6o THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



during many generations, may at last have produced an 

 inherited effect on the vocal organs of the stag, as w as of 

 other male animals ? " All the evidence goes to show that 

 the production of sound, and the instant interpretation of 

 its significance, is a matter of the highest importance. In 

 the case of the Moose, for example, the noise occasioned 

 by the cleaning of antlers provokes the same frenzy as at 

 another time is aroused by the voice. Dullness of percep- 

 tion not only in these matters, but at all times, is fatal. 

 As touching the less conspicuous secondary sexual 

 characters of Deer more must be said presently. For the 

 moment the antlers must retain our attention. Time 

 was when the Deer lacked these appendages. When they 

 first appeared, in the now extinct species of the Middle 

 Miocene period, they were no more than short prongs. 

 Later, one of the prongs became elongated, and developed 

 short branches or " tines," which, in succeeding species, 

 became more numerous, while at the same time, with the 

 gradual evolution of more and more species, these antlers 

 assumed new features both in the matter of size and in 

 the character and number of the " tines," a development 

 which has reached its maximum to-day. But apart from 

 these specific variations, which have given us such types as 

 those of the Roe-deer, Red-deer, Wapiti, Caribou, Moose, 

 Fallow-deer, Sambar, Schombergk's deer, the strange 

 Milou-deer, Elds-deer and Mule-deer, each species displays 

 a quite remarkable range of variation in regard to its 

 particular type of antler. Nowhere, perhaps, is this 

 more strikingly marked than in the case of the Caribou 

 and Moose. No doubt this feature is due largely to the 

 fact that the horns are shed annually, and that the 

 variations are due, in part at any rate, to temporary 

 environmental conditions, such as food and weather. 



