THE ANTLERS. 219 



always find their paths avoid such places when practicable, and 

 are made through the open glades ; though they seem to have 

 no objection to the deep shades produced by dense foliage above. 

 In our latitude, the velvet on the antler of the aged elk is with 

 great uniformity discarded in August, and the antler is invari- 

 ably dropped in April. The Wapiti is the only species of our 

 deer which carries its antlers for so long a time, or so late in the 

 spring, and is so uniform in the time of shedding them. I was 

 for a long time disinclined to credit this exceptional uniformity, 

 but its recurrence for many years and with every individual (and 

 I have had large numbers to observe), compelled me to relinquish 

 my doubt. That the times of shedding may differ in different 

 latitudes is no doubt true, but I feel confident that the same 

 uniformity prevails everywhere. I may remark here, that the 

 European red deer also carries its antlers throughout the Avinter, 

 and with the same uniformity drops them in the spring about 

 the season that fresh vegetation begins to shoot forth. Such is 

 the information given me by the director of the zoological gar- 

 dens at Berlin, where there are a considerable number of red 

 deer, and I found his observations corroborated by others. 



Although possessing many marked specific differences, the Mule 

 Deer and the Columbia Black-tailed Deer have antlers so nearly 

 alike in all their features, even in their eccentricities, that I, at 

 least, am unable to distinguish them from each other, and so shall 

 treat of them together. 



As might be expected, the first antler on the young buck is 

 usually a spike from six to nine inches long. 



The first which I had dropped in my grounds was a Columbia 

 Deer, with a spike antler about six inches in length. The next 

 was a Mule Deer. It was an early fawn dropped the last of May. 

 His first antlers were eight inches long, and both were forked at 

 the ends with tines two inches long. Another Mule fawn had 

 spike antlers about six inches long. 



The antlers of these deer start from the head in a direction 

 inclining backward and outward ; but below the middle of the 

 antler, commence a graceful forward curve. They present a 

 slightly crinkled appearance and are not perfectly round. 



After the dag antlers, their distinguishing characteristic is a 

 bifurcation into pretty nearly equal parts, and on old specimens 

 a second bifurcation, or a division of these parts into nearly equal 

 tines ; but there is less certainly in the regularity of these divis- 

 ions than in the former. These characteristics I find as constant 



