36 EINAR LÖNNBERG, STUDIES ON RUMINANTS. 



This sinus is sun-ounded by very firm vvalls of compact bony tissue which are thicker 

 on the posterior (5 — 6 mm.) than on the anterior ([3] 4 — 6 mm.) side. At the mesial 

 angle however the diameter of a section is greatest, namely about 9 mm. The interiör 

 of the sinus is divided into semi-conical rooms or pockets with the opening directed 

 basally (Conf. tig. 15 Pl. II). These rooms are formed by lameliar trabecles, which are 

 arranged as the trajectories according to Culmann's law. It is especially the anterior 

 and posterior, sides which are braced by these trabecular systems, but also the lateral one. 

 The distal part of the core beyond the sinus is peripherically surrounded by a layer of 

 compact tissue. Its interiör is also rather firm. It is traversed by some large canals 

 for the main blood-vessels and a great number of tiner canals and pores. This gives the 

 distal part of the core an aspect, which can be suitably compared with that of the core 

 of Saicja. The horn of Anoa is thus firmly constructed in all its parts. The antelopine 

 characteristics of the horn of the young animal of this species (conf. above) have been 

 modified by the development of the sinus in the core. With the abstraction of this feature, 

 however, the horns of Anoa still represent a more primitive stage of development than 

 the horns of the Indian buffalo and the common ox. — The pointed tips of these horns 

 make them suitable weapons for goring the adversary, and they are so strongly built 

 that there does not seem to be any risk of breakage. Their greatest strength may, 

 depending upon the shape, and the thickened mesial ridge of sheath and core, lie in the 

 transversal plane, which is useful in sideway movements. That the buUs of Afioa »display 

 a pugnacious and spiteful disposition» is, as may be seen in the woi'ks of various authors 

 (Lydekker, Heller, Brehm a. o.), well known. 



The horns of the Indian buffalo vary a good deal in different races with regard 

 to size and shape. They are however always more or less tlattened, expanded in a plane, 

 which often is parallel to the frontal one. Sometimes their section is distinctly triangulär. 

 Lydekker uses this latter attribute in his Avork: »Wild Oxen» etc. In the specimens used 

 for this investio'ation the convex side of the horn is in one case broader than the concave 

 one, without being defined from the flat sides by sharp and distinct ridges, in the other 

 (a domesticated cow) the convex side forms a distinct edge anteriorly and another less 

 conspicuous posteriorly, but is not broader than the concave rounded side. The former 

 condition seems, however, to be the typical one and agrees with the figures in Lydekker's 

 interesting work. In both cases, the horn is, through its compressed shape, especially 

 adapted to endure a force working in the direction of the longest axis of the section, 

 thus in a transversal or frontal (sometimes oblique) plane. In the typical horn, that is 

 the one which is narrower along the concave side, the sheath is inuch thicker on this 

 same side. In the other one the thickness of the sheath is subequal all around. The core 

 which has the same general shape as the horn is entirel}' hoUow from base to tip. The 

 walls are compact, decreasing in thickness from the base to the tip in the specimen at 

 hand from 8 to less than 1 mm. In the interiör of the core lameilar trabeculas form 

 a number of cells or pockets, similar to those described above from the core of the adult 

 A7ioa. These structures which have a sinular function as in A^ioa, namely to strenghten 

 the walls of the core, are chiefly distributed along the convex and concave narrow sides, 

 but basally they also extend on the broad sides. In addition to all other arrangements 



