NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



23 



above account is from the pen of Mr. J. Clarke, who has 

 published a "Treatise on the Growth of the Horns of the Red 

 Deer." (A. P. Wood, Bookseller, Barnstable, 1866.) 





Fid ,. RKI) DEEK, EldllT il.AI;:; .11.11. 



SPIUACULA OF DEER, p. 45. Mr. Henry Sawyer, head keeper 

 of Richmond Park, writes me: "I cannot think that there 

 can be any respiration from the cavity in the deer's head, 

 below the eye ; trie skin covering the cavity is of the same nature 

 apparently as the other part of the skin, and it adheres .very 

 closely to the bone, so that there is great difficulty in skin- 

 ning it without catting the skin; there is ci'rfainly no orifice in 

 the skin. This view is strengthened by the example which I 

 gave in my treatise on deer, where a stag, closely pressed, ran into 

 t lie water, and in his anxiety to hide himself, let the water into his 

 nostrils and was drowned. This my father was an eye-witness of. 

 If this cavity would have supplied the respiration, this need nut 

 have happened, as undoubtedly he kept his eyes open. Deer 



