440 Dr. J. Murie — On the Sivatherium giganteum. 



" About the front ones there can be no doubt. They are conical, 

 rise rapidly to a point, are smooth, have no burr, are hollow at their 

 base, and are formed of large cells throughout ; no ruminant had 

 ever an tiered horns of this sort. 



" They must, therefore, have been cavicomed cores. Besides, no 

 ruminant with antlers was ever seen with four bases to the horns. 



" With regard to the rear ones, their structure is most perplexing, 

 the main branch is hollow, as in the BovidcB, they have no burr, or 

 appearance of articulation; but, at the same time, they give un- 

 doubted proofs of having had two branches, the distinct bases of 

 which are seen, and there is every reason to believe they had a 

 third. No cavicorned core is known to be branched in this way, 

 after the manner of the solid antlered horns of the Gervidce, but, at 

 the same time, they have no burr, as all the Cervidce have. They 

 are smooth, they are not solid, as all the Gervidce are, but hollow; at 

 least, the central and outer ones are so. The horns in the Gervidce 

 always come off from the forehead, much in advance of the occipital, 

 with long parietals between. In the Bovidce, they come off exactly 

 overhanging the occipital ; so do these. In the specimen the plane 

 of the occipital is exactly as in the Bovidce; there are uo distinct 

 parietals, the frontals run up to the occipital crest, and there give 

 off these cores. Therefore, both from structure and analogy, the 

 rear horns of the SivatJierium were at least three-branched, and, at 

 the same time, cavicorned." 



When the above was penned, the writers were unaware of the 

 existence of a living ruminant whose horns present some of the 

 bizarre construction which so puzzled them : leaving doubts 

 whether the SivatJierium was a deer or an antelope. The weight 

 of their evidence leans chiefly towards the Antilopidce. Still the 

 palmate horns, the reverse of antelopes, offered difficulties not easily 

 accounted for. 



Eecent researches on the interesting North American Prongbuck 

 (Antilocapra) reveal the fact that this cavicorned ruminant actually 

 sheds its horns annually, as do the Gervidce. In Dr. Canfield's 

 concise paper,^ the manner of shedding, and the nature of the horns 

 themselves, is sufficiently lucidly told. The patent facts are : the 

 presence of a forked, flat, hollow horn, annually deciduous, and no 

 burr at the base of the bony pedicle. 



To all intents, at least as far as shape, shedding, and renewal are 

 concerned, the Prongbuck's horn might be looked upon as a kind of 

 antler. Still even in the above-mentioned peculiarities it is no antler, 

 but strictly a bovine horn, subject to a periodical removal of its 

 investing sheath. 



It is not to be forgotten that SivatJierium differed from Antilocapra 

 in the possession of four, and not two, horns. This, after all, is 

 only of minor importance, as what may be said of the anterior is in 

 many ways applicable to the posterior horns. The living Indian 

 antelopes (Tetracerus) have all four horns conical, and the rearmost 

 pair situate much further forwards than obtains in SivatJierium. 

 1 Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1866, p. 105. 



