Horn (zoology)

“ IV. In the great majority of “Hollow-horned Ruminants,” such as oxen, sheep, goats and antelopes (fig. 2) , the horny sheath (or true “horn”) forms a simple unbranched cone, which may be compressed, spirally twisted, or curved in one or more directions, but is permanently retained and continues to grow throughout life from the base, while it becomes worn away at the tip. Rarely, as in the four-horned antelope, there are two pairs of horns. In many cases these horns are present in both sexes. ”

“ RHINOCEROS. Naturalists seem now in general to be agreed that there are two species of this quadruped, the first having two horns upon his nose, the second one. It is also a generally received opinion, that these different species are confined to distant places of the old continent; that with one horn is thought to be exclusively an inhabitant of Asia, that with two horns to be only found in Africa. ”

“ There is no quadruped or land animal with one horn only, except the rhinoceros; but there is a marine animal, the narwhal or monodon, a species of whale, that has a very fine curled ivory horn, which projects from its snout. ”

“ The animal itself is from twenty to forty feet in length, and is occasionally found with two horns; indeed, there is always the germ of a second horn both in the male and female, though it is rarely developed in the former, and never in the latter, from which we may conjecture that the females trust entirely to the males for their defence, as we know is the case with several of the mammalia. When there is only one horn, it is always on the left side of the head ”

“ In the Cavicornia it is the very general rule that both sexes are horned, though the females commonly have smaller horns and in several genera of antelopes the does are hornless. There is almost as great variety in the shape and size of the horn as of the antler; we find small, medium-sized and enormously large horns, which may be straight, simply curved, complexly curved, spiral, lyrate or twisted. The antelopes have many types of horns, as have the sheep and goats, the oxen, buffaloes and bisons ”

“ The malformation which rendered this operation necessary is of interest, since it throws light on the way in which some forms have been described as distinct species, owing to abnormalities in the horns, due to injury, disease, or excessive growth. It will, be remembered that a few years ago the head of an African Rhinoceros showing a third horn was exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society; and last year Captain Harrison shot a Black Rhinoceros with five horns, of which the third and fourth were outgrowths from the second, while the fifth seems to have been distinct."—Standard. ”

“ These appendages are given to both male and female, but in the latter they are scarcely more than rudimentary till they are fully adult, and even then the horns are quite insignificant. In both sexes the horn is hollow, like that of the goat and the ox, and it is deciduous, like the antlers of the deer. ”

“ A horn is a hollow sheath, growing over a bony core, and except in the case of the prong-horned antelope, is never shed. Horns are worn by both sexes of all bison, buffaloes, cattle, antelope, sheep, and goats.
An antler is of solid bone throughout, growing from the skull; it is shed every year close to the skull, and quickly renewed. Usually antlers have several branches. They are worn by nearly all male members of the Deer Family—moose, elk, caribou, deer, etc., and also by the female caribou. The prongs on an antler are no index of the wearer’s age. ”

“ The horns of this animal are hard and solid, of a reddish brown on the outside, a yellow inclining to gold within, and the heart a spot of black, which occupies the space of near two inches where the diameter of the horn is five. The surface takes a perfect polish, but when dried is very liable to splinter and crack. It likewise warps with heat, and scratches easily. ”

“ In these there is an elongated process of bone on the frontals, termed the "horn cores," which are covered with a horny sheath which is never shed, but continues to grow till full adult life, and probably whilst life lasts, the growth being from the base. In some of these the females are horned, but the majority are hornless. These have all the typical organs of rumination and digestion, and they consist of the goats, sheep, antelope, oxen, and buffalos. ”

“ The horns, which are singularly broad at the base, rise quite in front and from the top of the forehead, so that this is here reduced to merely a very narrow hollow; they curve downwards at the side of the head, and seem to bend more forwards than backwards. The neck is ornamented with many lines, formed of a series of small strokes. It is difficult to say what animal this sculpture is intended to represent. Our list of horned animals comprises five species, viz.: the ibex, the chamois, the wisent, the urus, and this animal now under consideration—either the domestic ox or the musk-sheep. ”

“ Horns as weapons are, however, particularly effective in this group wherever they exist. A Ruminant is most frequently a large and heavy animal without the agility and litheness of the Carnivore. It is precisely to this sort of animal, where weight is an important consideration, that horns are the most suitable weapons. This is further shown by the fact that although the general term horn is used to describe the weapons of the Ungulate mammals, there is more than one kind of structure included under this general term ”

“ Their horns are slender spikes that extend upward in a slight curve, resembling those of the mountain goat but they lack the shiny jet black color and are not as sharp. The horns are never shed and continue to grow throughout the sheep’s life span of 11 to 14 years. The growth is slight during the later years. Growth takes place during the summer when food is highly nutritious. In winter only a groove or ridge encircling the horn is formed. By counting these annual rings the age of a sheep can be determined. ”

“ A zone of active growth at the base of the horn keeps adding to this sheath, ring by ring, and the specific form of this annular zone is, accordingly, that of the “generating curve” of the horn. Each horn no longer lies, as it does in the rhinoceros, in the plane of symmetry of the animal of which it forms a part; and the limited field of force concerned in the genesis and growth of the horn is bound, accordingly, to be more or less laterally asymmetrical. But the two horns are in symmetry one with another; they form “conjugate” spirals, one being the “mirror-image” of the other. ”

“ Several portions of deer horns, consisting of tines and thick portions of the body of the horn, together with a few of the roe-deer, presenting sometimes marks of a saw and sometimes those of a sharp-cutting tool, were found in the refuse-heap. The few worked objects I have to record were all made from horns of the former animal. One large antler, having portion of the skull attached to it, and the entire lateral half of the skull of a roe-deer with the horn still adherent, show that the horns were not shed ones, but those of animals actually caught and killed. ”

