58 History of Nature. [BooK VIII. 



not regard a Man that is hunting it ; or if they discover him, 

 they will look with Wonder at his Bow and Arrows. They 

 pass the Seas, swimming by Flocks, in a long Row, each 

 one resting his Head upon the Haunches of the one before 

 him ; and the foremost retireth behind by turns. This is 

 chiefly observed by those that pass from Cilicia to Cyprus. 

 They do not see the Land, but swim towards it by their 

 Smell. The Males possess Horns, and are the only Animals 

 that cast them every Year at a certain Time of the Spring : 

 and to that Purpose, a little before the very Day, they seek 

 the most secret Places. When the Horns are shed, they keep 

 close hidden, as being unarmed ; and this they do as if they 

 grudged that any one should have any Good from them. It 

 is denied that the Right Horn can ever be found, as being 

 endued with some singular Virtue as a Medicine ; and this 

 must be granted to be a very wonderful Thing, considering 

 that in Parks 1 they change them every Year; so that it is 

 thought they bury them in the Earth. But burn which of 

 them you will, the Smell of it driveth Serpents away, and 

 discovereth them who are subject to the Epilepsy. They 

 carry the Marks of their Age on their Heads ; for every 

 Year addeth one Branch to their Horns, until they come to 

 six (sexcennes), after which Time the same Number is 

 renewed ; so that their Age cannot be discerned any more 

 by the Head, but old Age is shown by their Teeth : for in 

 the latter Case they have few or no Teeth, and are without 

 Branches at the Root of the Horns ; whereas, when they 

 were younger they used to have them standing out in front 

 of the very Forehead. When they have been castrated 2 they 



1 Vivariis, Lib. viii. 52. Wern. Club. 



3 " The sympathy between that part of the system which regulates 

 the developement of the horns in the deer tribe, and the organs of gene- 

 ration, is very remarkable. For instance, if a stag is castrated when his 

 horns are in a state of perfection, they will, it is affirmed, never be shed ; 

 if the operation is performed when the head is bare, the horns, it is said, 

 will never be regenerated ; and if it is done when the secretion is actually 

 going on, a stunted, ill-formed permanent horn is the result, more or less 

 developed, according to the period at which the animal is emasculated." 

 See Penny Cyclopaedia : Art. " Deer." Wern. Club. 



