3-40 R. J. GOSS 



(Caton, 1877; Skinner, 1922; Noback, 1932). Among birds a variety 

 of epidermal structures may be shed (Rawles, 1960). The colorful 

 bills of puffins of both sexes are detached from the basal portions 

 after the breeding season, as described by Bent (1919), Forbush 

 ( 1936 ) , and Lockley ( 1953 ) . In the male white pelican there is 

 present during the breeding season a cornilied crest on the upper 

 beak which, according to Coues (1872), "appears to be shed and 

 renewed in a manner analogous to the casting of deer's horns." 

 These and other more familiar cases of molting involve structures 

 exclusively of epidermal origin. Teeth and antlers, however, rep- 

 resent the sole instances of the natural loss of mineralized vertebrate 

 tissues bv shedding. All these cases are examples of how the body 

 gets rid of excess dead tissue from its external surface. The phenom- 

 enon of antler shedding, however, has inspired some rather unique 

 interpretations, not the least of which is the notion of Ries ( 1948 ) 

 that surplus sexual hormones are stored in antlers during the grow- 

 ing period. Upon the completion of antler growth these hormones 

 are supposedly free to induce rutting behavior. The legendary 

 belief that antlers possess medicinal (including aphrodisiac) prop- 

 erties (cf. Scherbatoff, 1933) is cited as evidence in favor of such 

 an incredible hypothesis. The distinction between truth and myth 

 is not, unhappily, always so obvious. 



Mechanism of Antler Shedding 



To appreciate fully what is known of the mechanism of antler 

 shedding, one does well to adopt the view of Waldo and Wislocki 

 ( 1951 ) that "shedding of the old antler is in reality incident to 

 growth of the new one." In a sense, shedding of the antler repre- 

 sents the crucial point of transition between what Gruber ( 1952a ) 

 refers to as the bionegative, or destructive, processes and the bio- 

 positive, or constructive, processes in the antler cycle. Indeed, 

 shedding is necessary only because, in the nature of things, death of 

 the antler is the culmination of its growth and development. The 

 normal course of antler development in the sika deer is illustrated 

 in Figs. 1 to 7. 



Death of the mature antler is characterized by three principal 



