STAG, HIND, AND CALF. 125 



horn (sure proof that the horn had been torn off), the 

 other had hardly a vestige of the knob whereon the 

 missing horn should have grown. More decided evi- 

 dence than this, however, is the fact that a young male 

 deer taken before the hounds in 1868, and then par- 

 tially castrated on account of injuries received, was 

 killed in 1872 with a pair of perfectly grown horns. 

 This stag carried all his rights and two on top of both 

 sides (ten points in all) ; the points were short, but the 

 horns were perfectly even in point of size, and were 

 still cased in velvet, showing that they were newly 

 grown. 



But indeed Dr. Collyns is throughout incorrect in 

 this matter. If a male deer be castrated before he has 

 ever grown a horn he will never grow one at all, but 

 if the operation be performed after he has grown his 

 horns he will continue to grow and shed them every 

 year. The real peculiarity of the growth of such deer's 

 horns is that they are never perfectly developed, they 

 are always small, always soft, in fact gristle rather than 

 horn, and never lose the velvet. Further, it appears 

 that the operation may be so modified as either to arrest 

 the growth of the horns or to develop them abnor- 

 mally. Dr. Collyns himself relates that a park stag 

 which had been emasculated (in consequence of vicious- 



