HORNED ANIMALS 
belong to the bovine or ox group, to which also the goats 
and sheep claim a near relationship ; on the other hand, 
the true deer all belong to the Cerviclm. 
Now, these two families are most easily distinguished 
one from the other, by the simple character of their horns. 
In the Bovidce the horns are never shed, and the true 
horn is supported by a bony core that fills up the hollow 
interior of the lower part of the horns. 
In the deer family, Cervidcs, on the contrary, the horns 
are solid and most frequently branched or bearing numerous 
points or antlers. Moreover, these horns are cast off 
annually, and renewed in a most extraordinarily short 
time. 
The mode of reproduction of deer, or rather stags’ horns 
has been so frequently and fully described, that it appears 
to me unnecessary to dwell upon this subject, more than 
to say the blood-vessels that supply this rapid growth are 
on the outside of the bony horn and covered over with a 
thick tough skin, externally coated with a velvet-like fur, 
which peels off as soon as the new horn is sufficiently hard 
to bear the rubbing against the trees or branches of trees, 
indulged in by these animals at the season in which the 
renewal of their horns takes place. 
There is one ver}^ remarkable animal, differing from all 
the other ruminants, viz. the American prong-horned 
antelope {Aiitilocapra Americana). This singular animal 
cioes not fit comfortably into any classification, but stands 
at present alone and unique, being the only known hollow- 
horned ruminant that sheds its horns. Many years since 
the North- American Indian hunters tried in vain to per- 
suade those eminent naturalists, Messrs. Audubon and 
Backman, that this animal shed its horns. In their second 
vol. of The Quadrupeds of North America, p. 198, will be 
found the following words : — 
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