THE ANTLERS. 197 



April, or even the May following. After the rutting season is 

 past, during which the antlers are still in an effective condition 

 as weapons or shields, there is rarely occasion for their use, as 

 the belligerent disposition ceases with the rut. 



As ray experiments show that the absorbent process which 

 loosens the antler from its seat, requires about one month to ac- 

 complish its work, dui'ing which it is an inert foreign appendage, 

 we see that the weapon retains its vitality and efficiency for a 

 considerable time, when its use would seem to be no longer de- 

 manded by the disposition of the animal. 



The following are the observations of Mr. Morrow of Halifax, 

 on this subject : " The old Moose shed their liorns in the early 

 part of winter, a very few in December, the greatest number in 

 January and February. I have seen some in February, which 

 had just lost their horns. I once shot a young bull in February, 

 which still wore his horns firmly set on his head. The first 

 horns I believe are carried nntil early spring. The Moose rub 

 their velvet from their horns, just before and during the early 

 part of the rutting season." Captain Hardy, in " Forest Life in 

 Acadie," says, " The young bull moose grows his first horn (a 

 little dag of a cylindrical form) in his second summer, i. e., when 

 one year old. Both these and the next year's growth, which are 

 bifurcate, remain on the head throughout the winter, till April 

 or May. The palmate horns of succeeding years are dropped 

 earlier, in January or February, a new growth commencing 

 in April. The full development of the horn appears to be at- 

 tained when the animal is in its seventh year." 



Dr. Gilpin says,^ " In the bull calf of the first year two knobs 

 swell out upon the forehead beneath the skin ; in the second 

 year the true horn appears, — a single prong six or eight inches 

 long ; in the third year the new horn is usually trifingered and a 

 little flattened ; and in the fourth year assumes the adult form, 

 though small. The Indians and hunters say, they increase till 

 the eighth year. The horn of the adult bull springs at right 

 angles from a broad knobby base on the forehead, throws off 

 one, two, or three brow-prongs or tines, and then rapidly flat- 

 tening, reflects backwards nearly at right angles, forming a broad 

 flattened palm, the anterior convex edge of which is subdivided 

 into more or less numerous tines. There is some analogy be- 

 tween the number of these tines and the age of the owner, but 



1 la Art. iv., On the Mammalia of Nova Scotia, by J. Barnard Gilpin, A. B., M. 

 D., M. E. S. C. 