“ Cattle horns should have the piece of bone connecting them screwed to a long oval block, then treated similarly. Horns of sheep, cattle and goats frequently come loose from the bony core. A little plaster mixed very thin and poured inside the horn just before replacing them will fasten them on again.
Do not try to polish, paint, gild or otherwise improve the natural appearance of deer antlers. Wash and clean them well and rub in a little linseed oil. Polishing brings out the beauty of horns of cattle and bison, if the operator is lavish of elbow grease. ”

“ His horns grow and form their prongs, when growing we call them in their velvet; feel of them and they are soft, through the summer and fall, and they keep growing until they form a perfect horn, hard as a bone. By the prongs we are able to tell the number of years old they are.
In the fall of the year when an old buck has his horns fully grown to see him running in his native forest is a beautiful sight. ”

“ No animal which has wings is without legs; animals with paired horns have cloven 3 feet and a complex, ruminating stomach, and lack the upper incisor teeth; hollow horns, supported by bony horn-cores, are not shed, but solid horns are shed every year; birds which are armed with spurs are never armed with lacerating claws; insects which bear a sting in the head are always two-winged, but insects which bear their sting behind are four-winged. He traces analogies between things which are superficially unlike, such as plants and animals—the mouth of the animal and the root of the plant. ”

“ The touching-pieces (tousches) or proofs (espreuves) employed for the purpose, and considered especially efficacious against poison, were toadstones, glossopetræ, serpentine, jasper, agate and particularly the unicorn's horn. What was foisted upon the credulous public as the horn of the fabled animal was in reality the horn or tusk of a fish—the narwhal or sea-unicorn of the northern seas. Being an object of very great value, the horn was only occasionally kept entire, like the one preserved to this day at New College, Oxford. ”

“ Modern zoologists, disgusted as they well may be with fables, such as we have glanced at, disbelieve, generally, the existence of the Unicorn, such, at least, as we have referred to; but there is still an opinion that some land animal bearing a horn on the anterior part of its head, exists besides the rhinoceros. The nearest approach to a horn in the middle of the forehead of any terrestrial mammiferous animal known to us is the bony protuberance on the forehead of the giraffe ”

“ So if this is truth, here is a third species of this quadruped. They say the third horn is only upon the male, and does not grow till he is advanced in years; the double horn which I have is fixed to a strong muscle or cartilage; when dry, exceedingly tough. ”

“ In the male narwhal the left canine alone is developed into the well-known, spirally-twisted, so-called horn, which is sometimes from nine to ten feet in length. It is believed that the males use these horns for fighting together; for “an unbroken one can rarely be got, and occasionally one may be found with the point of another jammed into the broken place.” ”

“ They thus combine the character of those of the giraffe and ordinary antelope, together with the expanded and branched form of the antlers of deer. Only the horns of the rhinoceros are composed wholly of horny matter, and this is disposed in longitudinal fibres, so that the horns seem rather to consist of coarse bristles compactly matted together in the form of a more or less elongated sub-compressed cone.” True horny matter is really a modified form of epidermic tissue, and consists of the albuminoid “keratin.” ”

“ In dealing with fractures of the lower third of the horn in working oxen, it is necessary to seek consolidation of the horn by callus formation, so that the animals may again become useful in the yoke. ”

“ Above this snag, the horns have a shiny surface, are rounded, and taper gradually to a sharp tip, bent into a hook. The horns vary greatly in the males. I have sometimes shot them with the prong hardly developed, sometimes springing from the horn near the tip, and in others growing close to the head, where it is always uneven and warty. The female is devoid of horns, or only has them in a rudimentary condition. ”

“ Bates, with their more important and characteristic differences; thus within the same natural section of the genus Onthophagus, there are species which have either a single cephalic horn, or two distinct horns.
In almost all cases, the horns are remarkable from their excessive variability; so that a graduated series can be formed, from the most highly developed males to others so degenerate that they can barely be distinguished from the females. Mr. Walsh485 found that in Phanæus carnifex the horns were thrice as long in some males as in others. ”

“ A convolution of the horn of a ram sometimes so presses in upon the side of the head or neck that it is necessary to shave or rasp it away on the under side, to prevent ultimately fatal effects. The point of the horn of both ram and ewe both frequently turn in so that they will grow into the flesh, and sometimes into the eye, unless shortened. The toe-nippers will often suffice on the thin extremity of a horn ”

“ In and out of this hole moved two venomous streams of black-and-white hornets.
Suddenly it seemed as if the spirit of the monstrous solitude had taken substance, and was moving among the inert shapes of root and trunk. A massive fur-clad beast, dull black in color, with high, humped haunches and heavy, shapeless limbs, its hind feet grotesquely semi-human in outline, its head swinging low on a long, clumsy neck, came picking its way with a loose-jointed gait over the [19] jumble of roots. ”

“ When the horns begin to be reproduced, two projections are to be seen, much resembling, at first, dry skin; they grow with tender shoots, having upon them a soft, velvety down like that on the head of a reed. So long as they are without horns, they go to feed during the night. As the horns grow, they harden by the heat of the sun, and the animal, from time to time, tries their strength upon the trees; when satisfied with their strength, it leaves its retreat. ”

“ Laufer quotes the statement: “If the horn of the rhinoceros ‘communicating with the sky’ emits light, so that it can be seen by night, [249] it is called ‘horn shining at night’ (ye ming si) : hence it can communicate with the spirits and open a way through the water”. A man who carried in his mouth a piece of rhinoceros horn found, it was alleged, on diving into the sea, that the water gave way so as to allow a space for breathing.95 The pearl-fishers may therefore have used the magic horn, believing that it protected and assisted them. ”