THE ALCINE DEER OF THE OLD AND NEW WORLDS. 73 



The young bull moose grows his first horn (a little 

 dag), of a cylindrical form, in his second summer, i.e., 

 when one year old. Both these and the next year's 

 growth, which are bifurcate, remain on the head through- 

 out the winter till April or May. The palmate horns of 

 succeeding years are dropped earlier, in January or 

 February — a new growth commencing in April. The 

 full development of the horn appears to be attained 

 when the animal is in its seventh year.* 



As a means of judging age, no dependence is to be 

 placed on the number of the tines, but more upon the 

 colour and perfect appearance of the antler. In an old 

 moose, past his prime, the horns have a bleached appear- 

 ance, and the tines are not fully developed round 

 the edge of the palm. It is my impression that when 

 moose are much disturbed, and are not allowed to " breed" 

 their horns in quiet, contorted and undersized horns 

 most frequently occur. Double and even treble palms, 



* Old Winckell, perhaps the best authority among the Germans on 

 sporting zoology, says on this point : — " In the first year of life, and indeed 

 earlier than the red deer, the elk calf shows knobby projections on that 

 part of the head where the horns grow, which by September attain an inch 

 in height. In the spring of the second year the true knobs apjjear, forming 

 single points seven or eight inches in length. These are covered with 

 dark brown velvet. In the latter part of April, or beginning of May in 

 the year following, these are cast, and are replaced either by longer single 

 points or by forked antlers, according to which the young elk is called 

 either ' spiesser ' or ' gabler.' These again are cast early in April, and are 

 replaced by heavier forks, or by shorter but six-pointed antlers, when the 

 elk obtains the designation of ' geringer hirsch.' In the fifth year the horns 

 are cast in March, and the new ones lose their velvet also at a correspond- 

 ingly earlier date. These are cast in February of the sixth year. I should 

 have previously remarked that they had already developed into branches, 

 which form they retain from henceforth, the number of points on the broad 

 shovel-shaped branches increasing with age. From this time forth the elk 

 casts in December and January, the complete reproduction of the great 

 antlers, which attain a weight of from 30 to 40 lb., not being completed 

 till June. The antlers of the young are light, those of the full-grown elk 

 are dark brown." — B. W. 



