80 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



slender. Those grown by a Whitetail buck are normally 

 as shown in Plate V, but antlers are usually abnormal. 

 J. W. Titcomb states ^^ that a tame Deer which he knew grew, 

 on its second autumn, a pair (its first) that were a foot long and 

 had three points on each. A pair with many snags probably 

 belonged to an old buck, and yet again an old buck may have 

 mere spikes. Thus it will be seen that anyone pretending to 

 tell the age by the horns alone is sure to err. 



Some of the most remarkable variations are here shown. 

 The record for points still rests with a pair owned by Albert 

 Friedrich, of San Antonio, Texas, which are of such super- 

 abundant vigour as to have 78 points (Fig. 23). The 42-pointer 

 from the Adirondacks (Fig. 24) and the 35-pointer from Minne- 

 sota (Fig. 25) claim second and third places, respectively. 



Antlers are sexual appendages, and their connection with 

 the genital system is close, though obscure. The latter cannot 

 be deranged without creating a disturbance in antler produc- 

 tion, and the effect of emasculation is extraordinary. Judge 

 Caton, to whom we are so much indebted for light on the Deer 

 family, shows^^ that a buck castrated when his antlers are nearly 

 grown will drop them within thirty days after. Next year he 

 will grow a new pair, according to rule, but they never ripen, 

 harden, or peel. They continue full of blood and life until they 

 are frozen and broken off by accident, leaving a stump. Each 

 year thereafter the stump will grow larger and a new antler 

 is projected, but never finished; and each succeeding year the 

 antler will be smaller and more irregular 



ANT- From time to time does are found wearing antlers, usually 



LERED . . . 



DOES spikehorns, and in the velvet. As the connection between the 

 reproductive organs and the horns is so close, Caton suggests ^^ 

 that likely the females wearing these masculine ornaments 

 have some peculiarity of the genitalia. 



Less interesting freaks are hornless adult bucks. I have 



" McKinley, The History of a Vermont Deer, F. & S., May i8, 1899, p. 205. 

 "Antelope and Deer of America, 1877, pp. 186-7. 

 '^Ibid., p. 233. 



