GENERAL NOTES 
117 
As time went on, the black, hard tip of the horn extended further and further 
down toward the head — the hair apparently coalescing to form this black horn — 
and the active growing hairy skin surface toward the base of the horn became 
more and more reduced in vertical length. 
We know little, as has been said, about the process of shedding and renewing 
these horn sheaths; but for many years I have believed that at the close of the 
rutting season, say early in October, the periosteum of the horn core becomes 
more active and thicker, takes on the character of the body skin, hairs begin 
to grow from it rapidly, and as these hairs grow the old horn sheath is pushed 
away from the core and up and off the sheath. The result of this is that by late 
fall or winter the whole horn sheath is loosened and ready to drop off. 
In old times hunters trying to save their antelope heads occasionally carried 
the skulls tied^ — often by the horns — to the wagon bows or wagon axles, and 
sometimes lost skulls or horn sheaths or both, because if the periosteum of the 
horn core began to decay, the sheath slipped off and was lost. Even at the period 
of the rut, if the sheath were separated from the horn core, fine hairs were seen 
growing from the skin on the horn core. 
The season for the shedding of the horn sheaths is late fall or early winter, 
the time running from November 15 to the end of December. 
The rut takes place two months earlier — during September — and at this time 
there is much fighting among the males, though I have never seen anything like 
the account given by Audubon, which of course he received from others. Often 
the fighting does not become an actual battle, but one of the males rushes at 
another which turns and runs, to be pursued by the stronger for a mile or more. 
Sometimes, however, there is actual contact and the antelope come together, 
head on, with a certain amount of violence, and then push hard for two or three 
minutes, when the weaker, by a swift sidewise bound and turn, saves himself 
from the horns of the stronger and runs. It is possible that the shock of the 
horns coming together might have a tendency to loosen the horn sheaths. — Geo. 
Bird Grinnell, New York City. 
FIELD SUGGESTIONS 
For one reason or another, it is sometimes advisable while on a field trip to 
carry small mammals ‘‘flat” instead of making up the skins on the spot. If the 
following suggestions are adopted the final preparation of the specimens will be 
materially facilitated. Leave in all the leg bones, for it is sometimes difficult 
to relax the feet to the extent where wires can be inserted. Leave the specimens 
inside out and then prepare a small cardboard form of the shape used for stretch- 
ing cased furs, over which the skin should be drawn, care being taken that the 
ears are not left pointing forward. Cut a notch in each side of the form so that 
the posterior edges of the skin will be caught by them and prevented from shrink- 
ing unduly. This cardboard may be cut an inch longer than necessary and the 
data written upon it. Finally, the usual tail wire should be wound with cotton, 
dipped in arsenic, inserted, and then bent back over the skin, so the tail will be 
out of the way. Unless this is done it is often impossible to relax the tail suffi- 
ciently to allow a wire to be inserted without causing the hair to slip. I have 
sometimes worked for an hour over an especially refractory tail. — A. Brazier 
Howell, Pasadena, California. 
