122 MAMMA! 1A. 



from eight inches, or ten inches at the very utmost, down to two or 

 three inches in length. It is only the largest of these that an)- have 

 claimed to be adults. It is very easy for a hunter to say, and even 

 believe that he has killed deer with spikes ten inches long, but did 

 he actually measure them, and make a note of the fact, with time and 

 place, describing its appearance, and take and note the measurements 

 of the animal, or did he preserve the head, so that he could carefully 

 examine it, after the excitement of the chase was over, or so that he 



could submit it to the examination of others ? 



" Continued observations upon the young deer in my parks have 

 enlightened me much on this subject. For several years, I really 

 persuaded myself that I had the true spike-antlered bucks, and set 

 myself to carefully note their peculiarities, and fondly believed that 

 I was about to add an important chapter to scientific knowledge. 

 But these careful and continued observations soon undeceived and 

 disappointed me. By marking the spike buck of one year, which was 

 as large as one feeding by its side having two or three tines on each 

 antler, I found the next year that his antlers were also branched, and 

 my spike-antlered buck had become a fine specimen of the ordinary 

 kind. And then the early fawn of the year before, dropped from a 

 fully adult vigorous doe, which had furnished him plenty of milk, had 

 now grown to the size of a medium adult, and had fine spike-antlers, 

 resembling in all things his older brother of the preceding year now 

 bearing the pronged antlers. And so I anxiously pursued my ob- 

 servations for a number ot years, ever looking in vain for a second 

 antler without prongs. Without this certain means of knowledge, I 

 should have believed that those large spike-antlered bucks were more 

 than yearlings and nearly adult. It is true the dentition might have 

 undeceived me, but this I could not ascertain while the animal was 

 alive, and this test has probably been rarely examined and carefully 

 studied by those hunters who believe they have killed adult deer 

 with spike antlers. I feel quite sure that they had not the means of 

 accurately determining the true ages of the wild deer which they 



