
THE PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE. 131 
last geological epoch, the Mastodon, the Irish Elk, the Cave- 
bear, and all those wonderful animal forms that passed away 
with the appearance of man? 

THE PRONG-HORN ANTELOPE. 
BY W. J. HAYS. 

In a recent number of the 
NATURALIST is a letter from 
Dr. Coues on the animals of 
our Western plains. Among 
other quadrupeds he describes 
the Antilocapra Americana, 
or Prong-horn Antelope, and 
says that they do not shed 
their horns. It is somewhat 
strange, that, although this 
animal has been known so 
long, so little is known of 
mn Provosons aaa T habits 
_ _ From Tenney’s Zoology. A few years since Professor 
Baird received a letter from Dr. Canfield, who had spent 
Some years among these animals, announcing the fact the 
antelope did actually shed its horns. 
As this animal has always been supposed to belong to 
that class of ruminants called hollow-horned, the same as 
the cow, sheep, and goat, Professor Baird looked upon 
the statement as a delusion of the writer’s, and paid no 
farther attention to the matter, until, in 1865, a young 
male antelope was taken to the Zoélogical Gardens of Lon- 
don; this was the first animal of the kind ever taken to 
Europe 
One morning the keeper discovered that one of the horns 


