86 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
season, as already stated, is in August (sometimes at the end of 
July), the germ, or ovum, remains dormant, and of minute size, 
for about four months and a half, until December, when it 
suddenly begins to develope at the normal rate, the whole period 
of gestation being forty weeks.* Commenting upon this singular 
fact, Bell, in his ‘ History of British Quadrupeds’ (2nd ed. p. 365), 
observes, “ As far as we are aware no similar phenomena have 
been observed in any other quadruped, and it is difficult to 
conceive why this species should differ so markedly from others 
which are nearly allied to it both in organization and habits.” 
Upon this we would remark that, having under consideration a 
great number of instances in which female Badgers, after having 
been kept in solitary confinement for periods as long as ten, 
eleven, twelve, and even thirteen months, have suddenly produced 
young, there is some reason to suspect that with this animal also 
there may be a period of “ suspended gestation,” and it would be 
well if some competent embryologist would institute as careful 
an enquiry in the case of the Badger as has been made by Prof. 
Bischoff in the case-of the Roe. 
The fawns follow their parents for about six months, and it is 
not until the following spring that the young bucks begin to get 
their horns. In their first year these are single straight tines ; 
in the second year there are two tines, and in the third year 
three, after which no other tines are added, the horns merely 
increasing in size according to circumstances, the growth of the 
antlers depending in a great measure on the abundance or scarcity 
of good and nutritious food. 
Tn no other Deer with which we are acquainted are the horns 
so liable to variation as in the Roe. A very large collection 
might be made in which no two heads would be found alike. Our 
readers may recollect that in ‘The Zoologist’ for 1884 (pp. 353, 
&c.) we described and figured some very remarkable Roe horns 
from a collection made in Germany, some of these being notice- 
able for their unusual length, or fantastic growth, and two in 
particular were figured as being probably unique of their kind. 
In one of these (Fig. 10) there are two pairs of horns growing on 
the same skull, as in the ease of the Indian Four-horned Antelope 
(Tetraceros); and in another (Fig. 11) is seen a coalescence of 

* Bischoff, ‘ Entwicklungsgeschichte des Rehes,’ Giessen, 1854. 
