96 NATURAL HISTORY. 
precipice, unless he 
can shoot it before it 
reaches him. 
164. The Cervide, 
or Deer family, are 
distinguished from 
SNS ge all the other fami- 
) Sy Ni ~ y lies of Ruminants, in 
i yy \ ae having horns which 
ee NW \\ are cast off at inter- 
vals, new ones grow- 
ing out in their place. 
In the young animal 
they are small, but in 
the full-grown Deer 
they are very large. 
These horns are also 
covered with a vel- 
vety skin, and are called antlers. While they are grow- 
ing there are blood-vessels in this skin, and from the 
blood in them the antlers are made. You can see on 
them, after this skin is stripped off, just the course of 
the large arteries, by the channels for them in the horn. 
These antlers grow very rapidly. After they have at- 
tained their growth, there is no farther need of the blood 
in the “velvet,” and it must be got rid of, for if it re- 
mained there would be bleeding every time that the 
Deer should hit any thing hard with its antlers. There 
is a singular process for doing this. In the rings of 
bone at the foot of the antlers there are openings, through 
which the arteries pass. These gradually close up, and 
the supply of blood to the “velvet” is, therefore, grad- 
ually cut off. It would not answer to have this done 
suddenly, for then all the blood going. to the head would 
be turned in upon the brain, and such a rush of blood to 
that organ would be injurious, perhaps fatal. After blood 
ceases to be supplied to this skin it dries and readily peels 
—— 
SS 
—— 
Fig. 80.—Caucasian Ibex. 
