ANTLERS: THEIR NATURE AND GROWTH. 



47 





covered with a nearly smooth dark skin : and a soar can be detected in the middle of each, which is 

 that left by the antler of the year before, where it fell off. 



As the weather becomes more propitious these knobs commence to grow, feel warm to the 

 touch, and are evidently filled with actively-circulating blood, supplied by special vessels which are 

 developed at the time. They do not increase regularly in all directions, for if they did the antler 

 would be a sphere, but they sprout out, as it may be termed, around the above-mentioned scar ; in 

 most cases there being one branch which takes a direction forward, whilst a second larger one makes 

 its way backward. These become, in the fully-formed antler, the brow antler and the main beam ; 

 and it is by other branches growing 

 upon the beam, according to definite 

 laws, different in different species, that 

 the elaborate complications of the fully- 

 developed structure are produced. 



As long as the antler, which is 

 composed of genuine bone of very dense 

 texture, is increasing in size, it will be 

 found to be covered with the same 

 warm black skin as is the knob from 

 which it sprang ; and as this skin is 

 covered with short, fine, close-set hair, 

 it has received the name of the "velvet." 

 It is this " velvet " which secretes the 

 bony texture of the antler from its 

 inner surface, just in the same way that 

 the outer covering (the periosteum) of 

 any long bone of the body is mainly 

 concerned in the formation of the bone 

 itself. As, also, in the same way, if 

 we seriously graze our shins, and scrape 

 off this covering, the bone exposed is 

 very apt to die, so in the Deer any mis- 

 hap to the " velvet " injures the growth 

 of the antler in the part affected. The 

 animals, therefore, during the time they 

 are " in velvet " are more than usually 

 careful to protect their cranial appen- 

 dages, and are inoffensive even to 

 strangers. 



When their antler-growth has 

 ceased their natures change. The 

 " velvet " has performed its function 



and dries into a parchment-looking membrane, to get rid of which the Deer adopt a very simple 

 method. They rub their antlers against any neighbouring trees, and force them into the soft 

 earth until there is none left, and the bare bone, with scarcely any trace of hollow in the middle 

 of it, is completely exposed. Now, in the glory of their full equipment, they go in search of others 

 of their kind, having previously maintained a comparative solitude. They try their strength by 

 butting at imaginary enemies, and choose their wives, unless prevented by others of their species 

 mightier than themselves, with whom, if fairly matched, they enter into the most formidable con- 

 tests, to win or to be driven from the herd with ignominy. During these contests the sound oi 

 their battering antlers may be heard for considerable distances, whilst now and then, by accident, 

 they interlock themselves inextricably, and perish both, as is attested by skulls so found, and to 

 be seen in more than one museum. 



Looking upon the Deer generally, we find them inhabiting many parts of the world Europe, 



HEAD OF RED DEER, IN WHICH THE ANTLER IS FULLY DEVELOPED 

 AXD THE " VELVET " HAS DISAPPEARED. 



