THE EOE. 33 



ing upright one horn ^dll grow downward, twisting in 

 grotesque contortions ; and again the whole, not shoot- 

 up at all, will be knotted together in a round ball-like 

 heap. 



Sometimes, too, a strange excrescence, covered with 

 velvet like the budding horn, grows, even as a fungus, 

 out of the head ; and hanging down in a long curly mass, 

 resembles exactly a barrister's wig. This will become so 

 long as to fall over the eyes, and greatly incommode the 

 animal. The usual number of points on each branch of 

 a full grown buck is six, but in this respect, as well as in 

 the form, nature often indulges in wayward freaks. The 

 little roughnesses on the antlers are considered a beauty 

 by the sportsman, and very frequently the horn of the 

 roebuck is gnarled thus in a beautiful manner. The 

 older the animal the more thickly are these beads 

 clustered together. The round projection forming the 

 root of the horn grows larger and more indented from 

 year to year. This gro^vth and casting of the horn is 

 one of the most curious, and to me, most astonishing of 

 the many processes of nature. In the stag it is more 

 striking on account of the imposing size of the antlers ; 

 but in reality the provision for this growth in an animal's 

 economy is no less wonderful in the smaller than the 

 larger creature. 



In the same year that it is born the roebuck receives 

 this ornament peculiar to his sex ; but these first horns 



D 



