ANTLEE-GROWTH IN THE CERVIDiE. 777 



sketched on May 13, 16, 22, June 6 and 12. Similar stages may 

 be observed in other typical deer of the Old World*. In the 

 Elaphine stags, however, which normally grow a " bez "-tine, 

 the biramoiis stage is early complicated by the appearance of the 

 bud of this tine. Now this tine has been regarded as a dupli- 

 cation of the brow- tine ; and in Mas Weber's t diagram showing 

 suggested homologies of the tines in certain deer the brow- and 

 bez-tines are tinted alike, suggesting his adoption of this view. 

 Nevertheless I believe it to be quite incorrect, for in all cases 

 where I have watched its origin, the bud of the "bez "-tine 

 arises, not fi'om the brow-tine at all, but from the " beam.'"' It 

 is, in fact, the basal or proximal tine of the posterior bi-anch of 

 the antler. This is illustrated in text-fig. 108, A-C, showing the 

 early stages of the growing antler of the Hangul [Cervus hanglu) 

 and of the Wapiti {Cervus canadensis). 



Antler-Growth in Pere DavicVs Deer (Elaphurus davidianus). 



There is no stag whose systematic position has troubled 

 zoologists so much as Elai^hurus. On the one side are those, 

 like Dr. Gray, Mr, Cameron, and Mr. Lydekker, who, relying 

 upon the structure of the antlers of the adult, placed the genus 

 with the American deer. On the other side are those, like 

 Sir Victor Brooke, Flower, Max Weber, and others, who, adopting 

 the skeleton of the foot as a basis, classified it with the typical 

 Old- World species. 



The antlers of this stag have often been figured and described, 

 and a good idea of their form in the adult may be gathered from 

 text-fig. 110, C, and text-fig. Ill, /. They typically consist of a 

 compai-atively long basal portion from wdiich two branches arise : 

 one long, slender, simple or divided, projects backwards parallel, 

 or nearly so, with the animal's back ; the other stout, erect, or 

 curved slightly forwards, terminates in a pair of strong tines. 



At first sight, these antlers appear to have -no trace of a brow- 

 tine. This was evidently Sir Victor Brooke's opinion, and it was 

 adopted by Mi". Cameron and Mr. Lydekker, who, on the strength 

 of this belief, boldly claimed that this stag belonged to the same 

 group as the American deer, also held to have no brow-tine, 

 despite the resemblances in other resjDects pointed out by Brooke 

 between Elaphurus and the typical Cervidse of the Old World. 

 Prof. Garrod was more cau.tious, and frankly gave up the attempt 

 to interpret the antlers of Elaphurus when he remarked that they 

 " are at pi-esent quite beyond my comprehension." 



This, then, was the state of the case when my researches on 

 the specialised cutaneous glands of Ruminants % showed that the 



* Mr. J. G. Millais (' Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland,' iii. plate facing 

 p. 140, 1906) has publislied a series of figures of antler-growth in the Fallow Deer 

 {Daina) illustrating precisely' the same phenomenon. 



t Die Sang. p. 667, 1904. 



X P. Z. S. 1910, p. 840. 



