582 ^^^ DESCENT OP MAN. 



one of which bears the astonishing number of thirty-three 

 branches and the other twenty-seven, making altogether 

 sixty branches. Richardson figures a pair of antlers of 

 the wild reindeer with twenty-nine points.* From the 

 manner in which the horns are branched, and more espe- 

 cially from deer being known occasionally to fight together 

 by kicking with their fore feet,f M. Bailly actually comes 

 to the conclusion that their horns are more injurious than 

 useful to them. But this author overlooks the pitched 

 battles between rival males. As I felt much perplexed about 

 the use or advantage of the branches I applied to Mr. 

 McNeill, of Colonsay, who has long and carefully observed 

 the habits of the red deer, and he informs me that he has 

 never seen some of the branches brought into use, but that 

 the brow antlers from inclining downward are a great pro- 

 tection to the forehead, and their points are likewise used 

 in attack. Sir Philip Egerton also informs me both as to 

 red deer and fallow deer that in fighting they suddenly 

 dash together, and, getting their horns fixed against each 

 other^s bodies, a desperate struggle ensues. When one is 

 at last forced to yield and turn round the victor endeavors 

 to plunge his brow antlers into his defeated foe. It thus 

 appears that the upper branches are used chiefly or exclu- 

 sively for pushing and fencing. Nevertheless, in some 

 species the upper branches are used as weapons of offense; 

 when a man was attacked by a wapiti deer ( Cervus cana- 

 densis) in Judge Caton's park in Ottawa and several men 

 tried to rescue him the stag " never raised his head from 

 the ground; in fact, he kept his face almost flat on the 

 ground, with his nose nearly between his fore feet, except 

 when he rolled his head to one side to take a new observa- 

 tion preparatory to a plunge. '^ In this position the ends 

 of the horns were directed against his adversaries. " In 

 rolling his head he necessarily raised it somewhat, because 



*0n the horns of the red deer, Owen, "British Fossil Mammals," 

 1846, p. 478; Richardson on the horns of the reindeer, "Fauna Bor. 

 Americana," 1829, p. 240. I am indebted to Prof. Victor Cams for 

 the Moritzburg case. 



fHon. J. D. Caton ("Ottawa Acad, of Nat. Science," May, 1868, 

 p. 9) says that the American deer fight with their fore feet, after 

 "the question of superiority has been once settled and acknowledged 

 in the herd." Bailly " Sur I'usage des Cornes," " Annales des So. 

 Nat.," torn, ii, 1824, p. 371. 



