354 DR. J. MURIE ON THE [May 26, 
chiefly due to the depressed rearward angle at which the horns come 
off. Some fossil forms, however, more markedly agree with the 
Prongbuck in the above respect, the Antilope paleindica of Falconer 
to wit. 
The Deer, as a group, may be said to have a depressed skull; in 
such forms as the Reindeer and the Elk it is very obvious. 
The seeming affinity of the Prongbuck to the Giraffe, in their both 
being deprived of false hoofs, is dispelled, so far as contour of skull 
is concerned (the former being deficient in the median frontal protu- 
berance so peculiar to the latter), as well as limitation of great frontal 
sinuses and breadth of cheek to naso-premaxillary region. Apart 
from these structural considerations, however, there are other cranial 
characters equally significant, which demonstrate that the family type 
of their skulls is not so entirely removed from each other as a hasty _ 
inspection is apt to infer. 
In Antilocapra, as in Oreas and some other Strepsiceres, the 
parieto-occipital is short compared with the very lengthened maxillo- 
premaxillary region. The orbit, subcircular, of fair size, if not large, 
has its optic axis directed outwards, and but very slightly upwards 
and forwards. The horn-cores, which stand erect, as in the Chamois, 
present, in this aspect, a broad dagger-shaped outline, and are im- 
planted directly above the orbit, from its middle to beyond the rear. 
If the skull in this view be divided into five equivalent perpendicular 
segments, the occipito-temporal area would occupy one, the orbito- 
jugal region another, and the anterior three would consist of the 
lachrymal and naso-maxillary bones. 
In the erect-horned Rupicapra, where the occiput is short, the 
front of the orbit comes to about the middle of the skull. In many 
small Antelopes it reaches little short of this ; but in the Strepsicerine 
group the face is proportionally elongated, as in Antilocapra. In 
Deer, as a rule, the facial lengthening is considerable, as in the 
Prongbuck ; but there is this difference, that the postcranial segment 
is far greater than in the latter. 
From the top (fig. 6, 4), excepting in the very different disposition 
of the horn-cores, the outline of the skull approaches less to the 
Giraffe than to most Cervidee, whilst it does not partake entirely of 
the Antelope features—even to the Strepsicerine group, which other- 
wise, in side view, have some points in common. A close resemblance 
can be traced, however, in the Sassaby (Damalis lunatus, H. Smith), 
though this Bovine Antelope markedly disagrees in possessing an 
elevated and not flattened intercorneal ridge. 
The individuality of upper contour in the Prongbuck’s skull is in 
some measure owing to the abbreviation of the parietal segment, 
moderate breadth of the frontals, increased, however, by the out- 
standing orbits, and by the long steadily continued naso-maxillary 
rostrum, which in most Antelopes and Deer has a decided wedge 
shape. The horn-cores, as seen looking down upon them, are broad 
and pass ont far beyond the orbital periphery. The nutritious fora- 
mina at their base (s o f) are large and allow the light to descend 
quite through the orbit. The so-called supra- or anteorbital fissures 
