ORDER UNGULATA. 1 345 



the Giraffe ; while the posterior ones are palmate, and resemble the 

 antlers of the Elk. The latter pair are marked by the impressions 

 of large blood-vessels, as in the Cervidce, but do not show the burr 

 characteristic of that family, from which it is inferred that they were 

 not shed. There is no lachrymal vacuity in the cranium ; the nasals 

 are short and arched ; and the bones of the skeleton approximate 

 in structure to those of the Cervidce. Some authorities regard this 

 genus as most closely allied to brachydont Antelopes like Strepsi- 

 ceros, but it appears to be so intimately connected with the preced- 

 ing forms that it seems imperative to place it in the same family, 

 although it may indicate an approximation to the Bovidce. 



The remarkable genus Samotherium, of the Lower Pliocene of 

 the Isle of Samos, is referred by Dr Forsyth-Major to the present 

 family, although its skull makes a remarkable approximation to that 

 of the antelopoid genus Palceotragus. The females were hornless, 

 but the males had a pair of small horns immediately above the 

 orbit. The molars are described as being very like those of the 

 Giraffe. 



Family Antilocaprid/e. — This family is now represented only 

 by the American Prong-buck (Antilocapra), in which the horns are 

 of the same nature as in the Bovidce, but differ in being bifurcated, 

 and in the shedding of their sheath. Remains of Antilocapra occur 

 in the Pleistocene of North America ; and it is thought that Cosoryx, 

 of the Pliocene of the same country, may have been the direct an- 

 cestor of the existing genus. 



Family Bovidce. — In this, the last, family are comprised the 

 most specialised members of the whole suborder, such as the 

 Antelopes, Goats, Sheep, and Oxen. The general characters of 

 the greater part of the skeleton are the same as those mentioned 

 under the head of the Cervidce ; but a remarkable difference is 

 found in respect of the frontal appendages. These appendages 

 (fig. 1222) are paired, and consist of persistent bony processes, into 

 which the air-cells from the frontal diploe often extend ; they are 

 generally subconical or triangular, and often twisted, but never 

 branched. These " horn-cores," as they are termed, are covered 

 with the true horns, which are composed of an epidermal fibrous 

 structure, and are never shed. The males of all existing genera in 

 the wild state are furnished with these horns, and they are also 

 present, although of smaller size, in the females of the great 

 majority. In certain domesticated races of so-called polled Sheep 

 (fig. 1220), Goats, and Cattle, the horns are, however, wanting in 

 both sexes ; and this peculiarity is with great probability regarded 

 as an instance of reversion, since these appendages are also wanting 

 in some allied Tertiary forms of two of these groups. In the 

 cranium there is generally no lachrymal vacuity, and the lachrymal 



