4 8 



PROBLEMS OF RELATIVE GROWTH 



quantitative difference we can only speculate : it would seem 

 probable that the Red deer type of slow decrease, with positive 

 heterogony throughout, is the normal course of events in 

 Cervidae, but that it was for some reason biologically desirable 

 for the Roe deer to have small antlers. 



12 13 14 



Fig. 29. 



Solid line, body-weight against age in 212 male red-deer from Wamham Park. Dotted line, antler- 

 weight against age in a smaller and selected group of stags from the same locality. The thin continuous 

 lines below the curve for antler-weight represent diagrammatically the actual growth and shedding 

 of the antlers year by year. The fact that the antler curve inflects later than that for body-weight 

 is probably due to the antlers being from a selected group of beasts, of size above the average. 



After this digression, we will return to the general problem 

 involved in the growth-ratio of the antlers. We have seen 

 that the apparent constancy of their growth-ratio, obtained 

 by plotting antler-weight against body-weight in adults, is 

 shown to be a particular consequence of the steady decline of 



