118 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



V 



this, the age of the animal can not he reckoned with any 

 degree of certainty. In common with the rest of the Deer 

 family, the horns of this species are shed annually. In 

 the spring the horn becomes loose and drops from the head, 

 and from the same spot the new horn begins to grow, as if 

 it had pushed the old horn off. The buck immediately 

 takes to the thick brush usually to the high mountains 

 there to remain until his new head-ornaments or weapons, 

 if you please have attained their entire growth. This pro- 

 ceeding takes place in the almost incredibly short time of 

 from four to six weeks. By this time the antlers are as 

 large as they ever will be, but are soft, and covered with 

 that beautiful brown substance known as the velvet. If 

 cut, the horn will bleed, and if one should kill a buck while 

 in the velvet, and there should happen to be any dogs about 

 camp, he will have to keep a watch on them, for the dogs 

 have a great fondness for the soft horn. Indians and China- 

 men are also very fond of it. 



While the horn is in its extremely soft state, the animals 

 are generally in poor condition. It does not take them 

 long to pick Tip what they have lost, however, and by fall 

 they are enormously fat. 



When the antlers are grown to their entire size, the 

 animal seeks the ridges and elevated spots, where he may 

 be found sunning his beautiful head- ornaments. Under 

 this treatment, or from other causes, the horns soon become 

 covered with creases, and appear to shrink. They get hard, 

 and the animal proceeds to rub them against overhanging 

 limbs, or the bodies of small shrubs, thus removing the 

 velvet. The antlers do not become perfect until fall, when 

 the velvet is entirely removed, and the horn is hard and 

 highly polished. 



The rutting-season occurs in October and November, and 

 at this season the actions of the bucks are very peculiar, not 

 to say ludicrous. Their necks swell to a large size, so that 

 the hitherto loose skin of the same becomes actually tight. 

 With bulging eyes and wide-spread legs, they plunge 

 through the forest as if possessed of an unclean spirit. It 



