USELESS TAILS AND QUEER HORNS. 17 



tractive appearance of the animal when wooing the 

 doe. When a buck fights any other animal except 

 another buck he usually uses his feet, but during the 

 rutting season the bucks fight terrible battles. They 

 tear up the earth and break down the trees in their 

 struggles with each other. Sometimes they fight so 

 fiercely that their horns become locked, and they die 

 from exhaustion, becoming prey for wolves. 



"The antlers are usually dropped soon after the 

 rutting season has closed. Common deer, moose, and 

 caribou begin to drop their antlers about the last of 

 December, old bucks shedding them earlier than 

 young ones. Elk usually carry their antlers until 

 March. After the antlers drop off the skin of the 

 head grows over the spot, and all bucks are 'muleys' 

 until the warm spring days start the horns to sprout- 

 ing again. 



" Now I am ready to explain what I said about the 

 antelope's shedding its horns. The part shed is the 

 shell, which is a true horn and grows on the bony 

 horn-core which is never shed. This horn is unique 

 and interesting in several respects. About half-way 

 up from the base is a prong or branch, which is 

 usually rather short. It stands forward, outward, 

 and upward. No other true horn is branched. This 

 peculiarity has given to the animal the name of 

 prong buck, by which it is known to many naturalists. 

 The prong buck sheds his horns in a most remark- 

 able way. The true horn is modified skin, as the 

 antler is modified bone. When the time for shed- 

 ding the horn comes, a new skin begins to grow be- 

 tween the shell and bony core. This core is similar 



