334 BRITISH MAMMALS 



complexity. A stag which has at least three points to the cup 

 is called a royal. After the stag has reached the age of about 

 fourteen years the horns do not go on improving in size and 

 complexity, but actually degenerate, losing length, girth, and 

 even points. 



It is an extraordinary but apparently a well-attested fact that 

 the deer gnaw their cast-off antlers, getting the tines between the 

 molar teeth of their jaws, and moving these with that rotatory 

 motion which may be observed in these and other ruminants 

 when they are chewing. They also gnaw at the beam of 

 their antlers with their chisel-like incisors of the lower jaw. It 

 is undoubtedly the case that in this way some portion of the 

 thrown-off bone is absorbed into the system, but this is a point 

 of such importance as to demand very careful investigation, since 

 it would seem well-nigh incredible that the whole of so hard and 

 bony a mass could be completely devoured by anything but a 

 hyaena. It would be interesting to know in this connection how 

 captive deer manage in zoological gardens. Their horns are in 

 some cases (such as the wapiti deer) almost as large as in deer 

 living in a wild state, yet apparently no keeper has ever recorded 

 the fact of any of these deer masticating and consuming the 

 whole of the cast-off antler. 



The red deer has a voice and uses it to some effect. Males 

 and females utter a low, bleating sound to their friends, human 

 and cervine — a sound which is almost a squeak. When alarmed, 

 both males and females bark. When the breeding season 

 approaches, however, the stag begins to express his yearning 

 for the female by the bellow of the rut, a summons which 

 attracts the female and also the rival. The " weird, wild, 

 yawning roar " of the love-sick or jealous stag is described by 

 Mr. Millais as being in his opinion one of the grandest sounds 

 in nature, but he very rightly points out that it does not com- 

 pare for effect with the roar of a lion. He made interesting 

 experiments in this direction, and found that, whereas he could 

 hear the roar of a lion under favourable conditions of wind 

 at a distance of six miles, two miles was about the outside 



