Chap. XVIII. LAW OF BATTLE. 253 



1699 by Frederick I., each of which bears the aston- 

 ishing number of thirty-three branches. Kichardson 

 figures a pair of antlers of the wild reindeer with twenty- 

 nine points.^^ From the manner in which the horns 

 are branched, and more especially from deer being 

 known occasionally to fight together by kicking with 

 their fore-feet,^^ M. Bailly actually came to the con- 

 clusion that their horns were more injurious than useful 

 to them ! But this author overlooks the pitched battles 

 between rival males. As I felt much perplexed about 

 the use or advantage of the branches, I applied to Mr. 

 McNeill of Colinsay, who has long and carefully ob- 

 served the habits of red-deer, and he informs me that 

 he has never seen some of the branches brought into 

 action, but that the brow-antlers, from inclining down- 

 wards, are a great protection to the forehead, and their 

 points are likewise used in attack. Sir Philip Egerton 

 also informs me in re^jard both to red-deer and fallow- 

 deer, that when they fight they suddenly dash together, 

 and getting their horns fixed against each other's bodies 

 a desperate struggle ensues. When one is at last 

 lorced to yield and turn round, the victor endeavours 

 to plunge his brow-antlers into his defeated foe. It 

 thus appears that the upper branches are used chiefly 

 or exclusively for pushing and fencing. Nevertheless 

 with some species the upper branches are used as 

 weapons of offence ; when a man was attacked by a 



'<^ Owen, on the Horns of KecI-deer, ' British Fossil Mammals,' 1846, 

 p. 478; 'Forest Creatures,' by Charles Boner, 1861, p. 76, 62. Eich- 

 ardson on the Horns of the Eeindeer, ' Fauna Bor. Americana,' 1829, 

 p. 240. 



21 Hon. J. D. Caton (' Ottawa Acad, of Nat. Science,' May, 1868, p. 

 9), says that the American deer fight with their fore-feet, after " the 

 question of superiority has been once settled and acknowle;lged in the 

 herd." Bailly, " Sur I'usage des Cornes," ' Annales des Sc. Nat.' tom. 

 ii. 1824, p. 371. 



