"output all but last N lines" command?

[William Ballard <nospam_40811@alltel.net>]

You can specify "tail -n+5" to output "all but the first 5 lines".
But "head" has no such option to output "all but the last N lines."

I could use "wc" to count the lines first, but that's less efficient 
than a simple adapter that buffers at least N lines before outputing.

Is there a tool for me?