80 MR. TARRELL OX THE I>'^FLUENCE OF THE SEXUAL OROA>' 



The fallow-buck is at his best in bis sixtb, or at most in his 

 seventh year ; after which, though the carcase may increase, the 

 horns become smaller, and irregularly going back annually through 

 something like their former stages of increase, a very old buck 

 has from the state of his horns been mistaken for a yoiuig one. 

 In the osteological department of the Museum at Paris, there was, 

 and may be now, the skeleton of a female rein-deer in which the 

 horns were reduced to little more than a rudiment of the beam 

 and the brow-antler ; yet was this animal so old, that the molar 

 teeth were worn down to the edges of the alveolar cavities. 



Park-keepers in large establishments, where much venison is 

 required, are in the habit of cutting 20, 30 or 40 bucks in the 

 spring, and giving them the summer run of the park, or better 

 still, in paddocks, while the grass remains nutritious, after which 

 they are taken up for stall-feeding and fattened as wanted. These 

 bucks never lose their velvet. Some park-keepers practise modi- 

 fications when cutting, producing corresponding differences and 

 effects. If a fawn is castrated at a very early age, and the earlier 

 the better, he will never put forth horns of any sort, but remain a 

 polled buck during life. 



The roe is the smallest of our British deer, and being under the 

 influence of the same physiological laws, requires but a bi'ief 

 notice. 



The horns acquire but three points each at their best, and as 

 the roe-buck increases in years, his horns, like those of our other 

 deer, diminish in size and number of points, till they recede irre- 

 gularly to their early appearance in the third or second year. 



Eoe-deer are preserved in some parks in England, as at Petworth 

 in Sussex, and elsewhere, and form a pleasing addition to the scene. 

 After having fed in the early morning, they, in fine weather, scrape 

 out a bed for themselves in long grass, and when approached jump 

 uj) in haste, and scud away like a hare from her form. 



The males are said to be less friendly disposed towards their 

 young than the males of either of the other two species ; but A^dth 

 the very common tendency, not confined to deer, to use power 

 where it is possessed, I suspect this tendency has its origin in the 

 state of the horns. 



Eoe-bucks shed their horns in December : the new horns, while 

 growing, are covered with their velvet, but become hard and 

 burnished by the end of April. The kids are dropped in May, 

 and may be occasionally exposed to a p\ish of the then liard and 

 pointed horn. 



