220 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



and uniform on animals found on the east side of the Rocky- 

 Mountains as on the Pacific Coast. 



The second and subsequent antlers grown on these deer usually 

 have a very small snag an inch or two above the burr, on the 

 upper or inner side of the beam, standing in nearly a vertical 

 position, but sometimes curved one way or the other. This an- 

 swers well to the basal snag on the antler of the Virginia deer, 

 only it is very much smaller. The lower part of the beams of 

 the antlers of these are covered more or less with tubercles, those 

 near the burr being the largest and quite disappearing at the first 

 fork, but these are mostly confined to the upper side of the beam, 

 These tubercles also appear on the antler of the Virginia deer, 

 even more abundant, for they are found on the lower side of the 

 beam as well. 



A medium pair of antlers in my collection and shown in the 

 illustration (Fig. 21, p. 221), may be briefly described. They 

 arise from the head, in a line with the face, but spread laterally. 

 Two and a half inches above the burr, a basal snag appears on 

 the upper side, which is two inches long. From this point the 

 beam has a slight anterior curvature for seven and one half 

 inches, then it divides. The anterior prong of the left antler 

 continues with the same curve, for six inches, when it forks ; 

 the front tine being four inches and three lines long, and the 

 other four inches in length. The posterior prong of the first 

 bifurcation curves posteriorly for six inches, where it forks into 

 quite unequal tines, the front one being five inches long and the 

 other three inches and three lines in length. The exti'eme length 

 of this antler is twenty-one inches. The same description will 

 answer for the right antler, except that the first posterior prong 

 rises eight inches before it forks, with tines but two inches and 

 three lines long. These antlers are from a Columbia Black-tailed 

 Deer, and as before remarked, are of medium size. I have a 

 much larger pair from the same species, taken near Igo, in Shasta 

 Countj?^, California, already referred to (p. 183), and illustrated 

 in Fig. 22, p. 221, which exhibit the abnormal diseased prong 

 descending from the lower side of the beam of the left antler. 

 These antlers are twenty-four inches long. They have an un- 

 usual spread at the tips. Another pair of antlers, also illustrated 

 (Fig. 23), are from a Mule Deer from the Black Hills ; these 

 are also twenty-four inches long, but have not so broad a spread. 

 An abnormal descending tine is also found on the beam of the 

 right antler of this pair. Both of these pairs of antlers show the 



