151 



coverts and tail ; in size it is considerably less than that species, 

 being even smaller than A. Arsino'ė, to which it ofFers an alliance in 

 the colouring of its wings, but from which it diifers in the colouring 

 of its abdomen ; the white feathers of the thighs are much developed 

 and very conspicuous. 



2. On SOME DiiFECTS IN THE GrOWTH OF THE AnTLERS, AND 

 SOME RESULTS OF CaSTRATION, IN THE CeRVID^. 



By John S. Gaskoin, F.L.S. etc. 

 The imperfect growth of one antler, or horn, in any species of the 

 Deer tribe, the other being fully developed aecording with the age of 

 the animal, I find has been, from time immemorial, popularly attri- 

 buted to some disease or ailment of the testicle, or kidney, or even of 

 a limb, of the side on which the defective antler may exist ; so that 

 to doubt its truth now would, to the uninąuiring, seem to be mock- 

 ing experience. Some time ago, a member of this Society exhibited 

 at one of the scientific meetings the head of a Fallow Deer (Cervus 

 Dama), which had been killed in Richmond Park, for the table, and 

 selected, of course, from its mature age and fine condition ; one antler 

 of which was of ample growth for an eight years old animal, while 

 the other consisted simply of the brow tinę or antler and a short beam, 

 each about eight or ten inches in length ; and the park-keeper had 

 ascribed this deficient development to disease of the kidney of the 

 šame side. No light was thrown on the subject at the time, and 

 members, to whom the opportunity might occur, were invited to in- 

 quire into the correctness or otherwise of the attributed cause in 

 other instances. It vras the first occasion on which I had heard the 

 ąuestion mooted. The deduction given, as to cause and effect, was 

 obviously at variance with sound physiology. That the growth of a 

 horn on one side should be impeded, and not that on the other also, 

 when disease of a kidney, a tęstis, &c. is the cause of arrested pro- 

 duction, mušt be from some accidental circumstance, and cannot be 

 incidentai to any such derangement ; for organic disease of the viscera 

 named, or of any other viscus, always deteriorates more or less, 

 aecording to its severity and duration, the general constitutional 

 health, and not that of a particular part only of the animal economy ; 

 — and moreover, the disease of no organ in a more remarkable manner 

 influences by depressing the powers of the system, nor tends more 

 sūrely to a fatal termination, than organic disease of the kidney ; — 

 whereas, in the case adduced as having arisen from such a disease, 

 the animal was, on the contrary, in excellent health and admirable case. 

 A paradox so apparent induced me to desire to investigate the subject, 

 with the view of setting aside a popular error, if such, and substi- 

 tuting a rational deduction from facts ; and having communicated 

 my wish to Colonel Francis H. Seymour, deputy-ranger of Windsor 

 Great Park, in which a larger stock o f deer is kept than perhaps in 

 any other in the kingdom, he most readily bid me furnish him vdth 

 a written list of what I might require to prosecute my intention. It 

 enumerated, — the head, with the antlers attachcd, of any buck that 



