HORNED ANIMALS 



explanation with reference to their structure. In the 

 different species of rhinoceros the liorns are attached, 

 and grow with the skin of the animal ; they are not 

 hollow, nor are they supported by a bony core, as in the 

 bovine group. They (the horns) are not of a bony sub- 

 stance, as in the cervine group, but are composed of a 

 substance of agglutinated hair, resembling the structure of 

 the hoofs. The horns of the rhinoceros grow during the 

 animal's life, but by the constant wearing down they are 

 kept in working order, and are, when the animal lives in a 

 wild state, tolerably sharp-pointed. 



THE PRONG BUCK, OR PRONG-HORNED ANTELOPE OF 

 AMERICA. 



Previously to my paper, which was published in the 

 Proceedings of the Zoological Society November 28, 1865, 

 nothing was known, positively, to the scientific naturalist 

 of the true nature of the horns of this very remarkable 

 beast. 



I proved, incontestably, the peculiar and unique con- 

 dition of the shedding and the reproduction of the horns 

 of this singular animal. 



It may appear strange and almost incredulous that, soon 

 after my paper was read in America, the Smithsonian 

 Institution, with its great reputation, should forward a 

 letter to the Zoological Society with the extraordinary 

 statement that they had had this letter in their possession 

 for eight years, unnoticed and unpublished, detailing and 

 describing all that I had stated without making the 

 slightest allusion to what I had already settled. 



If there were any truth (which is much doubted) in the 

 statement that Dr. Canfield had made the same discovery 



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