IN MODIFYING EXTEBNAL CHABACTEB. 77 



In the volume referred to, it is stated at page 462 : " That the 

 production of the horns is dependent upon conditions connected 

 with the sexual function, is proved by the fact, that they are not 

 produced in castrated stags." At page 470 Mr. Eobertson states 

 that, " If the operation is imperfectly performed at the time that 

 the stag is void of horns, small horns will grow ; but these are 

 never cast, and the velvet which always covers them when they 

 are growing, retains its freshness to the last." Mr. Eobertson 

 has the reputation of being good authority, and I have reason to 

 believe that he is correct. When a stag carrying horns is 

 castrated, the operation being perfectly performed, the horns are 

 cast, sometimes as early as the fifth day, and generally within 

 three or four weeks. Very soon after that, the young horns begin 

 to bud and show, whether the stag at the time of castration 

 carried horns or not. The horns increase in size, but are 

 frequently irregular in form, unequal on the two sides, and 

 deficient in bulk and character for the age of the animal. Males 

 in this state are usually called Heavers, or Heaviers, a term 

 apparently intended to have reference to the greater size and 

 weight of body such stags attain ; but Pennant in his " British 

 Zoology," under the article on the Groat, says, "that the meat of 

 a castrated goat of six or seven years (which is called Hyfr) is 

 reckoned the best; being generally very sweet and fat. This 

 makes an excellent pasty, goes under the name of rock venison, 

 and is little inferior to that of the deer." The Anglo-Saxon word 

 for a he-goat is Haefer. 



The author of the " Sportsman's Cabinet," published in 1804, 

 states in volume ii. page 61, " that Heaviers are experimentally 

 proved to be of great strength, and afford good sport before 

 hounds, for which reason the Eoyal hunting establishment of His 

 Majesty George III. was never without a regular succession. 

 The perfect males, after their rutting season, are out of condition 

 for hunting. 



" Among the Laplanders the males only of their rein-deer are 

 used as beasts of burden and draught, and chiefly those which are 

 castrated, as they are the strongest." — GL P. Blom's Essay. • 



To return to the castrated red deer : I remember to have seen 

 a large red stag which had been hunted and caught in one of the 

 outbuildings of a farmer's stack-yard in Berkshire. The horns 

 were unequal in size, both being straight portions of the beam 

 only; one about six inches long, the other about double that 

 length, and both in their velvet. On the beam of greater length 



