THE ANTLERS. 187 



If an old buck with five tines, these will be of nearl}' the same 

 size as the former, with five tines also. These, however, never 

 perfect their growth and never lose their velvet ; but at the time 

 the antlers on the perfect bucks lose the velvet, those on the 

 mutilated bucks stop their growth, but a moderate circulation is 

 kept up in the velvet, which remains warm to the touch, and so 

 they continue stationary till the severe weather of winter freezes 

 the antlers through down to or very near the buiT, when by the 

 application of some accidental force they snap off within a half an 

 inch or an inch of the burr, depending on the size of the antler. 

 If we now examine the detached portion of an antler we shall 

 see that its entire body is loose and spongy, more condensed at 

 the circumference than within, but has nowhere attained the 

 consistency of hard bone, so as to close up the blood-vessels lead- 

 ing into it from the periosteum. The communication has been 

 all the while kept up between the external and the internal cir- 

 culation, as was the case during the period of growth of the 

 antler on the perfect animal. 



These stumps of the antlers are carried till the next spring, 

 when a new antler shoots out from the old stump not so large as its 

 predecessor, and grows on in the same way and at the same rate 

 as on the perfect animal, till those so far mature as to shed their 

 velvet, when as before that on the mutilated animal stops its 

 growth. In the mean time the old stump has enlarged its diam- 

 eter and put out large tubercles as if supplemental to the burr, 

 which is also considerably enlarged. The new antler thus pro- 

 duced is not so large as the former, and if branched has less tines. 

 And so this process goes on year after year, each succeeding 

 antler being less in size and perfection than its predecessor, while 

 the enlargement at the lower end becomes an exaggerated burr. 

 This process of growth differs very considerably in different in- 

 dividuals of the same species. In some, in a few years, these 

 stumps grow to an enormous size, covered all over with large 

 tubercles, some of them amounting to shafts two or three inches 

 long, which may be frozen and broken off in the winter, while 

 neither may be so conspicuous as to be recognized as a beam. 

 The whole of this irregular mass is ever covered with the fine, 

 soft, glossy fur. These two large masses in the place of the ant- 

 lers, covered all over with these rudimentary shafts, present a 

 very curious and interesting appearance on the head of a deer. 



By far the finest specimen of this sort I ever had I presented 

 to the Central Park, New York, in 1865. I do not know if he is 



