ractef ; 3idly, their presence or absence in different genera and sexes ; 

 and 4thly, their number, forms, and flexures. 



The distinctions between the horns of the stag tribe generally, 

 and those of the hollow-horned Ruminants, are pointed out, and in 

 the next place the various modifications observable in the horns 

 and their core of the latter group. " In some cases the substance 

 of this bony core is solid, or at least penetrated only by minute 

 pores ; in others, and they are by far the greater number, it is par- 

 tially hollow, or filled with large cancelli, which communicate with 

 the frontal sinuses. These variations are not confined to any par- 

 ticular groups, but are equally common to solid and hollow-horned 

 genera. The giraffe, for instance, has very extensive cancelli ; so 

 likewise have the oxen, sheep, goats, and all the larger species 

 hitherto classed among the antelopes : nor have I found the soUd 

 core, so much insisted on by MM. Cuvier and Geoffroy St. Hilaire. 

 in any of these animals, except the A. Cervicapra, the Dorcas, and 

 their allied species." 



Speaking of the raised ridges and annuli on the horns, Mr. Ogilby 

 states that the number of these added in a given time appears to be 

 very variable. " The common cow is generally supposed to acquire 

 one ring on the horn every year after the third, but this is far from 

 being a general law. Between the 20th of July and the 31st of 

 October, 1833, the horns of a young Indian Antelope {A. Cervicapra), 

 which I had marked for the purpose in the gardens of the Society, 

 acquired an addition of no fewer than three rings, and an increase 

 of length of a full inch and a half; and I have observed a similar 

 phenomenon in other species." 



The permanent or deciduous character of the horns is said to de- 

 pend upon their hollowness or solidity ; and the author, moreover, 

 states that it is not correct to suppose that hollow horns are, strictly 

 speaking, permanent ; the hollow horn is shed, as well as the sohd, 

 but in a different sense. " Buffon has been much ridiculed for as- 

 serting this fact with regard to the domestic ox, but Buffon was a 

 much better observer than his critics ; and I have myself verified his 

 observations on many other Ruminants. If the horns of any young 

 animal be examined, it will be found that they are of a coarse, sca- 

 brous, spongy texture, very thick and blunt in proportion to their 

 length, and hoUow nearly to the point : let the same individual be 

 examined when it arrives at maturity ; the horns, especially towai'ds 

 the extremity, have a close, compact, and polished surface ; they are 

 much attenuated, end in a very fine point, and have the terminal 

 third perfectly solid. These changes do not arise from the mere 

 rubbing and poUshing of the horn, as is commonly supposed. That 

 hypothesis does not account for the difference of texture and solidity 

 which distinguish the old and young horns ; but the truth is that, as 

 in the case of the second dentition, the permanent organ is developed 

 under, or rather within the other, and by its growth gradually car- 

 ries it upwards, and supports it like a sheath or scabbard. The 

 young horn thus severed from the vessels which formerly supjjlied 

 it with nutriment, dries up, bursts from the expansion of the perma- 



