540 MR. W. A. PORBES ON ANTILOCAPRA AMERICANA. [NoV. 16, 



Mr. W.A.Forbes exhibited some drawings of the horns of the Prong- 

 buck {Antilocapra americana), and made the following remarks: — 



'* Many of those here present tonight will doubtless remember the 

 surprise created amongst naturalists by Mr. Bartlett's anounce- 

 ment, in 1865, of the shedding of the horns of the Prongbuck. The 

 first surprise that this statement created having passed away, the 

 deciduous nature of the horns of Antilocapra americana seemed in 

 a fair way of being accepted as one of the commonplaces of zoology. 



Fig. 1. 



Head of Prongbuck, showing the new pair of horns the day after the 

 shedding of the old ones : reduced. 



About two years ago, however, the celebrated American zoologist 

 Prof. F. D. Cope appended the following editorial note to a short 

 account of this animal published in the * American Naturalist ' (xii. 

 1878, p. 557) by a Mr. F. W. Endlich :—' After several years' 

 familiarity with the Prong-horned Antelope in a wild state, I may 

 say I have never met with an undoubted case of shedding of the 

 horn-sheath. Shed horn-sheaths are not common where these 



