242 Dr. C. I. Forsyth Major — Characters of Mammals. 



The phenomenon, however, is by no means restricted to senility. 

 Otto himself dissected an antlered doe pregnant with two foetuses,^ 

 and Nitsche shows that the presence of antlers in the female Capreolus 

 is independent of senile sterility.^ 



Instances of the occurrence of antlers in the female Virginia and 

 Columbia deer are adduced by Caton.^ 



If we survey the cases recorded in the literature, no doubt remains 

 that the capacity of developing antlers is latent in the female 

 Cervidse, and only an impulse is required. 



In a case recorded by W. Blasius, of a doe, the abnormal antler on 

 the right side could be traced to a mechanical lesion produced by 

 the presence of a piece of glass, and Blasius is probably right in 

 supposing that the exostosis occasioned by the lesion assumed the 

 shape of an antler, owing to its occurring in the region where the 

 antlers are developed in the male.* 



The remarkable case communicated to the Linnean Society by 

 James Hoy on December 16th, 1791, is a curious parallel to the male 

 plumage exhibited in female game-birds as a consequence of a lesion 

 of the ovaries. " A hind, the female of Cerviis elaphus, was shot by 

 the Duke of Gordon, which had one horn perfectly similar to that of 

 a stag three years old. It had never had a horn on the other side of 

 its head, for there the corresponding place was covered over by the 

 skin, and quite smooth. It did not seem to have ever produced 

 a fawn, and upon dissection the ovarium on the same side with the 

 horn was found to be schin-ous." ^ 



Next in order comes the constant presence of rudimentary pedicles 

 in old does, viz. at a time when the sexual functions have ceased. 



Moreover, it appears, especially from Nitsche's observations 

 alluded to above, that the females of Capreolus, at any rate, are 

 beginning to develop antlers before senile sterility sets in ; so that 

 this new character of the doe has every chance of being transferred 

 to her offspring, independent of the sex, and to become general in 

 the does also, as it has become already almost general in female 

 reindeers. 



Giraffidce. — For reasons formerly given,® I agree with Lydekker, 

 by including in the family Giraffidse the iSivatherium group 

 of Euminants from the Sivaliks [Sivatherium — Brahmatherium — 

 Hydaspitherium — Vishnutherium) . 



The two recent species of Giraffa develop horns in both sexes. 



Gaudry made known a hornless form, Helladotherium Duvernoyi, 

 from the Upper Miocene of Pikermi ; the skull described by him 



^ A. "W. Otto : ' ' Seltene Beobaclitungeii zur Anatomie, Physiologie, und Pathologie 

 gehorig," 1816, i, p, 71 (xxx). 



- Op. cit., p. 50, where is quoted also a former paper by the same author in 

 Tharander f orstliches Jahrbuch, 1883, xsii, p. 118. 



3 J. D. Caton: " The Antelope and Deer of America," 1881, 2nded., pp. 232, 233. 



* Jahresber. d. Vereins f. Naturw. zu Braunschweig, ix, Sitzungsber., pp. 11-13 

 (1894-95). 



5 Trans. Linn. Soc, vol. ii, p. 356. 



^ Forsyth Major, " On the Fossil Remains of Species of the Family Giraffidas " : 

 Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1891, p. 315. 



