REMARKS ON THE HORNS AND ON THE SYSTEMATIC 
POSITION OF THE AMERICAN ANTELOPE. 
By Marcus Warp Lyon, Jr. 
Assistant Ourator, Division of Mammals, U. S. National Museum. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The writing of these notes was prompted originally by the inquiries 
of correspondents regarding the deciduous character of the horns of 
the American Antelope, and later by the finding of a very curious 
Antelope horn in the collection in. the U. S. National Museum 
(Plate XXXIX). In addition to giving a brief description of the 
horns of this animal, and the manner in which they are annually shed 
and renewed, I have taken this opportunity to make a few remarks 
upon the abnormal horn just mentioned and a somewhat similar case 
observed on a living specimen in London a few years ago, as well as to 
discuss briefly the systematic position of the American Antelope. 
These notes contain no new data as to the shedding of the horns of 
the Antelope. I have drawn freely from the literature on that point. 
The sources are clearly indicated in the footnotes and in the bibh- 
ography at the end of the article. 
HISTORICAL. 
Curiously enough the first printed statement regarding the shed- 
ding of the horns of the American Antelope was a denial by Audubon: 
and Bachman @ that such an occurrence could take place. It was re- 
ported to them by hunters at Fort Union,? that the Antelope dropped 
its horns and renewed them every year, somewhat after the manner 
of deer. Such a phenomenon was so unusual in the group of animals 
to which the American Antelope evidently belonged that the natu- 
ralists, regarding the belief as erroneous, took special pains to deny it. 
Two other American naturalists® of note also denied the possi- 
bility of the Antelope shedding its horns, and that at a time subse- 
4Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, II, 1851, p. 189. 
5 Now Fort Buford, North Dakota. 
© Coues, American Naturalist, I, 1868, p. 539. Cope, American Naturalist, 
XII, 1878, p. 557; XXII, 1888, p. 1081. 
PROCEEDINGS U. S. NATIONAL Museum, VOL. XXXIV—No. 1619. 
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