248 



DEER. 



best way he could ; and, from the miserable doggrel 

 in which he vented his indignation against those who 

 had punished him, there is every reason to conclude 

 that if Shakspeare had remained in the country, he 

 never would have been the author of one readable 

 line Therefore, the deer may be said to have given 

 us more than man by force of armies, or by strength 

 of reasoning, could have given us it has given us 

 Shakspeare. 



Deer belong more to wild than to cultivated nature ; 

 and more to the rude and early stages of countries than 

 to the more polished and advanced periods. They are 

 also inhabitants of northern climates rather than of cen- 

 tral ones ; and in the extreme south are unknown as na- 

 tive animals. They are found throughout the continent 

 of Europe and Asia, and in the more proximate Asiatic 

 isles ; but there is not a vestige of them or of their 

 remains in any of the islands of the great South Sea, 

 in Australia, or in Africa, as native animals. They 

 are found, indeed, in the north of Africa, on the slopes 

 of the mountains of Atlas, but there is not the least 

 doubt that though now naturalised there, they were 

 originally imported : there is not a vestige of them to 

 the south or the east of the desert of Sahara, though 

 all that part of Africa swarms with antelopes ; and 

 the southmost of the Asiatic isles in which they are 

 met with is Timor, where the species is very small, 

 and by no means abundant. 



In America, their grand head-quarters is the north, 

 though they continue downwards along the mountain 

 slopes, and in the extensive forests, a good way into 

 South America ; but although there are several 

 species in that part of the western continent, it does 

 not appear that there is even there any one which 

 can, with propriety, be called an Antarctic or southern 

 deer. Thus we may regard them as being properly 

 animals not merely of the northern hemisphere, but 

 of the extreme north, for the species which are found 

 there are of far greater size than those farther to the 

 south, and also more abundant in numbers. 



Although some of the species are Comparatively 

 tame, and one in particular, the rein-deer of the north 

 of Europe, is in a state of complete domestication, 

 yet, as a genus, they cannot be ranked among 

 domestic animals, and they fade away before the 

 procuress of cultivation. In the state of nature, they, 

 generally speaking, frequent grounds which are 

 rather rich, and most of them either the woods or 

 thoir margins. Some of them are fond of marshes, 

 and the banks of streams, and even take to the water 

 at a certain season of the year, and all of them can 

 swim. In locality and food the species differ a good 

 deal, so that we shall mention these particulars along 

 with our notice of the species themselves. 



The following are the generic characters : eight 

 incisive teeth in the lower jaw, but none in the upper ; 

 no canine teeth in most of the species, though some 

 have them in the upper jaw ; six grinders above and 

 below on each side ; head long, terminated by a 

 muzzle, and with the upper lip more or less elongated 

 and prehensile in the different species ; the ears 

 very large ; the eyes bright and clear, with the pupil 

 elongated ; sub-orbital sinuses, or slits under the eyes, 

 in the greater number; tongue soft ; no gall-bladder; 

 the female with four mammae in the groin. 



As, in the former part of this article, our physiolo- 

 gical remarks on the use of the horns in the economy 

 of the animal took our attention from the description 

 of them, and as that is a sort of technical matter, 



which it is sometimes reckoned unclassical not to 

 know, we shall mention a few of the particulars 

 The ring of irregular protuberances which surround 

 the horn at its base is called the burr ; the main stem 

 of the horn is called the beam ; the divisions on the 

 upper part of the beam are called branches, or snags ; 

 and the branches next the brows, of which there is 

 one, two, or three, according to the species, and 

 there are occasionally, but rarely, some irregularities 

 in the same species, are called antlers ; and the 

 first of these is called the brow-antler, and the second 

 the bezantler. The rudimental horns, which appear 

 the first year, but they do not make their appearance 

 till the year is out, that is, till the summer after they 

 are dropped, are called prickets, and the little pro- 

 tuberances on them, which mark the rudimental 

 antlers and branches, are called dags, which name is 

 also sometimes given to the prickets. In some of 

 the species, and it is most remarkable in the southern 

 ones, the beams and branches are all slender, and 

 nearly round in their sections ; but in other species, 

 and most conspicuously in the most northern ones, 

 the beams, and in some also the antlers, have flattened 

 extremities, which are called palms ; and when the 

 beam is much palmated, the terminating branches 

 are usually short snags. In the stag, when full grown, 

 snags appear on the front edge of the upper part of 

 the beam, or the forward branch, in which case the 

 animal is called a " fore-hand stag." 



During the time of its growth the horn is sentient, 

 and bleeds when wounded, and a wound upon it will 

 sometimes occasion the production of an additional 

 snag. The following is an account of the progress of 

 the horn : At first a slight protuberance appears 

 covered by the skin, where a great number of vessels 

 are spread, for a considerable degree of heat is per- 

 ceptible under it. Soon the protuberance rises, and 

 in some species branches off into ramifications. After 

 a certain period, the development is arrested, the 

 skin, which had continued to stretch and extend over 

 the whole production, loses its heat, dies, becomes 

 dry, and finishes by tearing off in rags. At length 

 the horn itself becomes detached, and falls ; a slight 

 hemorrhage follows from the skin, or the part of the 

 frontal which sustained it. In the course of twenty- 

 four hours, in healthy deer, the vessels which emitted 

 the blood are closed, a thin pellicle covers the 

 wound, and immediately the reproduction of a new 

 horn becomes apparent ; the extremity of the vessels 

 swells, a burr expands around the base where the late 

 horn stood, resembling those on the bark of trees 

 when they have received wounds which begin to 

 cicatrize ; the burr widens, while the vessels which 

 proceed from the bone deposit osseous matter. 

 Hitherto the development of the horn has been 

 uniform, the vessels have extended in a certain 

 direction, always the same in each species ; but 

 when they have arrived at a certain point, they 

 separate, some continuing as before, while others 

 turn into new, but always invariable directions, if no 

 accident impedes them. The horns of each year 

 come up with a branch or snag more than in the 

 preceding year, so that they serve for a sort of 

 register of the age of the animal. No male deer is 

 said to be " of the first head," till there are five snags 

 or branches ; and after that he is counted, and ranks 

 in hunters' honours by the number. When he ia 

 " a stag of ten," he is accounted a noble animal. 



In giving an account of the various species of deer 



