4 



Introductory 



the skull taking the form of unbranched bony pedicles, which are at first 

 separate from the bones supporting them, and are permanently covered with 

 skin. Lateral hoofs, which are present in all deer, are completely absent, 

 as are also upper canine teeth. In the structure of the skull, and the 

 general absence of a gall-bladder to the liver, giraffes closely resemble deer. 

 Moreover, many extinct members of the giraffe family had large branching 

 appendages simulating the antlers of the elk, but these were not periodically 

 shed, and may have been covered either with skin or with deciduous 

 horny sheaths. Several of these animals had two pairs of horns, either 

 rising separately from the skull or springing from a common base ; and in 

 this respect they were unlike any known deer. Nevertheless, the kinship 

 between the deer and the giraffes is evidently very close. 



The prong-buck — Antilocapra — is easily differentiated from the deer 

 by the appendages of the skull forming simple bony cores clothed with a 

 forked horny sheath which is shed annually. A very similar type of 

 appendage characterises the Bovidce, the difference being that the horny 

 sheath is not forked, and is never shed. With the exception of certain 

 domesticated races, and some extinct forms, such horns are present in the 

 males, at least, of all species ; and thus at once serve to distinguish between 

 this family and the Cervidce. In nearly all cases the liver has a gall- 

 bladder ; upper canine teeth are invariably absent ; and when any traces of 

 the lateral metacarpal bones remain, their lower extremities are always 

 wanting. The muzzle may be either naked or hairy ; and a gland on each 

 side of the face below the eye may or may not be present. 



Coming to the Cervida, we find that in all existing forms, with the 

 exception of the Chinese water-deer and the musks, antlers (of which the 

 nature is explained below) are present in the males, but are absent in the 

 females of all the species except the reindeer. Save in the musk, there is a 

 face-gland below the eye, and in the skull a vacuity in this region between 

 the lachrymal and nasal bones ; both these being absent in a large number 

 of the Bovidce. The lateral hoofs are invariably retained ; and, except in 

 the muntjacs, these lateral hoofs are always supported by the usual three 

 joints, or phalanges, of which the first and second are always wanting in the 

 Bovida. Moreover, the lateral metacarpal bones are always represented by 

 either their upper or lower ends, the latter of which are never found in the 

 li'A-idce. With the exception of the reindeer, some portion of the muzzle 



