204 RUMINANTIA. 



assisting in getting rid of it by rubbing his antlers against the 

 trees. They are now firm, hard and white ; and the stag bears 

 them proudly, and brandishes them in defiance of his rivals. 

 From the burr upwards, these antlers are no longer part and 

 parcel of the system, they are extraneous, and held only by 

 their mechanical continuity with the footstalk on which they 

 were placed ; hence their deciduous character ; for it is a vital 

 law, that the system shall throw off all parts no longer intrinsic- 

 ally entering into the integrity of the whole, an absorption 

 process soon begins to take place just beneath the burr, removing 

 particle after particle, till at length the antlers are separated and 

 fall by their own' weight, or by the slightest touch, leaving the 

 living end of the footstalk exposed and slightly bleeding. This 

 is immediately covered with a pellicle of skin which soon thick- 

 ens, and all is well. The return of spring brings with it a re- 

 newal of the whole process, and a finer pair of antlers branch 

 forth." 



The rapidity with which this firm mass of bone is secreted, is 

 worthy of particular notice. The budding horns of a male 

 Wapite, are several inches high in ten days from their first ap- 

 pearance ; a month afterwards there is an interval of two feet 

 between them, measuring from branch to branch. When the 

 process is ended that completes the horn, the deer seems con- 

 scious of his strength, and goes forth prepared to encounter any 

 creature, even man himself, that may dare to invade his haunts. 

 Thus he continues for a season, but when he again sheds his 

 horns, betakes himself to the recesses of the forest until they are 

 replaced. The Common Stag sheds his horns about the end of 

 February, or in the month of March ; the Fallow Deer from the 

 middle of April to the first week of May. In the Stag, the horns 

 do not appear until the second year. The first shed, is straight, or 

 single, like a small thrust sword or dagger, whence the young 

 male is termed Daguet, (Fr. dague, a dagger,) by the French; 

 the next horn has commonly but one antler ; the third has two, 

 and sometimes three ; the fourth has three or four, sometimes 

 five or six. Up to this time, the animal is called a Young 

 Stag, the fifth horn has five or six antlers; the, sixth is shed 

 when the animal is about seven years of age. In addition to 

 the growth of antlers, the horns become larger, have the fur- 

 rows more marked, the burr more projecting; and the supports 

 of the horns become, every year, shorter and wider. By these 

 signs, the age of the animal, from eight years and upwards, is 

 determined. After the seventh year, there is no fixed rule as to 

 the antlers. They are multiplied towards the summit of the 



