8tl 



CERVID.E. 



CERVID^E. 



842 



" M. Pucherau (' Diet. Univer. Hist. Nat.' iii. 314, 1843) divides 

 the Deer as follows : 



"A. With flat horns. 1. G. Dama (and var. mauricus). B. With 

 round horns, a. With more than two andouillerea : 1. C. Virginianui. 

 2. C. DuraucMii. 3. 0. Wallichii. 4. C. Elapkus. 5. C. Wapiti. 

 6. C. mucrotti. 1. C. macrurus. 8. C. occidental^. 9. C. Elapltoides. 

 6. With only two andouilleres : 10. C. Hippdaphus. 11. C. Aristo- 

 telii. 12. C. equinus. 13. C. marianue. 14. C. Peronii. 15. C. 

 unicolor. 16. C. Axis. 17. C. porcinus. 18. C. nwdipdlpelira. 19. 

 C. Leschenaultii. 20. C. Capreoliis. 21. C. Mexicanua. 22. C. palu- 

 doiiis. 23. C. campestris. c. Cerfs Daguets : 24. C. nemorirayus. 

 25. C. rufut. 



" This essay is a mere compilation without any examination. 



" M. Pucherau, in his ' Monographic des Especes du Genre Cerf ' 

 ('Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci.,' 1849, ii. 775), divides the tribe Cerriem 

 into four genera : 1. Alces ; 2. Tarandus ; 3. Cervvlvi ; and 

 4. Cervut. 



"Since the publication of Cuvier'a Essay on Deer (' Ossemeus 

 Fossiles,' iv.), where he exhibited the development of the horns of 

 several species ; and in which he described several species from the 

 study of the horns alone, many zoologists have almost entirely 

 depended on the horns for the character of the species ; and Mr. 

 Hamilton Smith has been induced to separate some species on the 

 study of a single horn. But the facilities which menageries have 

 afforded of studying these animals, and watching the variations which 

 the horns of the species present, have shown that several most distinct 

 but allied species, as the Stag of Canada and India, have horns so 

 similar that it is impossible to distinguish them by then- horns. On 

 the other hand, they have shown that animals of the same herd, or even 

 family, and sometimes even the same specimen, under different cir- 

 cumstances, in succeeding years, have produced horns so unlike one 

 another in size and form that they might have been considered, if 

 then: history wag not known, as horns of very different species. These 

 observations, and the examination of the different cargoes of foreign 

 horn which are imported for the uses of the cutler each cargo of 

 which is generally collected in a single locality, and therefore would 

 most probably belong to a single species peculiar to the district 

 have proved to me that the horns afford a much better character to 

 separate the species into groups than to distinguish the allied species 

 from one another. 



" Colonel Hamilton Smith, in his monograph of the genus, separated 

 them into genera according to the form of the horns. 



"In the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for 1836 I drew 

 attention to the glands on the hind legs, as affording very good 

 characters to arrange the genera proposed by Colonel Smith into 

 natural groups ; which in most particulars agreed with the geogra- 

 phical distribution of the species. 



" Dr. Sundevall, in bis ' Essay on Pecora,' has availed himself of the 

 characters suggested in my paper, and has also pointed out some other 

 external characters, such as the form and extent of the muffle, which 

 afford good characters, and which I firmly believe are much more im- 

 portant for the distinction of the genera and species than those 

 derived from the form of the skull, or the modifications of the teeth, 

 or the form and size of the horns ; as they are not like those parts so 

 liable to alteration from age, local circumstances, and other changes 

 during the growth of the animal ; and the characters derived from 

 these parts can be seen in the females as well as males, which is not 

 the case with the horns, as they can only be observed in the male sex. 



" These examinations have shown that the form and extent of the 

 muffle, the position and presence of glands on the hind legs, the 

 general form of the horns, and the kind of hair which forms the fur, 

 taken together, afford the best characters for the arrangement of the 

 species into natural genera, and these genera into groups. And I 

 believe that the progress of zoology, and the natural arrangement and 

 affinities of animals, are best promoted by the general study of all the 

 parts of the animal taken together, rather than confining one's atten- 

 tion to any set of characters, and believing them as much more 

 important than the others." 



At the same time that we agree with the general principles on 

 which Dr. Gray proposes his arrangement, we would draw especial 

 attention to the very interesting nature and history of the develop- 

 ment of the horns of this family of animals. 



In the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons (' Physiological 

 Series,' No. 179) will be found a section of part of the os frontis and 

 of the base of a Fallow-Deer's horn (Cervua Dama), the growth of 

 which is nearly completed. It shows the horn to be a continuation 

 of bone from the outer table of the skull, and the velvet-like covering 

 of the horn to be equally continuous with the integuments of the 

 head. It shows also the burr or pearl which has been formed round 

 the base of the horn, and illustrates the effects of this part on the 

 growth of the horn. 



