DANGER OF EXTERMINATION 
above the eyes, not from a point well behind them, as in deer. A complete 
skeleton of one of them (Merycodus), mounted in the Museum in New 
York, is about as big as a gazelle and has four-branched antlers. From 
one of these deer-antelopes descended, it is believed, our pronghorn, the 
antler having degenerated into a deciduous horn, and the pedicel become 
elevated into a permanent bony core. 
This singular and beautiful animal half a century ago ranged 
in enormous plenty over all the plains and valleys of the far 
West, avoiding mountain slopes and arid deserts, from the 
North Saskatchewan to cen- 
tral Mexico; but now only 
scattered remnants survive, = : Seay, 
and the species is likely soon me 
to become extinct outside of 
governmental reservations, because it will rarely bear young in 
captivity. I feel that it isa duty to repeat the warning uttered 
by the experienced Mr. Hornaday : — 
CURIOUSLY DEFORMED HORNS, 
‘Let him who may hereafter be tempted, either lawfully or unlawfully, 
to raise a death-dealing rifle against one of these beautiful prairie rovers, 
remember two things before he pulls the trigger: In this land of plenty, 
no man really needs this creature’s paltry pounds of flesh; and if his two- 
cent bullet flies true to the mark, it will destroy an animal more wonderful 
than the rarest orchid that ever bloomed... Surely this animal is worth 
perpetual protection at our hands, rather than needless, cruel, and inex- 
cusable slaughter. It cannot be perpetuated by breeding in captivity; 
and unless preserved in a wild state, it will become extinct.” 
The pronghorn buck stands about thirty-eight inches high at 
the shoulder, and is a varying yellowish brown above, darker 
on the face, but dull white on chin and cheeks, in two crescentic 
patches across the throat, on the under surfaces, and in a broad 
heart-shaped patch around the brown scut of a tail. 
This whiteness of the stern belongs in a greater or less degree to nearly 
all the ruminants, and to some other kinds of animals that associate in 
flocks; and is regarded by naturalists as a ‘‘recognition mark” by 
which members of a herd are able to see and follow their leader and each 
other. At such times, or when one of the troop suspects danger, the white 
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