ANXLER-GROWTH IN THE CERVID^. 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 biramous 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 Max 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 from the brow-tine at all, but from the " beam." It 

 is, in fact, the basal or proximal tine of the posterior branch of 

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

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

 and of the Wajjiti {^Cervus canadensis). 



Antler-Growth in Pere David's Deer (Elaphurus davidianus). 



There is no stag whose systematic position has troubled 

 zoologists so much as Elaphurus. 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 

 comparativ'ely long basal portion from which 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 Mr. 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 respects pointed out by Brooke 

 between Elaphurus and the typical Cervidse of the Old World. 

 Prof. Garrod was more cautious, and frankly gave vip the attempt 

 to interpret the antlers of ElaphuTus when he remarked that they 

 " are at present 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) lias published a series of figures of antler-growth in the Fallow Deer 

 (TJama) illustrating precisely the same phenomenon. 



t Die Saug. p. 667, 1904. 



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



