HORXS OF MAMMALIA. - 031 



and the South American C. rufus, C. simplicicornis, have antlers 

 more or less in the condition of * dags ' at all ages. 



If a Fallow-buck, with antlers, be castrated, they are shed 

 earlier than usual, and by a more active absorbent process, which 

 leaves an irregular concavity at the base : the antlers that are sub- 

 sequently developed are small, seldom branched, retain the ( vel- 

 vet ' longer than usual, and become thickened by irregular tuber- 

 culate masses of bone. If a young buck be castrated before it 

 has ( put up ' antlers, it does, afterwards, in some instances, 

 develope them, but of reduced size and abnormal shape, retaining 

 them, with their formative covering, longer than usual. Occa- 

 sionally, though rarely, they are shed and renewed : but such 

 shed antlers of a ' heavier ' or castrate deer are characterised by 

 the excavation of their base. 1 The normally shed antlers of per- 

 fect males have the base flat or convex, and almost smooth. A 

 rare instance of the sexual relation of antlers, the coincidence, viz. 

 of a small one with a diseased ovary of the same size, in a fallow- 

 doe, has been recorded. 2 



In most deer the antlers are supported on permanent processes, 

 or ' pedicels,' varying in length in different species, and attaining 

 their greatest in the Muntjac (Cervus Muntjac, vol. ii. p. 478, 

 fig. 328), which thus seems to shed only half its horns. The per- 

 sistent integument of such pedicels is always defended by the 

 burr (ib. b), below which the absorbent process takes place at 

 the shedding period. 



Thus Deer are the only Ungulates that annually shed their 

 horns : the Prong-buck is the only known hollow-horned Rumi- 

 nant that annually sheds the extravascular part of the horn, called 

 the c sheath.' The horns of Ungulates may be summarised as con- 

 sisting either of horn only (Rhinoceros), of bone only (Cervus), 

 of horn and bone (Bos), or of skin and bone ( Camelopardalis). 



1 Redi's dictum: — ' Si cervus juvenis castretur, nondum emissis cornubus, cornua 

 mmquam emittit : si castretur jam emissis cornubus, cornua nunquam mutat ; sed 

 quse dum castratur habet, castratus semper retinet' (ccxxvn". p. 162) : — is adopted by 

 Buffon : — ' Si Ton fait cette operation dans le temps qu'il a mis bas sa tete, il ne s'en 

 forme pas une nouvelle ; et si on ne la fait au contraire que dans le temps qu'il a refait 

 sa tete, elle ne tombe plus ; l'animal, en un mot, reste pour toute sa vie dans l'etat ou 

 il etait lorsqu'il a subi la castration,' cxxn'. torn. vi. p. 81. 



The experiments (xuv. pp. 590, 591), which Sir Philip de M. Grey Egerton, Bart., 

 was so kind as to have made, at my suggestion, on Fallow-deer, in Oulton Park, 

 yielded in the main the results given in the text. It is desirable that similar experi- 

 ments should be repeated in the Red -deer. Two males of Rein-deer, said to be cas- 

 trates, at the Zoological Gardens, and which have never shown sign of rut, have shed 

 and reproduced antlers of normal form, and nearly full size during three consecutive 

 years. 



2 ccxi.ni", p. 356. 



