230 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



nearly resemble those from the Acapulco deer, while they resem- 

 ble the first in most of tlieir characteristics, except that the long 

 tine is now reduced to a snag scarcely more than an incli long, 

 and the left antler is more flattened at the end. These are more 

 fully considered under the title " Analogues." 



Mr. Darwin, the distinguished naturalist, when preparing his 

 celebrated work, " The Descent of Man," for the press, asked me 

 for my observations as to the utility to the animal of the 

 branched forms of the antlers of the Cervidse. This is a question 

 certainly not easily solved, and yet the mode of warfare of these 

 animals may serve to throw some light on the subject. 



The mode of joining battle, as we shall see in another place, 

 with all the cervine s|)ecies, is with a tremendous rush together. 

 Some species fall back and repeat the rush many times, like the 

 ram, while others, after they thus meet continue pressing and 

 worrying each other, maneuvering to break each other's foil. 

 Now if the antlers on each presented but single points, death to 

 one or both the combatants would almost surely ensue upon the 

 first collision, and thus would the species soon become extermi- 

 nated. 



There was in the fall of 1875, in Lincoln Park, a Virginia 

 buck five years old, whose left antler was a spike about ten 

 inches long with a largely developed basal snag, while the right 

 antler was of the ordinary form and size. The keeper informed 

 me that this buck had killed the two others in the same enclos- 

 ure, the last but the day before my visit, and that it was this 

 sharp, straight spike which did the mischief. Always before, the 

 antlers of this buck had been of the ordinary form and size, with 

 which he had never injured the other deer. He thought the sin- 

 gular growth was due to an injury to the antler in the early 

 stage of its growth. 



The many branches with which the antler of the deer is pro- 

 vided, undoubtedly impair its efficiency as a weapon of attack, 

 but they convert it into a shield which effectually foils the blow 

 from a similar weapon, though it may not certainly ward off a 

 blow from a single shaft. I have never yet known an instance, 

 except in the case of the spike antler, in which either combatant 

 received a wound in these sudden onsets. The battle is won by 

 persistent endurance, or by some accident or want of skill or 

 agility which exposes one to the reach of the other. If the 

 branched antler is a disadvantage to the individual, there can 



