124 MAMMALIA. 



seven and a half and eight inches (190 and 2O3mm.) in a straight line 

 from the base of the burr to the tip. The longest horn presents a 

 slight enlargement, three inches from the tip, along its upper and 

 posterior border, the greatest thickness of which is three-quarters of 

 an inch (iQmm.), thus indicating the point where a prong ought to 

 have grown. I take it that these are the horns of a two-year old, 

 but have no means of determining this very important question. I 

 also have two other pairs of horns from young Deer, that are smaller 

 than those just described and yet one horn of each pair is forked. 

 Whether they came from yearlings or two-year olds I will not ven- 

 ture to decide. 



In my opinion the term spike-horn should be limited to the 

 straight and true spike that is known to be characteristic of the year- 

 ling buck. 



Does sometimes, though rarely, have horns, and they are usually 

 of the " spike" pattern, only more incurved than those of the bucks, 

 and they are apt to be more or less imperfect and unsymmetrical. 

 They are generally covered with the velvet, no matter at what season 

 taken, in this respect resembling those of castrated bucks. Does that 

 bear antlers do not commonly bear young, though they are not al- 

 ways barren.* 



The Chase. 



An account of the different ways of hunting the Deer on the 

 plains and prairies of the West, in the canebrakes and swamps of the 

 South, and in other sections remote from the region under consider- 

 ation, however interesting, does not fall within the scope of the 



* Alonzo Wood, Esq., one of the most experienced and competent guides in the Adirondacks, 

 has kindly presented me with a very beautiful pair of spike antlers that were taken from a doe 

 which was killed at Second Lake of North Branch about the first of September, 1876. They are 

 deeply curved, symmetrical, and covered with a very dense coat of " velvet," the individual hairs 

 of which are of unusual length. The measurements of these antlers are as follows : 

 From burr to tip, in a straight line, 6 in. (152 mm.) 



around curve, 8# " (210 " ) 



Distance between tips, 4# " (108 " ) 



antlers at curve, 6% " (159 " ) 



