1885-86.] Edinburgh Naturalists Field Club. 283 



it prudent to retire from the neighbourhood of their defeat and 

 £i-oni the jjresence of their conqueror. 



While speaking about the Red Deer, let me say a few words 

 about its antlers. In the first place, one often hears people talking 

 of Deer's horns. This mode of expression has become so common, 

 that it is now indulged in as " use and wont," but properly we 

 should say a Deer's antlers, and not horns. There is a striking 

 difference in the structure of a Deer's antler and a Bull's horn, and 

 it seems as well to express that difference when we have words 

 for the purpose. 



During the first two years of a Stag's life, before the antlers 

 begin to branch, some writers on Natural History call the bony pro- 

 tuberances from its head horns. As you are doubtless well aware, 

 the hinds of the Red Deer do not possess antlers. The antlers 

 when formed are of a hard bony substance, and differ in this 

 respect from the horns of the Antelope, which are hollow and per- 

 sistent, while the antlers of the Red Deer are caducous — in other 

 words, fall off early each year. The power of renewing these 

 enormous bony appendages appears to increase with the age of the 

 animal, so the largest antlers are generally found on the oldest 

 Stags. The following is a rough outline of a Stag's life-history 

 as regards its antlers : The first year after birth it has, properly 

 speaking, none — only two bony excrescences, short, rough, and 

 covered with a thin hairy skin. The second year two straight 

 prong-like antlers appear. The third year the place of these is 

 taken by antlers with two branches ; the fourth year there are 

 three; the fifth, four; and the sixth, five. From this time onwards 

 the antlers do not always become more branched, but sometimes 

 they increase to double that number. When a Stag's antlers pos- 

 sess twelve tines, it becomes a " royal," but Deer with such fine 

 heads are rather scarce in Britain. During last September, out of 

 eightj^-one stags killed in the Kingussie district, only four were 

 " royals." On the 24th of the same month I noticed from the 

 newspapers that Lord Lovat was said to have shot a Stag near 

 Beaufort Castle which had antlers upwards of three feet in length, 

 with fourteen points, the animal weighing twenty-four stones. This, 

 however, appears to be quite unusual.^ The Stag's age is generally 

 estimated rather from the thickness of the base of the antler from 

 which the branches sj^ring, than from the number of the tines or 



1 Since the above was written, I have been favoured with the following 

 communication from Henry Evans, Esq., Jura forest, dated 24:th October 

 1885. He says: "The heaviest Red-Deer Stag ever killed and recorded 

 here was 26 stone 9 lb., but it was a wood Deer, and no doubt got a 

 bite from the crops. The average weight killed here now, clean (i.e., with- 

 out heart, liver, lights, and throttle), is about 14 stone 2 lb. to 14 stone 

 4 lb. The average of all Scotch forests is less than that. Most island 

 Deer are small — e.g., Skye, Lewis, Harris. The Reay averaged over 16 



