262 Game of Europe, W. & N. Asia & America 



mounted the stag in a posture similar to that frequently assumed hy the 

 red deer, that is to say, with the neck erect and the head carried high. As 

 a matter of tact, this stag habitually carries his head low, and has 

 altogether a somewhat " slouching " attitude, as is well shown in the 

 photograph on page 261. 



The leading characteristics of the species are likewise well displayed 

 in the same illustration. In lacking a brow-tine, and dividing in a regular 

 fork-like manner, some distance above the burr, the large and cylindrical 

 antlers conform to the general structural type characteristic ot the true 

 American deer. They have, however, absolutely peculiar and distinctive 

 features of their own, which render them very diflferent from all American 

 antlers. The front prong of the main fork curves somewhat forwards 

 and again divides at least once ; while the hinder prong of the same is 

 of great length, undivided, and directed backwards in a manner found in 

 no other deer. The finest pair of antlers recorded in Mr. Rowland 

 Ward's book of horn-measurements are the property ot Sir Edmund 

 Loder. Their length along the outer curve is 32^ inches, the basal 

 girth 6J inches, the tip-to-tip interval 13^ inches, and the maximum 

 width of the enclosed space 18^ inches ; the number of points being 

 eight a side. 



At the time of writing Deer of All Lands it had been noticed at 

 Woburn Abbey that in one instance the antlers of this species were shed 

 and replaced twice a year for a certain period, and subsequent observations 

 tend to show that this double change is normal. In the illustration on 

 page 263 (reproduced from Deer of All hands) are shown in the left 

 upper figure the first antlers of this stag, which were grown in 1893. 

 The second figure in the same shows the second pair, which were shed 

 in October 1894; the third figure displays the third pair of antlers, 

 which were discarded in October 1895; while in the next figure are 

 shown the fourth pair, which were dropped in September 1896. These 



