22 MAMMALIA. 



Pennant says, that 25.027 hides were exported from New York 

 and Pennsylvania in the sale of 1/64. (Arctic Zoology, vol. I, 1792, 



P- 33-) 



Spike-Horn Bucks. 



The matter of" Spike-horn Bucks," though somewhat threadbare, 

 deserves mention in this connection from the circumstance that the 

 supposed variety was first described from the Adirondacks. In a 

 note in the American Naturalist for December. 1869 (vol. Ill, No. 

 10, pp. 552-553). ^ writer observed that he had hunted in the Adi- 

 rondacks for twenty- one years, and goes on to say : " About fourteen 

 years ago, as nearly as I can remember, I first began to hear of 

 Spike-horn Bucks. The stories about them multiplied, and they evi- 

 dently became more and more common from year to year. About 

 five years ago I shot one of these animals, a large buck with spike- 

 horns, on Louis Lake. In September, 1867, I shot another, a three 

 year old buck with spike-horns, on Cedar Lakes. These Spike-horn 

 Bucks are now frequendy shot in all that portion of the Adirondacks 

 south of Raquette Lake. I presume the same is true north of Ra- 

 quette Lake, but of this latter region I cannot speak from personal 

 observation, having visited it only once. 



" The spike-horn differs greatly from the common antler of the 

 C. Virginianus. It consists of a single spike, more slender than the 

 antler, and scarcely half so long, projecting forward from the brow, 

 and terminating in a very sharp point. It gives a considerable ad- 

 vantage to its possessor over the common buck. Besides enabling 

 him to run more swiftly through the thick woods and underbrush 

 (every hunter knows that does and yearling bucks run much more 

 rapidly than the large bucks when armed with their cumbrous ant- 

 lers [!]), the spike-horn is a more effective weapon than the common 

 antler. With this advantage the Spike-horn Bucks are gaining upon 

 the common bucks, and. may, in time, entirely supersede them in the 

 Adirondacks. Undoubtedly the first Spike-horn Buck was merely an 

 accidental freak of nature. But his spike-horns gave him an advan- 



