THE ANTLERS OF THE RED-DEER 229 



velvet," their growth stops from that day and 

 the velvet is never cast. It dries up, but adheres 

 hard to the horn. 



Another curious fact marks the sex character 

 of the grand armature of the deer. Antlers on 

 a female deer are about as rare as a beard on a 

 woman, but old hinds supposed to be past the 

 fertile period of life have been known to produce 

 them. Something of an analogous nature has 

 been seen in the human species, and it is far from 

 uncommon in the case of fowls. In these days 

 of scientific poultry-rearing and marketing, few 

 fowls are ever permitted to attain old age, but 

 in former days it was common farmyard know- 

 ledge that hens allowed to live beyond the laying 

 period tended to develop wattles, and even spurs, 

 and to crow like cocks. 



There is accordingly no doubt that the antlers 

 of the deers are sexual characters, and that their 

 evolution is more akin to that of the peacock's 

 tail coverts than to that of the purely defensive 

 of offensive weapons of the other ruminants. But 

 the question remains, Have they been developed 

 as sex weapons, like the spurs of the polygamous 

 fowls, or as ornaments, like the wattles and finer 

 plumage of the cock? It looks like a question 

 which answers itself, and yet the answer is not so 

 certain as it seems. Most naturalists are agreed 

 that, especially in the case of polygamous animals, 

 both ornament and fighting capacity play a great 

 part in enabling the males to secure the large 

 harem which they all aim at, and the antlers of 

 the deer are both ornamental and warlike. 



