18 THE RED DEEE. 



what way it is difficult to ascertain. Castration 

 has an immediate effect upon the antlers, though 

 as to exactly what this effect is writers on the 

 subject appear to disagree. At one time it was 

 thought that if castration takes place when the 

 animal is too young to have grown horns, they 

 never grow ; if when the horns are grown, they 

 are never shed ; if when they are shed, they never 

 grow again. No doubt the effect is not always 

 the same, for Judge Caton has shown us that a 

 buck castrated when his antlers are nearly grown 

 will shed them within thirty days, and that next 

 year he will grow a new pair which never harden. 

 They remain full of life till frozen or broken off, 

 and thereafter the stump will grow larger, and 

 though a new antler may be projected, it will never 

 develop. However this may be, the evidence is 

 sufficient to show that the antlers are sexual 

 appendages, and any injury that may befall the 

 sexual organs of a deer is at once recorded on the 

 antlers, and may recur with each year's growth 

 from that time on. When a deer is found with 

 one crippled horn, the deformity can generally be 

 traced to an injury on that side of the animal's 

 body, which has directly or indirectly affected 

 these organs. 



Red deer shed their antlers annually. As a 

 rule they drop in February, sometimes in the 

 Highlands as early as December. The Cumbrian 

 deer seldom shed their antlers until April, and an 

 immature stag might carry them till May. 



The growth of the antlers would appear to 

 be very considerably influenced by the feeding. 

 Samuel Carter, writing in the Zoologist, makes 

 reference to this point. Of eleven calves in 

 captivity he had under observation, one had nine 



