82 



Life-histories of Northern Animals 



never seen one of them, but have often heard of them, and 

 find several cases recorded.^" 



Hariot first called attention to the unique fact that the 

 "snags" of the horns "look backwards." Caton points out^^ 

 that this enables "the animal, by bowing his head in battle, as 

 is his habit, to present the tines to the adversary in front. 

 When two meet in the shock of battle thus armed, these antlers 

 form such a complete shield that [he adds] I have never known 

 a point to reach an adversary." 



of fatally interlocked antlers- 



LocKED But the peculiarity has an offsetting disadvantage. More 



in this species than in any other in America do we find cases 



cases in which two bucks 

 struggling for the master- 

 ery have in some way 

 either sprung their ant- 

 lers apart, or forced them 

 together so that they are 

 inextricably intertangled, 

 and death to both com- 

 batants is the inevitable 

 finish. Often it comes by 

 starvation, so that antler- 

 bound bucks are lucky if 

 found by their natural 

 enemies and put to a 

 speedier and more merci- 

 ful death. 



Stanley Waterloo 

 writes :^^ "In Novem- 

 ber, 1895, Mr. F. F. 

 Strong, a well-known Chicago business man and an ardent 

 sportsman, was, with a small party of friends, hunting near 



^° Forest and Stream, July 4, 1896, p. 5, and Forest and Stream, June 6, 1896, p. 454. 

 *' Antelope and Deer of America, 1877, p. 224. 

 ^-Recreation Magazine, September, 1897, p. 236. 



Fig. 2g — Two Whitetail bucks with locked horns. 



Redrawn from Stanley Waterloo's photograph in Recreation for 

 August, 1S99. 