In the formation of the burr, which is the last part of the process, 

 and takes place rapidly, the osseous tubercles of which it is composed 

 are projected outwards, and by their pressure induce absorption of 

 the vascular external covering ; and increasing at the same time laterally, 

 tln-y enclose and compress the blood-vessels : thus in a short space of 

 tiirm the circulation is entirely obstructed, and consequently the whole 

 of that onco very vascular and sensible tegument loses its vitality, 



dries, shrinks, and peels off, leaving the horn a naked insensible 

 weapon. In one of the branches (the brow antler) in this prepara- 

 tion, the whole of the vessels appear to have been thus obliterated ; 

 in the other a slight degree of vascularity remains, and one of the 

 large external arterial branches is still uncompressed ('Catalogue, 

 Physiol. Series,' vol. i.). The beautiful preparations illustrative of 

 the process are numbered 163 to 187, both inclusive. 



The rapidity with which this firm mass of bone is secreted is worthy 

 of note. The budding horns of a male Wapiti were several inches 

 high in ten days from their first appearance ; a mouth afterwards there 

 was an interval of two feet between them, measuring from branch to 

 branch. 



It is in the spring generally that the reproduction of the horn is 

 begun. From the place whence the old horn had been separated and 

 cast, and which at first is apt to bleed, but soon is skinned over with 

 a fine film, the new horn sprouts. At this time there is a strong 

 determination of blood to the head, great in proportion to the demand 

 for such an enormous and ultimately solid secretion. The vessels 

 from the roots swell, the vascular horn pushes up, protected by a 

 delicate and soft covering. In this its early stage it is nearly cylin- 

 drical, and the quantity of animal heat which it contains may be in 

 some degree imagined by gently grasping it with the hand. Gradually 

 the antlers appear ; the whole ' head,' to use the sporting term, is 

 developed, and becomes of the firmest solidity ; the animal feels its 

 powers, and proceeds to rub off the drying and decaying ' velvet,' 

 which may be seen at this period hanging from the horn in ragged 

 strips, against trees and other resisting bodies, leaving at last the 

 magnificent ornament and weapon with only the traces on its now 

 hard surface of the blood-vessels which had produced it. Then it is 

 that the deer, conscious of his strength, comes forth in all his gran- 

 deur, ready to do battle with any creature, even man himself, who 

 may dare to invade his haunts. Fierce fights ensue, and the strongest 

 male reigns paramount. The rutting season dies away, spring returns, 

 the antlers are shed, again to be regenerated in time for the season 

 of love. 



In the Common Stag or Red Deer (Ctrriw Elaphu*), the shedding 

 of the horns takes place about the end of February or during March. 

 The Fallow-Deer sheds his horns from about the middle of April to 

 the first weeks of May. 



For the production of these annually regenerated bony masses 

 nature has provided with her usual care. " We find it a common 

 principle in the animal machine," says John Hunter, "that every part 

 increases in some degree according to the action required. Thus we 

 find muscles increase in size when much exercised ; vessels become 

 larger in proportion to the necessity of supply, as for instance in the 

 gravid uterus. The external carotids in the stag also, when his horns 

 are growing, are much larger than at any other time ; and I have 

 observed that in inflammation the vessels become larger, more blood 

 passes, and there appears to be more actions taking place ; but the 

 nerves do not seem to undergo any change. The nerves of the gravid 

 uterus are the same as when it is in a natural state ; neither do the 

 branches of the fifth and seventh pair of nerves in the stag become 

 larger." (Hunter, ' On the Blood.') 



But it must not be supposed that the antlers reach their full ampli- 

 tude in the first years of the male deer's life. In the Stag or Red Deer 

 the horns of the male do not appear till its second year, and the first 

 which is shed (Jig. 1, Series A) is straight and single, like a small thrust- 

 sword or dagger, whence the young male is termed Daguet by the 

 French. The next hom has generally but one antler, as in fig. 2; butithas 

 sometimes two, and even three (jigs. 3, 4, which are horns of stags in 

 their third year). The third horn has three or four antlers, and some- 

 times as many as five or six, which are also the numbers of the 

 fourth (fiys. 5, 6). Up to this time the young male is called a Young 

 Stag Jeune Cerf. The fifth horn bears five or six antlers of the 

 degree of development indicated in Jigs. 6, 7, or 8. In this stage the 

 animal is called by the French Cerf de Dix Cors jeunement. The 

 sixth horn, which the stag sheds at about seven years of age, is that 

 which bestows upon the stag the appellation of Cerf de Dix Cors. 



The proportional length, direction, and curvature of the antlers 

 vary ; and it often happens that there is one more or less on the one 

 side than on the other. Independently of the number of antlers, the 

 horns become larger, the superficial furrows more marked, the burr is 

 more projecting, and the prominences of the frontal sinus which 

 support the horns become shorter and wider every year. By such 

 signs is the age of old stags, or those of from eight years upwards, 

 determined ; for after the seventh year the number of the antlers is 

 regulated by no fixed rule. They are multiplied towards the summit 

 of the beam, where they are conjoined into a kind of crown or palma- 

 tion (figs. 9, 10, 11, 12). The oldest heads do not hi general present 

 more than 10 or 12 antlers (Tines, in Scotch); but some have been 

 seen that bore the enormous number of 33. Such was the noble 

 Cerf a 66 Cors, killed by the first king of Prussia, and presented by 

 that monarch to Augustus I., elector of Saxony and king of Poland. 

 This noble head is said to be still preserved at Moritzburg. 



In all gradations of age after the appearance of the antlers, the 

 second antler is more or less approximated to the first or brow antler 

 (Maltre Andouiller of the French, a name given to it because it is the 

 largest). 



