8 RENEWAL OF HOKNS. 



with a thick sort of leaden-coloured skin, which remains 

 on them till the deer are in good condition : it then begins 

 to fall off, and, for a short space, hangs in shreds, ragged 

 and broken ; but they remove it as quickly as they can, 

 by raking their antlers in the roots of the heather, or in 

 such branches of shrubs as they can find adapted to the 

 purpose. When they have shaken off this skin, which is 

 called the velvet, and which disappears in the months of 

 August and September, they are said to have clean horns ; 

 and as these deer are in the best condition, they are the par- 

 ticular object of the sportsman. The new horns are very 

 sensitive, and the harts at this time avoid bringing them 

 into collision with any substance. 



If the well-known operation for making an animal fat 

 be performed on a fawn or calf, he will never have horns ; 

 if it be performed when he is five or six years old, after he 

 has attained his full growth, he will never drop them ; and 

 if performed when he has dropped them, they will never be 

 renewed. This is asserted by Buffon, and has been con- 

 firmed to me by John Crerar, who has been sixty years in 

 the forest of Atholl. But I have seen a stag in the pos- 

 session of Mr. Herring, dealer in animals, which underwent 

 this operation, and not only lost his horns subsequent to it, 

 but was supplied with others of a ragged form and very 

 diminished size; it is probable that in this instance the 

 essential vessels were not completely removed, and that the 

 operation was consequently imperfect. I once killed a 

 very large fat hart on the top of Ben Dairg, in the month 

 of September, which had not been cut, and still had no 

 horns at all. 



I myself have often observed, that if a hart has one of 



