78 MR. YARRELL ON THE INFLUENCE OE TIIE SEXUAL ORGAN 



was a rounded bulbous excrescence, upon which blood appeared at 

 the slightest injury. 



At the Zoological Gardens some years since, a female rein-deer 

 died while her horns were growing and in the velvet. "When the 

 skin had been taken off, I went up to look at the state of the 

 carcase. The shoulders and the whole of the neck were of a 

 bright scarlet colour, from the strong determination of arterial 

 blood to the head at that particular period. 



Inequalities in the size and form of the two horns of the same 

 deer may be accounted for, as an injury from a gun-shot wound, 

 or other cause, may affect the horn on one side only by inter- 

 fering with the natural size or course of the arteries. 



When the horns of deer have completed their growth, the 

 blood-vessels are compressed at the burr, and the velvet-like 

 covering then begins to dry up, crack, and peel off; the deer by 

 his fraying assisting to get rid of it. 



Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith, in the article on Mammalia 

 in Griffith's "Animal Kingdom," vol. iv. p. 93, says, "Hinds are 

 asserted to have been found with horns, but no well-authenticated 

 fact places this beyond a doubt." 



In the Appendix to the "Dee Side Natural History," on the 

 red deer of Scotland, p. 472, it is stated, that in no one instance 

 does it appear that the hind of the red deer was ever observed to 

 have horns. To this, however, there are exceptions, apparently 

 the operation of a physiological law. John Hunter, in his " Ob- 

 servations on Animal (Economy," states, that where the male and 

 female among animals are distinguished by a difference in their 

 external characters, by depriving either sex of the influence of the 

 true sexual organ, they will seem to approach each other in out- 

 ward appearance. 



Some years since, a red hind, in the forest of the Duke of Gordon 

 in Scotland, was observed to carry a single horn on one side of 

 her head, — such a horn as the red male bears in his third year. 

 As this appearance was unusual and interesting, a request was 

 made to be allowed to shoot her. Leave was immediately granted, 

 the hind was shot, and on internal examination by two com- 

 petent persons, she was found to have a scirrhous ovary on the 

 opposite side to that on which she bore the horn. The skull and 

 horn as attached are preserved in the armoury at Gordon Castle, 

 with a label appended detailing the particulars. 



About four years ago, a red hind, in the park at Holkham, was 

 observed to carry one horn of some length. She was closely 



