MAMMALS. 399 



Australian regions, and only the giraffes in Africa. The family is not known 

 previous to the lower miocene of Europe, the earliest forms showing relation- 

 ships to the tragulines and antilopes. The musk deer {Moshus, Hydropotes) 

 are without horns, the upper canine is long and projecting, and the male has 

 a ' musk gland ' situated beneath the skin of the abdomen. The species be- 

 long to Central Asia. The living muntjacs are also Asiatic, but their ances- 

 tors appeared in the miocene of both hemispheres. Cope and Schlosser 

 regard the group as the ancestors of the true deer and of the antilopes as 

 well. Q;^/;^/?^^, muntjacs of Asia. ^/«j.-^o;«(?r/jr, American miocene. Coso- 

 ryx, American pUocene. The true deer {Cervus) are characterized by the 

 presence of horns. They are usually sub-divided into many subgenera. Axis, 

 Cariacus, Elaphiis, etc., upon characters of minor importance; more dis- 

 tinct are the moose {Alces) and the 

 reindeer or caribou {JRangifer) . 

 The deer are largely inhabitants of 

 the northern hemisphere. Con- 

 siderably different is Protoceras 

 from the American miocene, in 

 which there were rudimentary horn 

 cores on the frontals and parietals, 

 and vertical bony plates on the 

 maxillas, while the canines recall 

 those of Tragulus. The giraffes r,G_ jgg. Successive antlers of the red 

 {Giraffa or Camehpardulis, often deer {Cervus elaphus), after Gaudry. 

 grouped as a family, Devexa) have 



long legs, and short non-deciduous horns. Allied to these in structure, but 

 lacking the characteristic long neck, occur in the European and Asiatic 

 miocene Helladotherinm, Sainotheriuin. Sivatherucvi, with a single large 

 species from the Indian miocene, combines giraffe and antilope characters. 



In the family Cavicornia the horns are almost always borne by both 

 sexes, and, unlike those of the cervicornia, have the bony horn cores covered 

 with true or epidermal horn. With rare exceptions the horns are never shed ; 

 the teeth are i \,c \,p |, in | ; the median metapodials form a cannon bone ; 

 the laterals are greatly reduced or entirely absent. The family, which is rich- 

 est in species- of any of the ungulates, appears to have descended from the 

 muntjacs through the antilopes. The species are usually arranged in antilo- 

 pine, ovine, and bovine series, the three being distinct in the pliocene. The 

 antilopes, which appear in the miocene, have the round or triangular horns 

 close behind the eyes, the middle incisors largest. Antilope, India ; Saiga, 

 with large inflated nose, Asiatic ; Gazella, Asiatic, the springbok ((?. eu- 

 chore), African ; Oiyx, thegemsboks ; Catoblephas , gnus ; Rupricapra tragus , 

 the chamois ; closely allied is the Rocky Mountain goat, Haploceras montanus. 

 Antilocapra atnericaiia, the prong-horn of western U. S., is remarkable for 

 its deciduous horns. In all over a hundred living antilopes are known. 

 Among the fossil genera are Cosoryx; Antidorcas, Tragelaphits, etc. The 

 ovine series, which includes the sheep and goats, has the laterally com- 

 pressed, transversely ribbed horns with hollow cores borne close behind the 

 eyes, and the incisors similar. None are known before the pliocene. Capra, 



