244 



CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 



graze on the grass they dangled in front of liis eyes and obscured his 

 vision. The bnck kept shaking his head vigorously and twice I saw 

 him take the oft'ending strands in his mouth and cliew tliem oil' as higli 

 up as he could grasp them. The velvet thus obtained was not dropped 

 or thrown away but was chewed up and swallowed with evident relish. 

 By 7 o'clock all of the velvet had been "bobbed" by being chewed off to 

 the level of the buck's moutli. The buck then went out and after 

 bedding down in the center of the meadow began chewing his cud (see 

 Fig. 86). Half an hour later this buck was down near our camp horn- 

 ing some smooth willow saplings in an effort to get rid of the remaining 

 velvet. He no longer rubbed the tips of his antlers, wliieli were then 

 hard and polished and a beautiful brown in color, but spent most of his 

 energy in trying to remove the velvet where it was still tightly attached 

 at the base of his antlers. By 9 o'clock the wet, stringy strips of velvet 

 iiad begun to dry and to shrivel up into narrow "shoestrings" which, 

 two days later, resembled strips of dried up, twisted rawhide (see Fig. 

 87) that remained tightly attached to the antlers. However, the bony 

 burr at the base of the antler stuck out and protected the velvet so 



^'|%'.: 



Fig. 86. The same buck (see Fig. 85), thirteen hours later with velvet hang- 

 ing in shreds but with the ends bitten off, chewed up, and swallowed by the buck. 

 Yosemite, September 15, 1927, 6 a.m. Mus. Vert. Zool. No. 5481. 



that even repeated rubbings of the antlers against willow saplings 

 failed to remove it. I was much interested in finding out just how 

 the strips of dried-up velvet would finall}^ be gotten rid of, so I con- 

 tinued to keep close watch on this particular buck and, on the morn- 

 ing of September 18, I watched him lower his liead, then reach forward 

 with his right hind leg and using the sharp points of the hoof as a 

 chisel, he neatly pried off! and dislodged the remaining shreds of dry, 

 stiff velvet. 



It has been my experience that shedding of velvet on the antlers of 

 vigorous bucks in good physical condition is rapid and complete. 



