Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/202

192 fiance of his rivals. From the burr upwards these antlers are now no longer part and parcel of the system, they are extraneous, and held only by their mechanical continuity with the footstalk on which they were placed&#59; hence their deciduous character&#59; for it is a vital law that the system shall throw off all parts no longer intrinsically entering into the integrity of the whole. An absorptive process soon begins to take place just beneath the burr, removing particle after particle, till at length the antlers are separated and fall by their own weight, or by the slightest touch, leaving the living end of the footstalk exposed, and slightly bleeding. This is immediately covered with a pellicle of skin, which soon thickens, and all is well. The return of spring brings with it a renewal of the whole process with renewed energy, and a finer pair of antlers branches forth."

In the Muntjaks (Styloceros), a genus inhabiting the Indian islands, the peduncles on which the horns are placed, are greatly lengthened, and in the Giraffe, which seems to belong to this Family, these peduncles alone remain, surmounted by a tuft of hair. By these we are conducted to the verge of the following group, where the horns are permanent.

Although between an Ox and a Goat or Sheep, there seems at first sight a sufficiently obvious