88 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
Observations on the growth and replacement of the horns of the 
female are lacking as yet, but I believe the process to be essentially the 
same as with the bucks. 
Horn measurements taken from ‘^Hunting in Many Lands, Boone 
and Crockett Club series : 
No. 12 Theodore Roosevelt, Medora, North Dakota, September, 
1884, girth 6| inches, length 16 inches. 
No. 13 A. Rogers, girth 6 inches, length 12| inches. 
No. 14 A. Rogers, girth inches, length 10| inches. 
No. 13 measured from tip to tip, 6| inches. The greatest width 
inside the horns was 8f inches; the corresponding figures for No. 14 
were 7f and 10 J inches. 
From the date when the prong-horn was first made known to science 
on the return of Lewis and Clark, down to the present day, it has 
been a favorite subject of literary efforts; many of which I regret *to 
say, have been very fanciful. On September 5, 1804, Lewis and 
Clark ‘^saw some goats or Antelopes, which the French call Cabres,^^ 
(Sergeant Gass) near what is now Greenwood, South Dakota, and very 
close to the present state line between Nebraska and South Dakota. 
Washington Irving’s “Astoria” gives a good early description: 
There are two kinds of antelopes in these regions, one nearly the size of the 
common deer, the other not much larger than a goat. Their color is a light gray, 
or rather dun, slightly spotted with white; and they have small horns like those 
of the deer, which they never shed. Nothing can surpass the delicate and elegant 
finish of their limbs, in which lightness, elasticity, and strength are wonderfully 
combined. All the attitudes and movements of this beautiful animal are grace- 
ful and picturesque; and it is altogether a fit subject for the fanciful uses of the 
poet, as the oft sung gazelle of the east. 
Their habits are shy and capricious; they keep on the open plains, are quick 
to take alarm, and bound away with a fleetness that defies pursuit. When thus 
skimming across a prairie in the autumn, their light gray or dun colour blends 
with the hue of the withered herbage, the swiftness of their motion bafiles the eye 
and they almost seem unsubstantial forms, driven like gossamer before the wind. 
While they thus keep to the open plains and trust to their speed, they are safe; 
but they have a prurient curiosity that sometimes betrays them to their ruin. 
When they have scud for some distance and left their pursuer behind, they will 
suddenly stop and turn to gaze at the object of their alarm. If the pursuit is not 
followed up they will, after a time, yield to their inquisitive hankering, and return 
to the place from whence they have been frightened. 
John Day, the veteran hunter already mentioned, displayed his experience 
and skill in entrapping one of these beautiful animals. Taking advantage of its 
well known curiosity, he laid down flat among the grass, and putting his hand- 
kerchief on the end of his ramrod, waved it gently in the air. This had the 
