THE DEER KIND. 



257 



CHAPTER XLV. 



ANIMALS OF THE DEER KIND. 



IF we compare the stag and the bull, as to 

 shape and form, no two animals can be more 

 unlike ; and yet, if we examine their internal 

 structure, we shall find a striking similitude 

 between them. Indeed, their differences, ex- 

 cept to a nice observer, \\ ill scarcely be per- 

 ceivable. All of the de.T kind want the gall- 

 bl.idder ; their kidneys are formed differently ; 

 their spleen is also proportionably larger; their 

 tail is shorter ; and their horns, which are 

 soli I, are renewed every year. Such are the 

 slight internal discriminations between two 

 animals, one of which is among the swiftest, 

 and the other the heaviest of the brute creation. 



The stag is one of those innocent and peace- 

 able animals that seems made to embellish the 

 forest, and animate the solitudes of nature. 

 The easy elegance of his form, the lightness of 

 his motions, those large brandies that seem 

 made rather for the ornament of his head than 

 its defence, the size, the strength, and the swift- 

 ness of tiiis beautiful creature, all sufficiently 

 rank him among the first of quadrupeds, 

 among the most noted objects of human curi- 

 osity. 



The stag, or hart, whose female is called a 

 hind, and the young a calf, differs in the size 

 and in horns from a fallow-deer. He is much 

 larger, and his horns are round ; whereas in 

 the fallow-kind they are broad and palmated. 

 By these the animal's age is known. The first 

 year the stag has no horns, but a horny ex- 

 crescence, which is short, rough, and covered 

 with a thin, hairy skin. The next year the 

 horns are single and straight ; the third year 

 they have two antlers, three the fourth, four 

 the fifth, and five the sixth ; this number is not 

 always certain, for sometimes there are more, 

 and often less. When arrived at the sixth 

 year, the antlers do not always increase : and 

 although the number may amount to six or 

 seven on each side, yet the animal's age is 

 then estimated rather from the size of the ant- 

 lers, and the thickness of the branch which 

 sustains them, than from their variety. These 

 horns, large as they seem, are, notwithstanding, 

 shed every year, and new ones come in their 



place. The old horns are of a firm, solid tex- 

 ture, and usually employed in making handles 

 for knives, and other domestic utensils. But 

 while young, nothing can be more soft or ten- 

 der ; and the animal, as if conscious of his own 

 imbecility at those times, instantly upon shed- 

 ding his former horns, retires from the rest of 

 his fellows, and hides himself in solitudes and 

 thickets, never venturing out to pasture, except 

 by night. During this time, which most usu- 

 ally happens in the spring, the new horns are 

 very painful, and have, a quick sensibility of 

 any external impression. The flies, also, are 

 extremely troublesome to him. When the old 

 horn is fallen off, the new does not begin im- 

 mediately to appear ; but the bones of the skull 

 are seen covered only with a transparent perios- 

 teum or skin, which, as anatomists teach us, 

 covers the bones of all animals. After a short 

 time, however, this skin begins to swell, and to 

 form a soft tumour, which contains a great deal 

 of blood, and which begins to be covered with 

 a downy substance that has the feel of velvet, 

 and appears nearly of the same colour with the 

 rest of the animal's hair. This tumour every 

 day buds forward from the point like the graft 

 of a tree ; and, rising by degrees from the head, 

 shoots out the antlers on either side, so that in 

 a few days, in proportion as the animal is in 

 condition, the whole head is completed. How- 

 ever, as was said above, in the beginning, its 

 consistence is very soft, and has a sort of bark, 

 which is no more than a continuation of the 

 integument of the skull. It is velveted and 

 downy, and every where furnished with blood- 

 vessels, that supply the growing horns with 

 nourish; nent. As they creep along the sides 

 of the branches, the print is marked over the 

 whole surface ; and the larger the blood-vessels, 

 the deeper these marks are found to be : from 

 hence arises the inequality of the surface of the 

 deer's horns ; which, as we see, are furrowed 

 all along the sides, the impressions diminishing 

 towards the point, where the substance is as 

 smooth and as solid as ivory. But it ought to 

 be observed, that this substance, of which the 

 horns are comoosed, begins to harden at the 



