CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 197 



believe she had never had a fawn. Her nipples were about the same 

 size as those of a buck. ' ' I personally examined the entire fresh skin 

 of this doe and was able to verify beyond any question of doubt that 

 the animal was a female. The antlers of the doe were gnarled and mal- 

 formed. They were still in the velvet on September 11 when the animal 

 was shot. There was no indication that the velvet would have been 

 shed at all, and the antlers were similar to those of certain castrated 

 bucks in which the antlers remain in the velvet. The tail and meta- 

 tarsal gland of this doe were typical of the Rocky Mountain mule deer. 



The second antlered doe (now number 36,543 in the Museum of 

 Vertebrate Zoology) was shot by Oscar T. Schumacher on September 

 29, 1926, at a point seven miles south of Truckee, California, about a 

 mile and one-half from the Truckee River. The head of this doe is 

 similar to that of an average forked-horn buck of the species. The 

 antlers are of fair size and have very well developed brow tines low 

 down near the base. When killed on September 29, the antlers of 

 this deer were completely out of the velvet, being brown and hard 

 like those of an ordinary buck. According to Schumacher's testimony, 

 "this doe was in first class condition, fat and well built, weighing 150 

 pounds dressed." 



The third doe with antlers (number 36,544 in the Museum of 

 Vertebrate Zoology) was brought to my attention through the assist- 

 ance of Dr. L. A. Herrick and Dr. Robert T. Legge of Berkeley. This 

 was a forked-horn doe in good flesh. It was killed on October 8, 1926, 

 near the Sequoia Silver Fox Farm at Lake Tahoe, California. As in 

 the previous cases, examination of the partly skinned specimen showed 

 that the animal was unquestionably a female. A comparison of the 

 antlers of these two forked-horn does showed that they could be 

 matched exactly by antlers of forked-horn bucks from the same region. 



Measurements of the three antlered does are as follows : 



Circumference 

 Spread, Height above crotcn, at base, 



Mus. Vert. Zool. No. inches inches inches 



35,326 9f 12* 



36.543 101 91 2J 



36.544 121 Hi 3 



* Antlers malformed ; the rifrht antler with five points has a height of 12 

 inches, while the left antler has four points and a height of 7i inches. 



Considerable discussion has arisen regarding the possible causes of 

 antlers appearing on heads of the female deer. It would seem to the 

 writer that antlers in deer are a secondary sexual character and, just 

 as we occasionally find women who possess beards, it is not surprising 

 to find in deer an occasional doe with antlers. H. T. Morgan, in The 

 Genetic and Operative Evidence Relating to Secondary Sexual CJmrac- 

 ters, published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington (1919, p. 

 70), states: "There are, however, a few records of horns developing 

 in this sex [female] in old age, or presumably after disease of the 

 ovaries. ' ' I would like to point out that in the case of the first antlered 

 doe, the doe in question was old and the antlers were malformed and 

 in the velvet, so that it is entirely po.ssible that her reproductive organs 



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