SKULL OF MONTJAC, OR BARKING DEER.
The skull of the little Montjac, or Barking deer, is of interest as showing better than any other the relation of the antler to its pedestal. The pedestal is very long and the antler very small. The latter usually possesses only two tines, the main one and a short stout one which grows near its base. From the front of the pedestal there runs a strong bony ridge down the outer border of the frontal bone as far as the junction with the nasal. This evidently gives strength to the prolonged and rather slender pedestal.
SKULL OF A LLAMA (Camel of America).
The skull of the Llama resembles that of the Camel, and both differ from those of the other ruminants in having incisor teeth in the upper jaw. “These teeth are placed at the side of the intermaxillary bone close to the canines, and agree with them in form” (Van der Hoven, vol. ii., 644).
“There are six incisors only in the lower jaw, and this jaw is undivided.”
The camels and llamas form transition species between horses and oxen (ruminants and solid-ungulates).
THE HORNS OF A GNU.
The Gnu’s horns are alike in both species and may be known at a glance by their hook-like curves. They pass outwards and downwards and then suddenly curve upwards and forwards. They resemble those of buffaloes and perhaps most closely those of the American bison. They are never very large, and always black. They are of fibrous structure and of large girth at their bases, emulating those of the buffaloes. The Gnu in some of its features resembles a little horse, possessing a mane and having its face, tail, and hindquarters much like those of a pony. It has, however, a cleft hoof and a beard which, as well as its horns, distinguish it from the horse family.
One of the gnus has a brindled neck and forequarters, pale streaks on a dark ground, and a black and tufted tail; another has a white tail covered with long hair from its base, and shows no brindling. The latter has an almost straight back, whilst the former stands higher in its forequarters like the bison. The horns of the brindled black-tailed gnu do not pass forwards nearly so much as those of the other.