80 





CKUVIh.r. 



MM i. 



Horns of Stag (Cn-rui Elafliiu). Left llornn. 



The sympathy between that part of the system which regulate* 

 the development of the horns in the Deer-Tribe and the organs of 

 generation is most remarkable. For instance, if a stag is castrated 

 when his horns are in a state of perfection they will, it is affirmed, 

 never be sb*d ; if the operation is performed when the head is bare, 

 the horns, it is said, will never be regenerated ; and if it is done when 

 secretion is actually going on, a stunted ill-formed permanent horn is 

 the result, more or less developed, according to the period at which 

 the animal is emasculated. Any disturbance of the system generally 

 produces a corresponding deterioration in the horn. In the subjoined 

 cut) f'J- a represents the horn of a deer (Cervia Canadentii) produced 



a, Horn of Peer produced under unfavourable circumstances ; t, born of 

 nme Deer produced under more favourable circumstances, 

 during a voyage from America ; and 6 a horn subsequently developed 

 in the French Menagerie by the same individual, which afterwards 

 produced a head of surprising dimensions. 



The same system of development which we have observed in the 

 horn with branching antlers is in great measure to be traced in the 

 other leading form of horn, namely, the palmated horn. Taking the 

 horn of the Fallow-Deer (Cerviu Damn) as an example of the latter, 

 we find the horn first put forth by the buck at two years old (when he is 

 called a Pricket), a simple shaft, slightly curved, the concavity turned 

 forwards (jig. 1, Series ) ; this curvature the horns retain throughout. 

 The second year there are two antlers directed forwards (fig. 2), and 



(fyt. 5, 6, 7, 8). Sometimes one or two of those dentolations f.inn 

 true recurrent antlers (figt. 6, 8). 1'i'j*. 8 and 9 are horns nf the 

 fourth growth, and it will Iw Keen that they begin to lie divided above. 

 In the following years the palm is irregularly and variously divided 

 (fifff. 10, 11, 12, 13), so that the horn* "f <ild luniks an- very fre<|<iently 

 oddly shaped, and hardly to be recognised. With still nioiv ad\ 



Horns of a Fallow-Deer (Cerent Damn) that were not shed at the usual time 

 in consequence of the castration of the animal. 1 rum the Museum of the 

 College of Surgeons. 



age they continue to dwindle. Cuvier, from whom this account and 

 the figures of the growth of the deer's horn are taken, says that it 



Horn* of Fallow. Deer (Ctrtui Damn). Loft Horn*. 



the summit of the horn in some coses begins to spread into a palm I is asserted that these palmated Imnis "f (In- lnu:k finis 

 (fg*. 3, 4), which afterwards increase*, throwing out a greater or on the simple appearance of the horn fir.-.!, developed 

 leu number of dentelations on its posterior and superior border | states that ho in fact possessed tho head of a fallow-deer 



by putting 



); :md 

 which had 



