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PREFACE. 
My object in asking Mr. Bentham to prepare this catalogue of the horns 
and antlers in the collection of the Indian Museum and recommending its publica¬ 
tion to the Trustees has been twofold. In the first place, a catalogue of the kind 
seemed likely to be of use to sportsmen, who frequently write to the Museum for 
information regarding horns and antlers, and in the second I thought that it might 
serve as an appeal to those in a position to help the Museum by giving us speci¬ 
mens. The greater part of our collection of Mammals consists of the gifts of 
naturalists and sportsmen of a bygone generation ; it is now rare for us to obtain 
specimens of the Ungulates except by purchase from dealers. Assistance given 
us increases our power of assisting the amateur, and we are often placed in the 
somewhat ridiculous position of being unable to answer inquiries about some com¬ 
mon animal, simply because we cannot refer to specimens so common that no one 
has taken the trouble to collect them. The exact distribution of many of the 
Indian species is still unknown, and can only be properly investigated by the 
examination of large numbers of examples from a large number of localities. 
As this work is intended primarily for sportsmen and field naturalists, although 
I trust that it will not prove devoid of interest even to museum zoologists, 
measurements are given in inches and tenths of inches instead of centimetres and 
millimetres; but a table for converting the one into the other is given at the 
end of Mr. Bentham’s introductory note. There are other “anachronisms,” 
for which I must accept the responsibility and as regards which adverse criticism 
must be expected. No attempt has been made to bring the nomenclature of 
the Ungulates “ up to date.” In the babel of names that now rages round many 
of the common animals the safest course to take has seemed to me, in the circum¬ 
stances, to adopt, without deviation therefrom, the nomenclature of some 
standard work readily accessible to naturalists. I have therefore recommended 
Mr. Bentham to follow that of the late Dr. W. T. Blanford’s volume on the Mam¬ 
mals in the “ Fauna of British India and Ceylon.” No great difficulty has been 
experienced in bringing the nomenclature of extra-Indian Ungulates represented 
in the collection (to which Dr. Blanford himself contributed so large a share) 
into harmony with that of this invaluable work. I have also advised Mr. Bentham 
to ignore many of the “species,” “sub-species” and “varieties’ into which 
some of the common Mammals have recently been divided. Some of these 
