau des caracteres gen^riques 

 et specifiques de toutes les especes de Meduses connues jusqu'a 

 ce jour. Anuales du Museum, tome xiv. 1809. See pp. 332, 

 333. 



Plancus, J. — De conchis minus notis liber. Venetiis, 1739. See 

 pp. 41-42. 



Quoy et Gaimard. — Voyage de 1' Astrolabe (sous d'Urville). Les 

 Zoophytes. Tome iv. de la partie zoologique, et Atlas zoophy- 

 tologique. 1833. See pp. 293-296, and pi. 25. figs. 1-5. 



Reynaud. — See Lesson (Centurie Zoologique). 



Risso, A. — Histoire naturelle des principales productions de l'Europe 

 meridionale. Tome v. 1826. See p. 294. 



Semper, C. — Reisebericht. Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. Bd. xiii. (1863) 

 pp. 558-570, and Bd. xiv. (1864) pp. 417-426. See pp. 561 

 and 421. 



5. On a Four-horned Chamois. 

 By Edward R. Alston, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



[Received December 10, 1879.] 



Mr. Sclater has asked me to describe the monstrous horns of 

 Rupicapra tragus (Gray) which he exhibited at the meeting of the 

 18th November on behalf of Mr. Rowland Ward 1 . 



This interesting specimen has been a good deal injured and care- 

 fully repaired ; but fortunately the frontal sinuses and bases of the 

 horn-cores are uninjured, so that there can be no doubt as to the 

 genuineness of the deformity. The four horns are all perfectly well- 

 formed and symmetrical, the normal pair measuring about 8'75 inches 

 along their anterior curve, and indicating that the animal was an 

 adult male, at least five years old. The abnormal horns grow from 

 close to the bases of the usual pair, on the outside and a little to the 

 rear ; they are equally well formed, but are less curved and much 

 shorter, measuring 5 and 5*25 inches respectively. The cores of the 

 normal and abnormal horns are continuous at their bases, separating 

 a little above the level of the frontal bone ; and the air-sinuses extend 

 into both of them ; so that the deformity really consists in a bifurca- 

 tion of the core, each duplication being covered by a distinct horn- 

 sheath. 



I have not been able to find any record of a similar abnormity in 

 the Chamois in the works of Swiss or German zoologists ; nor have I 

 ever seen any exactly similar moustrosity in any other animal. In 

 the " Many-horned Sheep " of the Hebrides the attachment of the 

 supplementary horns is usually very irregular, and does not seem to 

 be due to duplication of the cores. Colonel Godwin-Austen, however, 

 informs me that in Kishtwar (a district south-east of Kashmir) the 

 natives carefully preserve a breed of four-homed sheep, in which 



1 Cf. supra, p. 666. 



