WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 



" It was supposed by the hunters at Fort Union that 

 the prong-horned antelope dropped its horns, but as no 

 person had ever shot or killed one without these orna- 

 mental and useful appendages, we managed to prove the 

 contrary to the men at the Fort by knocking oif the bony 

 part of the horn and showing the hard spony membrane 

 beneath, well attached to the skull, and perfectly immov- 

 able." 



It therefore continued to be unknown or disbelieved 

 until Nov. 7, 1865. On the morning of that day I 

 witnessed the shedding of the horns of this very singular 

 animal, and at a meeting of the Zoological Society, Nov. 

 28, 1865, 1 read a paper that was published in the Proceed- 

 ings of the Society, calling attention to the fact. 



Three months afterwards a letter, stated to have been 

 written seven or eight years ago by Dr. Canfield (but which 

 had been laid aside and unnoticed), was forwarded to the 

 Society and published in the Proceedings, 1866. In this 

 letter it was made to appear, and most thoroughly 

 established the fact, that the prong-horn shed its horns 

 annually; yet, notwithstanding, some American writers 

 doubt the accuracy of the conclusion at which the best 

 authorities have arrived. During the last autumn the 

 prong-homed antelope now living in the Society's Gardens 

 shed and renewed his horns exactly in the same manner as 

 stated and described in the paper alluded to, as read at 

 the Zoological Society's meeting in 1865. 



There remains yet another group of animals that deserve 

 a passing notice, because they are homed mammals, but 

 not belonging to the bovine or cervine classes, and they 

 are not ruminants. The group alluded to are the rhino- 

 ceroses. They are horned, but the nature and structure of 

 the horns differ so entirely from the homed animals before 

 described that it appears necessary to give a few words of 



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