THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



of deer they branch into a smaller or larger number of tines, until they finally assume 

 the form of the complete antler. The whole antler is then completely invested with 

 a soft and vascular skin clothed with exceedingly fine hair, hence termed the 

 "velvet." When, however, the growth of the antler is completed in its upper 

 part, a deposition of bony matter takes place at its base, just above the point of 

 union with the pedicle of the skull, in the form of a prominent ring. This ring, of 

 course, constricts the blood vessels supplying the velvet, and ultimately causes them 

 to dry up. In conseqence of this cutting off of the supply of blood by the ring or 

 "burr," the velvet itself likewise dries up, and is eventually removed by the 

 animal rubbing its newly-formed antlers against the stems of trees or other con- 

 venient objects. The antlers are then complete. They attain their full develop- 

 ment shortly before the commencement of the pairing season, and during that 

 period they are employed as most efficient weapons in the contests which then take 

 place between the males of all the species of the deer tribe. Subsequently the living 

 bone beneath the skin below the burr of the antlers is absorbed, when the antler 

 itself is shed, to be renewed in the following season in the same manner as before. 



In the fawns the antler takes the form merely of a simple conical spike, and 

 this type is retained in certain South-American species throughout life. In the 

 following year the antler gives off a branch near the base, and this form also con- 

 stitutes the highest development attained by some of the smaller species. In the 

 more typical deer the antlers, however, become more and more branched with each 

 succeeding year, till in the red deer they may occasionally have as many as forty 

 points. The amount of bony matter annually secreted to form the antlers of the 

 larger deer is enormous, antlers of the red deer having been obtained which weighed 



upward of seventy- 

 four pounds, while 

 those of the extinct 

 Irish deer must have 

 probably scaled one 

 hundred pounds dur- 

 ing life. 



The different tines 

 borne by the antlers 

 of the red deer and 

 other allied species 

 have received distinct 

 names, and, as it is of 

 the highest impor- 

 tance that these should 

 be clearly understood, 

 they may be referred 

 to at once. In the red- 

 deer group (A of the 



r - a. 



B 



LEFT ANTLERS OF ASIATIC DEER. 



A . Hangul, or Kashmir deer ; B. sambar ; C. spotted deer ; D. swamp deer ; E. 

 Eld's deer; a. brow-tine ; b. bez-tine ; c. trez-tine ; d. e. anterior and posterior 



surroyals. After Blanford and Forsyth. 



accompanying figure) 

 the shaft or beam of each antler carries three tines on its lower front edge, of which 



