Hoffman.] 100 [March 7, 



32. Cervus virginianus Boddsert. Virginia Deer. Taen- 

 ia -tcha. 



I saw none of this species, but was told that it was common in 

 former years. Several sets of horns in the hospital steward's col- 

 lection appear to belong to this species, but they were obtained in 

 the Black Hills. 



33. Cervus leucurus Doug. White-tailed Deer. 



Not found near the Missouri at present, but occurs occasionally in 

 the Mauvaises Terres of the Little Missouri River. A pair of antlers 

 in the above named selection shows a remarkable development of 

 intertwined branchlets and snags from the skull upward, to a distance 

 of about eight inches, gradually diminishing. There were no bifur- 

 cations of the upper snags, as is the case in C. macrotis. 



34. Cervus macrotis Say. Black-tailed Deer. Sirc-te' sa- 

 pe-dan. 



Occasionally appears in the valley of the Missouri, but is seldom 

 found nearer than the Mauvaises Terres. 



CAVICORNIA. 



35. Antilocapra americana Ord. Prong-horned Antelope. 

 Tach'-tcha. 



This is the most common of all the larger mammals, and frequently 

 specimens are shot from the stockade when they come down to the 

 river to drink. During the summer of 1873 a fatal epidemic raged 

 among the prong-horns, which Prof. Allen 1 thinks destroyed from 

 three-fourths to nine-tenths of the animals along the surveyed route 

 of the Northern Pacific Railroad. 



This epidemic appeared at the same time with the epizootic, and 

 I believe that to be the cause. The Government stock, as well as 

 nearly all of the Indian ponies, were affected, the greater fatality 

 occurring among the latter. At encampments where the Indians 

 procured water from pools and ponds, and where their horses drank 

 from the same bodies of water, nearly sixty-four per cent, of the In- 

 dians were affected with cerebrospinal meningitis, of which ten or 

 twelve per cent. died. If the horse epidemic was not the cause of fatal- 

 ity among the antelope, it is at least a very remarkable coincidence. 



At Grand River I observed a horn having two perfectly formed 

 snags, one above the other, so that the upper one was in the usual 

 position while the lower one was about half way between it and 



1 Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. Vol. xvn, June, 1874, p. 10. 



