NORTH AMERICAN RUMINANTS 



I externally with short, thick, velvety fur, which i 

 a network of blood vessels which supply nutriment for 

 the growth of the antler. During this stage the antlers are said 

 to be "in the velvet," and are then very sensitive to injury. 

 When fully grown, the membranous covering shrivels and dries 

 up, and falls off in shreds or is rubbed off by the animal. 



The horns of the hollow-horned Ruminants are entirely differ- 

 ent from the antlers of I Kvr, in structure as well as in manner of 

 tli. They are usually common to both sexes, as Horns o! 

 in our domestic cattle, an simple and not branched, Oxen, 



and grow continuously throughout the life of the ani- Shee P» etc - 

 mal, though very slowly after it has reached maturity, and are 

 never shed. They consist of a bony core an elongated pra 

 from the frontal bone covered with horn, from which the organ 

 tak< me, and which is easily removed by maceration, or 



through decomposition after the death of the animal. This outer 

 shell is the true horn, the bony core is its support. 



The American Pronghorns offer a quasi exception to this 

 divisi Ruminants into solid-horned and hollow-horned 



s. They have the permanent bony horn-core of the hollow- 

 horned division, with an outer horny sheath, which is annually 



I and renewed, as are the solid antlers of the Deer tribe. 



r, usually assigned to the solid-horned <a- 



antl< • Ruminants. 



: ii. n-:s or North American Ruminants. 

 hnically speaking, the Ruminant game animals of North 



Am- • distinct families, two of which 



nted by several genera, and some of the genera by numer- 

 families are, tin- Pronghorns, family Antilo- 



r the 1 teer, family I . and I ' 



tribes, forming the family I will be now passed in 



To their pn ition in 



red in this 



North America includes the whole North 



An. nama. 



