MR. R. H. BURNB ON MALFORMED ANTLERS. 545 



"He gives the rutting cry, as imitated by the native hunters 

 vi'ith a hollow stem of Calisace daurica,i\^ follows, which seems to 

 me to have some I'esernblance to that of the American Wapiti : — 



"In a paper read by me at the Linnean Society on Dec. 15, 

 1898*, I spoke of some horns from the Yenesei Yalley in the 

 St. Petersburg Museum, which I thought had more resemblance 

 to those of Cervus elcqyhus, having a distinct cup or crown 

 of 6 or 7 tines branching from the same point on the beam, as 

 sometimes seen in old European specimens of C. elajyhus, but 

 never, so far as I know, in any other Asiatic form of Wapiti. 

 But I have not been able to examine them recently ; and the 

 horns shown to-night belong, without doubt, to a race of the 

 Asiatic Wapiti known as C. eustephanus Blanford, which name I 

 think preferable to C canadensis, var. siberica Severtzoff, though 

 the latter has priority. But until the races of Asiatic Wapiti 

 are better known, I think it is premature to name them definitely, 

 and it cannot be done without careful examination of specimens 

 in the St. Petersburg Museum. 



" The bez or bay antlers in my specimen (text-fig. 83) are 

 clearly abnormal in their position. The development of the back 

 tines, though clearly of Wapiti type, is also poor." 



April 22, 1913. 



E. T. Newton, Esq., F.R.S., in the Chair. 



Mr. R. PI. BuRXB, M.A., F.Z.S., exhibited two pairs of 

 malformed antlers of an Axis Deer {^Cervus axis), lately presented 

 to the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons by Capt. Stanley 

 S. Flower, F.Z.S. The deer vvas born in the Giza Zoological Gardens 

 in 1899, the malformed antlers being shed in 1905 and 1906. The 

 second pair showed a common malformation, i. e. duplicity of the 

 brow tine, but the first pair suggested rather an injury during 

 growth than a congenital malformation. At a similar point in 

 each antler the beam was abruptly bent inwards upon itself at a 

 very acute angle. The apical tines also were stunted, probably 

 owing to an interference with the blood -supply brought about ))y 

 the sharp bend in the beam. 



* Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool. xxvii. p. 23. 



