NOTES AND QUERIES. 425 



MAMMALIA. 



The Growth of Deer-horns. — A friend has seut me ' The Zoologist' for 

 September, with your article on the growth of deer-horus. It is a subject in 

 which I take a great deal of interest, for I have had some opportunity of 

 studying it, as we have here the heads of some seventy deer killed during and 

 previous to ray great-grandfather's mastership of the North Devon Stag- 

 hounds ; and I have been Master of the Devon and Somerset Stag-hounds 

 since April, 1881, since which date we have killed some eighty stags and 

 male deer. I hope therefore you will excuse me if I offer some observations 

 on your paper. 1 am sure that a deer's horns alone are a very uncertain 

 guide to his age, though between them and Ids teeth you can tell a good 

 deal about him. I doubt if deer in a wild state bring their heads to 

 perfection as quickly as Dr. Clarke's did, for though it is true he had only 

 one small piece of ground to get his living off, yet as that was only an acre, 

 he could not have taken a great deal of exercise. It would have been 

 interesting to know what his weight was when killed. The horns of 

 Clarke's deer are in the museum at Exeter, and if I saw them on a wild 

 deer I should certainly say the animal was a year older than Clarke's deer 

 was when he had them each year on his head, as they are big well-developed 

 horns, and this has much more to do with the deer's age than the number 

 of points. Quite young deer will have eight and ten points, though both 

 horns together are no bigger than a single one well grown with but four or 

 five points on it. But I do not believe a deer ever has more than twelve 

 points till his sixth year, and he will not have so many ivell developed 

 before that time. I doubt the correctness of your statement that a deer 

 has as fine a head at six as he ever will have. I think up to nine or ten 

 years old the horn gets more points on it, and may improve in all respects. 

 I am sure deer don't have fifteen or sixteen points much earlier ; after that 

 age it gets narrower and the points shorter, though I write this under 

 considerable reservation, for Lord Brownlow told me that his Eed-deer at 

 Ashridge go on improving till fourteen, at which age they have twenty-four 

 to twenty-eight points. He showed me the head of a deer thirty years old ; 

 it had nearly thirty points, but was short and hoop-headed. My predecessor, 

 Mr. Bisset, ear-marked and turned out several deer; these occasionally 

 come to hand, and give us information. On August 28th, 1883, we killed 

 a great big stag, with brow, bay, and tray antlers, and two on top of one 

 horn, four on top of the other. He was proved by ear-marks to be seven 

 years old. On August 30th, 1883, we killed another ear-marked deer; he 

 had brow, hay, and tray, and four on top of both horns. He was eight 

 years old, but I should doubt if his horns were any heavier than those of 

 the deer killed in the previous year. On September 1st, this year, we 

 killed a deer also ear-marked with " B. B. T. 2 " on both horns ; he was five 



ZOOLOGIST. — OCT. 1884. 2 K 



