376 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [15:9— Dec, 1919 



a year old. The two branched horn belongs to a deer about three 

 years old and so on. Very rarely indeed a female will develop spike 

 horns covered with velvet. 



The new horns appear on the deer in the Adirondacks about the 

 middle of May; as they rapidly elongate, they harden from below 

 upward. They are for a time quite soft and are provided with a 

 downy covering known as the "velvet." The "velvet" is a skin 

 supplied with blood vessels to carry nourishment to the growing 

 tissue. As the growth is completed, the blood supply to the velvet 

 is checked and it withers and ravels off. Each succeeding pair of 

 horns is as a rule more and more branched, so that a large number 

 of "points" indicates to the hunter an old individual. 



The fawns are without these beautiful ornaments which render 

 the full grown deer one of the most graceful and impressive of all 

 four-footed animals. The young, as is usual with the deer family, 

 are thickly covered with white spots, which vanish as they grow 

 older. As a rule, the female deer bears two fawns and these are 

 born in the month of May. They are very quick in learning to 

 walk and run. The little fawn is prettiest when he is about a 

 month and a half old; the sides are spotted with white, the face is 

 delicately shaded with deeper and paler color, and the eyes are 

 unusually large and expressive. The dainty creature is the very 

 embodiment of gracefulness in movement as well as appearance; 

 nothing is more charming than the airiness of his little leaps over 

 the uneven turf, and he is perfectly surefooted. He is very 

 inquisitive and depends on his agile legs for escape if anything 

 should prove dangerous. 



The long thin legs of this deer are admirable adapted for rapid 

 movement, and with the exception perhaps of some of the ante- 

 lopes, there is no animal, that, making allowance for its size, can 

 compare with it for speed. A glance at a timid deer shows that all 

 of his faculties are on the alert: the head is erect, the broad ears 

 are turned in the direction of danger, the eyes are intently peering, 

 the nostrils are distended and in motion, and an uneasy forefoot is 

 poised for a run. For grace and beauty of form, the deer is surely 

 unsurpassed — , its stately carriage giving it a style not possessed 

 by any other animal. 



At the coming of fall, the hair grows twice as thick as it was at 

 midsummer. His coat is shed gradually twice a year, in June and 

 September. For food, it lives on young twigs especially those of 



