ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
49 
the rest of the horns being known as the beam. When the 
beams or antlers have attained their full size, the circula¬ 
tion in them becomes gradually sluggish, and ultimately the 
blood-vessels dry up in and over the antlers, and only the 
dead dry substance remains, the skin also shrivelling up and 
being rubbed off by the deer constantly using its horns 
•v 
against trees and rocks and in digging up the ground. 
The animal is now in the full pride of the breeding season, 
when deadly conflicts take place between the males for 
possession of the females. After the rutting season is over, 
absorption begins to take place between the burr and the 
pedicel, and the dead bony antler at last drops off leaving 
the pedicel intact, but its apex bleeding. This heals, becomes 
covered with skin and hair, and shortly begins to sprout up 
into another horn; this process annually recurring through¬ 
out the life of the animal ; the perfect form of antler cha¬ 
racteristic of the species not being attained for seven or eight 
years. Horns of this character are generally absent in the 
females, but are present in both sexes in the Reindeer. 
There are also no horns at all in the Mouse-deer or 
Tragulidce , and none in the Muskdeer. 
The horns of the Giraffe differ from both of the forego¬ 
ing kind of horns, as each is at first a separate bone placed 
over the junction of the frontal and parietal bones of the 
skull, with which, however, they ultimately unite. There are 
three of these structures, a pair and a small median pro¬ 
minence in front of them, all being covered with skin and 
hair, and none of them ever being shed. 
The ruminants are all characterized by the presence of 
two hoofs on which they walk, but which resemble a divi¬ 
ded or cloven hoof. They represent the third and fourth 
fingers and toes, and the horny matter of the hoof re- 
G 
