THE CEPVID^E, OR DEER. 159 



two examples of very different degrees of develop- 

 ment in the antlers of single species; and by 

 observing the annual changes of the antlers we can, 

 with almost certainty, trace the different stages 

 attained by the various species with less fully 

 developed antlers. The first sign of the coming of 

 th3 antlers in the calf, is a thickening and pro- 

 truding of the frontal bone, the incomings of the 

 permanent base of the horn. Between it and 

 the upper layer of skin are then formed the 

 beginnings of the actual antlers ossifications of 

 the skin which soon coalesce with the frontal 

 process, dry up after completing their growth, and 

 fall off after pairing time. The antlers of the first 

 year the stem or beam consist of a pair of simple 

 stumps with the circular ridge of bone called the 

 burr. The following years furnish the branches or 

 tynes. 



This development of the antlers in the indivi- 

 dual case of the red deer, Eiitimeyer compares with 

 the antlers in the historical and geological succes- 

 sion of stag- shaped animals, which in the Lower 

 Miocene are still without antlers. In the Middle 

 Miocene of Sansan and Gtinzburg, and in the 

 Upper Miocene of Eppelsheim, we first meet with 

 an animal that is almost, but still not completely, 



