(,.;( ANATOMY OF VERTEBKATES. 



condition, in regard to length and sharpness of snags, for weapons 

 of combat : the buck is now i full-headed.' After the seventh 

 year the antlers are thicker, heavier, more obtuse, becoming 

 shorter in the beam, and especially in the branches. The 

 antlers of the Fallow-deer are shed in May ; their growth is 

 complete in August ; they are ' burnished,' or the formative cover- 

 ing is stripped or rubbed off, early in September ; prior to this 

 they are said to be ( in velvet ', the fine hairs clothing the tempo- 

 rary skin resembling the pile of velvet. In the Red-deer these 

 annual phenomena occur about a month earlier. Soon after 

 burnishing, the combative instincts of the males arise ; and, when 

 the swelling of the throat and the ' belling ' challenge announce 

 the ' rut,' the combats ensue a Tovtrance : thereupon the coin- 

 cidence of the perfection of the antlers with the acquisition of 

 maturity of strength and wind, enabling the male to wield them 

 in the most efficient manner, gives him the command of the field, 

 and he drives off every younger and less favoured antagonist 

 from his chosen seraglio of hinds or does. The antlers of an 

 older buck or stag, though more massive, are more obtuse ; the 

 addition to the bulk of the body is then due to other matters than 

 working muscle, and the animal is sooner 'out of wind.' Con- 



CJ J 



sequently the male that has been the victor of one year is con- 

 quered by the younger one, now in his prime, who ventured 

 into combat with him and was beaten the previous year. Thus 

 is provision made for the propagation of the race by the best and 

 strongest. It may further be remarked, that the fawns are 

 ( dropped ' at a time when the paternal antlers are shed ; and the 

 males, which are vicious, are thus deprived of the power of in- 

 juring the young during their more tender period of life. 



The Rein-deer ( Cervus tarandus) is one of the very few Cer- 

 vid(B in which antlers are developed by the female : they are 

 shed and renewed as in the male, but are much smaller. In the 

 male they are remarkable for the length and forward curvature 

 of the beam, and for the length and broad terminal snagged ex- 

 panse of the tynes, especially of the brow-tynes, which also con- 

 verge with occasional decussation of snags ; whence Cresar was 

 led to describe the Rein-deer haunting Germany and the South of 

 France, in his day, as having a third horn growing out of the 

 middle of the forehead. 1 The opposite extreme is seen in C. da- 

 vulianus, in which the brow-tynes are wanting. In the Elk (A/ces) 

 they are represented by the lower tynes of the generally expanded 

 antler. Species of deer of small size, e.g. the Roe (C. capreolus) 



1 CCXMl". 



