Z BRITISH QUADRUPEDS. 



their conveying blood to the horn ; the membrane 

 then becomes insensible and dead, and in time is 

 rubbed off. 



The separation of this portion is called fraying ; and 

 the huntsman can judge of the size and strength of the 

 stag by the fraying-post, that is, the height of the tree 

 against which he has been butting and rubbing his 

 horns, to separate the outer covering. When this is 

 detached, the horns are perfect. 



That the horns are of great strength, is evident 

 from the furious contests in which these animals en- 

 gage. In one of our museums there are two sets 

 of antlers, entangled and wedged together; they be- 

 longed to two stags, which had struck so fiercely 

 against each other, that they could not withdraw their 

 horns, and thus strangely locked together, they were 

 found dead. 



It is a curious fact, not generally known, that at one 

 time the horns of stags grew into a much greater 

 number of ramifications than at the present day. 

 There is one in the museum of Hesse Cassel with 

 twenty-eight antlers. Baron Cuvier mentions another 

 with sixty-six, or thirty-three on each horn. It is 

 supposed by some, that the difference arose from the 

 greater abundance of food, and from the animal having 



