lO VIGNETTES FROM NATURE, 



It IS interesting to note, too, that the his- 

 torical evolution of antlers in the deer tribe is 

 exactly paralleled by the modern evolution of 

 antlers in every individual red deer. In the 

 first year a stag has no horns at all, and is 

 technically known as a calf. In his second 

 year he puts forth a pair of rounded bosses, 

 and is therefore called a knobber in the slang 

 of the gillies. With his third year the knobs 

 fall off, and are replaced by longer horns, 

 called dags, while the stag himself is now 

 known as a brocket. Thus, year after year, 

 the growing deer reproduces one stage after 

 another of the ancestral development, till at 

 length the top of the horn expands into a 

 broad crown, and the beast is then finally 

 dubbed a hart or *stag of ten,' from the 

 number of tines on each of his antlers. It 

 would be quite possible to pair the cast horns 

 of each year tolerably exactly with corre- 

 sponding adult horns from the successive ter- 

 tiary strata. Every deer in fact recapitulates 



