212 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



with a posterior and lateral inclination, and then at half their 

 length they curve anteriorly and inward so that the points ap- 

 proach each other more or less. The lower part of the beam is 

 more angular or less round than the subsequent antlers. The 

 taper, from a few inches above the burr to the point, is very uni- 

 form and the curvature is graceful. 



In several instances in my grounds, the dag aiitler on the 

 young Elk has been bifurcated. This took place near the upper 

 end, and the prongs were not widely different in their lengths. 

 This has occurred on the large specimens, though not neces- 

 sarily the largest, for the largest it has happened were spikes. 

 These large specimens are divested of their velvet in October or 

 November, and are dropped in April or May; and are- only 

 grown on the earliest fawns dropped in May or early in June ; 

 later fawns have smaller antlers when they become yearlings, 

 and I have had some dropped late in July, whose first antlers the 

 next season would be but a few inches in length, and the velvet 

 would remain till late in the winter, and they would retain their 

 antlers till June, or even later, and I once had a very late fawn 

 whose antlers did not mature the first season of their growth, 

 but carried the velvet all winter, and grew on and matured the 

 next season. These are phenomena not likely to have been ob- 

 served, except by those who have a large number in confinement, 

 and who have studied them for a number of years in succession ; 

 which may serve to explain why hunters, of even the largest ex- 

 perience, may sometimes disagree as to the age of the deer on 

 which given specimens grew. It is not sufficient to enable a per- 

 son to arrive at correct conclusions to have five or six sets of 

 antlers grown in successive years on the same animal to judge 

 from, for as we have seen, even tlie first may be quite different 

 from those grown on another individual of the same age. 



There is more uniformity in the second antlers grown on the 

 Wapiti. On all these which have been reared in my grounds, the 

 second antlers have both the brow and the bez tines, and some- 

 times a snag or tine in addition, has appeared on one or both 

 antlers, though I have met with specimens elsewhere, on which 

 the bez-tine was wanting or was merely rudimentary. 



The third antlers almost uniformly have the royal-tine, and 

 rarely more. The fourth and tlie fifth year may, or may not, 

 produce the sur-royal on one or both antlers. Those of suc- 

 ceeding years may be expected to have additional tines, but their 

 presence one year furnishes no certain evidence that they will 



