188 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



still living, but if he is, and this extraordinary appendage has 

 continued its growth in the same unique direction, it must exhibit 

 a curious spectacle at this time and be an interesting object 

 for study to the naturalist. 



I have several castrated deer in my grounds which were there 

 when " Billy " was sent to New York, but none of them have ap- 

 proached the specimen mentioned in the redundancy of this basi- 

 lar growth. Still the difference is only in degree. This en- 

 largement of the base and diminution of the shaft seems to be 

 less and less each year as the animal grows older. 



In October, 1865, I castrated my first Wapiti, or Elk, the day 

 after he had killed Mr. Demmick, who in spite of locks and a 

 very substantial picket fence eight feet high had managed to get 

 into the park appropriated exclusively to the elk. That was the 

 most terribly wicked elk I have ever seen. For a few days after 

 the operation he seemed madder than ever. At length, how- 

 ever, his rage gradually subsided, and he was ever after quite an 

 amiable brute. 



As I expected, within four weeks the splendid antlers which 

 had adorned his head had disappeared, and only the large pedi- 

 cels which had supported them remained to disfigure the contour 

 of his head. The next year new antlers grew, but smaller and 

 with fewer branches than the old, differing in this respect mate- 

 rially from those observed on the smaller species castrated when 

 fully adult. As was expected, these did not lose their velvet at 

 the time it was shed from the antlers of the perfect bucks, but 

 the growth was simply suspended. During December, the beam 

 of one antler, about eighteen inches from the point, was broken 

 off by some accident. This fragment afforded a rich field for 

 study, but I was not satisfied with it and killed the animal dur- 

 ing the winter, and was so enabled to establish many facts only 

 suspected before, but to state each in detail would be too tedious. 



The successor to the deposed monarch of the herd was only 

 less wicked than the other. He was castrated on the 1st of 

 January, 1867. The present antlers were cast and the new ones 

 grew, and suspended their growth as in the former case, and so 

 they have continued to the present day. These were too large 

 to be frozen throup-h and so were not broken off near the head, 

 as has always been the case with the smaller species, but only an 

 inch or two of the ends were broken. The next year's growth 

 was to teach me something new, and I watched it with interest, 

 rather expecting to see active growths shooting out from the 



