298 BRITISH MAMMALS 



so exaggerated as to produce a " mossy " appearance, which 

 may stamp the whole outline of the horn. The typical 

 roe antler rises some 4 in. or 5 in. from the coronet ^ (in 

 some cases nearly vertically from the head), and then forks. 

 The front prong of this fork might very well answer to the 

 brow antler of the typical stag, and no doubt is the same in 

 origin. The antler then slants backwards after the first fork, 

 and forks again, the lower prong of the second fork pointing 

 downwards. This, therefore, gives an average roebuck horn 

 three points. But in past and present specimens of this deer 

 there can actually be six points (a not uncommon extravagance), 

 or even, in abnormal heads, eight. Occasionally the first fork 

 of the antlers is so low down that there is nothing to dis- 

 tinguish the front prong in position from the true Cervine 

 brow antler. 



The extremest length of a roe antler measured along the outer 

 curve to the tip of the furthest prong is 13 in. (for a British speci- 

 men), the finest known heads on the Continent or in Tartary perhaps 

 reaching 2 in. farther. But normally good heads of the roe in 

 England rarely exceed 1 1 in. The girth of the horn round the 

 coronet may be 7 in. in excessively thick horns, or more when 

 they become monstrosities. The ordinary girth round the base 

 of a good horn is about 5^ in. Besides other eccentricities roes 

 occasionally produce three horns, an extra horn sometimes 

 appearing in the middle between the two normal antlers, or at 

 the side, and slightly nearer the brow. Sometimes the two 

 normal horns (which in any case are not very wide apart) grow 

 together and fuse into a solid mass. One feels, in short, that as 

 regards antlers, at any rate, the roe is still in such a plastic state 

 that it might go on originating new species. Undoubtedly it 

 stands very near a primitive type of deer, which might be at the 

 base of several widely divergent existing forms. From its horns 

 and the bones of its side toes and the anatomy of the male 

 generative organs, it is in any case thought to be closely allied to 



1 The " coronet " being that spreading-out of the base of the antler where 

 it starts from the bony pedicle. 



