344 HOOFED ANIMALS 



When the antler has attained its full year's growth, it 

 would be useless if surrounded by the sensitive velvet, which 

 would bleed harmfully if wounded. At the base of each 

 antler there is a circular ridge or burr. As the burr is 

 formed it narrows the grooves in which the arteries lie and 

 gradually cuts off the supply of blood. The skin, thus 

 deprived of the life-giving fluid, shrivels and dries up, when 

 the Deer gets rid of it by rubbing the antlers against tree- 

 trunks. While in velvet the animal is very inoffensive, 

 taking the greatest care of its headgear. 



So much for the growth of the antlers, but now for the 

 reason of their annual renewal. The Deer live in small 

 families, each family consisting of several females and one 

 male. In order to ensure that the offspring shall be strong 

 and healthy, the males always have to fight for their wives, 

 the latter cheerfully becoming the property of the victor. 

 Often in combat an antler is broken, and if there were no 

 means of repairing the loss, the animal would be per- 

 manently disabled and unable to fight, just when he was 

 at his best. The rapidity with which so large an amount of 

 bony matter is deposited is really wonderful. The antlers 

 of the Wapiti, for example, weigh as much as sixty pounds. 

 They begin to grow in February, and are complete in Sep- 

 tember. How the head and neck become accustomed to 

 the great weight is rather mysterious. Especially is this 

 the case with the Moose, whose broad antlers are of 

 enormous proportional weight ; and in the great Irish Elk 

 now extinct, they weighed more than the whole skeleton. 



Deer feed chiefly on the leaves of young trees and shrubs, 

 grasses, weeds, and fungi of various kinds. In autumn fallen 

 fruits, nuts, acorns, &c., afford the animals almost unlimited 

 provender. Deer flesh, or venison, both of wild and 

 domesticated animals, is wholesome and nutritious. Deer 

 skin can be dressed as soft as that of the chamois ; and the 

 excellence of doe-skin gloves is too well known to need 

 special description. 



Considering their usefulness, it is remarkable that civilised 

 man has not domesticated the Deer tribe more largely. It 

 has been left to the Laplander to show by means of the 

 Reindeer how largely Deer of many kinds might minister 



