The Prong-Horned Antelope, (_Antilocapra americana_), is an animal in which Americans should now take special interest. Structurally, the Prong-Horn is so peculiar that it has been found necessary to create for it a special zoological family, called _Antilocapridae_, of which it is the sole member. This is due to the following facts: (1) This is the only living mammal possessing hollow horns (growing over a bony core) which sheds them annually; (2) it is the only animal possessing a hollow horn which bears a prong, or bifurcation; (3) it has no “dew claws,” as other ruminant animals have; (4) the horn is placed directly above the eye; (5) the long hair of the body and neck is tubular; and (6) that on the rump is erectile. Beyond all possibility of doubt, it will be our next large species to become extinct, and if we may judge by the rate at which the bands have been disappearing during the last fifteen years, ten years more will, in all probability, witness the extermination of the last individuals now struggling to exist outside of rigidly protected areas. It was the intention of the Society to make liberal provision for the study of the species while it is yet possible to obtain living specimens, for fifty years hence our graceful and zoologically interesting Prong-Horn will be as extinct as the dodo. Unfortunately, however, it fares so badly on the Atlantic coast, there will, no doubt, be periods wherein this species will be temporarily absent from the Park. [Illustration: AMERICAN PRONG HORNED ANTELOPE.] Forty years ago this animal inhabited practically the whole of the great pasture region which stretches eastward from the Rocky Mountains to the western borders of Iowa and Missouri. Northward its range extended far into Manitoba; southward it went far beyond the Rio Grande, and it also ranged southwestward through Colorado and Nevada to southern California. Its chosen home was the treeless plains, where the rich buffalo grass and bunch grass afforded abundant food, but it also frequented the beautiful mountain parks of Wyoming and Colorado. It even lived contentedly in the deserts of the southwest, where its voluntary presence, coupled with the absence of water, constituted a problem which has puzzled the brain of many a desert traveller. [Illustration: BACTRIAN CAMEL.] To-day, all observers agree that in all regions wherein the antelope are not rigidly protected, they are going fast. Those in the Yellowstone Park are protected against man only to be devoured by the wolves which infest the Park. Unfortunately, the Prong-Horned Antelope is not a hardy animal. The kids are very difficult to rear; they are at all times easily hurt by accident, and even in a state of nature this species suffers more severely in winter than any other North American ruminant. Often the herds drift helplessly before the blizzards, with numerous deaths from freezing and starvation, and in spring the survivors come out thin and weak.