1832 } Further Illustrations of the Antilope Hodgsonii. 65
The molar teeth are only five in number, on each side of either jaw*. The eight incisors of the lower jaw are unusually erect, close, uniform, rounded, with broadish crowns.
The Horns.
feet. inch- Length of the horns, in a straight line.......... 2 0 Do. do. along the curve..... 2 1½
Basal diameter, fore and aft, 0 1⅞ Do Do. Side to side, between the two lowest rings, 0 1⅛
Basal interval......... 0 0⅜
Terminal interval...... 1 2
The skull and horns above described are those of an old male, the incisor teeth being long and full of marks, the sutures half obliterated, and the cristae prominent.
In regard to the precise form and curvature of the horns, I may ob- serve, in addition to what was said in the Gleanincs No. XXIII. that if you lay a horn, separated from the skull, on a table, with that side downwards which in the natural state faces laterally outwards, and apply your hand to the base of the horn, so as to make it rest fairly on the table, you will find the horn touch the table at two points ; one, the base merely, the other, the space of an inch situated within four inches of the tip. In other words, these two points form the ends of a long, gentle, lateral curvature, the bend of which is inwards, and its utmost divergency from the chord of the bow, or plane of the table, barely 2 of an inch.
The tip of the horn you will observe to be elevated from the table about of an inch; which is caused by a pretty decided inflexure of that part. In young animals, this lateral bend, with the incur- vation of the points of the horns, is scarcely traceable: nor is it other than trivial in the oldest. The great bend is the forward one, which is so material, that if you lay the horn on the table with that side downwards, which is the frontal surface in the natural state of the animal, (the horn must be supported to make it keep this position,) you will find the horn to touch the table only at the very extremities, the whole of its length being carried off the plane of the table in a bow, the most divergent point of which rises nearly 3 inches from the table, and is situated about ⅔ of the horn’s length from its base.
- Three skulls of old animals now by me exhibit uniformly this number of
molars.
K
