350 CERVIDJ!. 



external carotid arteries, which are temporarily much 

 enlarged. When the antler has assumed the size and 

 form characteristic of the species and of tlie age of the 

 individual, the burr is developed, and by compressing the 

 bases of the larger vessels it cuts off the supply of 

 blood. The substance of the antler then assumes its 

 proper density and hardness, and the velvet dries and peels 

 off in shreds, a process which is hastened by the animal 

 rubbing his horns against trees or rocks. The perfect 

 antler thus produced is a most effectual weapon of 

 defence in many species, and they are often used in the 

 pairing season in the violent and sometimes fatal combats 

 between the males. Soon after that season the Deer 

 instinctively seeks seclusion, the union of the burr with 

 the frontal bone becomes loosened, and the antlers fall off, 

 to be again renewed in the same manner. Such is a brief 

 and general description of this remarkable process, the 

 details of which vary in the different species, as will be 

 noticed hereafter. 



The Red Deer or Stag is a native of the more temperate 

 regions of Europe and Northern Asia, but in the former 

 continent its limits have been much reduced by the 

 advance of civilization and agriculture. In Scandinavia 

 it is confined to a few forests in Sweden, principally in 

 the province of Scania, and to some of the Norwegian 

 islands, notably that of Hittern, near Bergen, where it is 

 carefully preserved. In Russia it is said to be only 

 found in the Caucasus, but it is a native of a consider- 

 able part of Siberia from the Ural to the Lena, and is 

 stated by Middendorf to extend as far south as the 

 Mandshuri Mountains. The Stag was formerly very 

 generally distributed throughout Central Europe, and 

 although it has been exterminated in many places, it still 

 holds its ground in some parts of Britain, in the larger 



