216 



THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



Five feet is the extreme length of the antler of the Elk, of 

 which I have any anthentic account. These are now in the col- 

 lection of the late Mr. W. F. Parker, of West Meriden, Conn. 

 On the right antler the sur-royal tine is bifurcated, the two 

 points of which are of about equal lengths. Around the burrs 

 they are thirteen inches, between the burrs and the brow-tines 

 the circumference of the beam is ten and one half inches. The 

 right antler presents eight, and the left six points. These ant- 

 lers are as remarkable for their symmetrical and elegant form 

 and graceful curvatures as for their extraoi-dinary size. 



The type of the antler is established when the animal is in his 

 third year, that is, with his second antlers. If these antlers are 



Triplet Antlers from a European Red Deer. 



remarkably large, or remarkably broad or spreading or the re- 

 verse, the same characteristics may, with confidence, be expected 

 in all the antlers subsequently grown on that animal. 



Witli many other interesting views, Dr. Hayden, U. S. Geol- 

 ogist, presented me with the photograph, by Jackson, of an Elk 

 killed on the 28th of August, 1871, at an altitude of about 10,000 

 feet above the sea, on the divide between the Yellowstone Lake 

 and the head waters of the East Fork of the Yellowstone River, 

 which is shown in the illustration. Both these antlers show re- 

 markable imperfections in their growth, which may, no doubt, be 

 attributed to some injury received in their early stages. This 

 Elk was two years old, or in his third year's growth with his second 



