THE ANTLERS. 223 



ever, it gradually resumes the cylindrical form, so that its upper 

 part is again round. This form is more observable on the lower 

 tine than on those above it. On all the specimens I have met 

 with the beam is round, while on the Virginia deer the beam is 

 frequently flattened, having a lateral compression. 



Altogether the careful observer will have little trouble in dis- 

 tinguishing this exceptional form of the antlers of these deer 

 from those of the Virginia deer, although the resemblance is 

 very strong in some of their features. Indeed, the basal snag 

 alone would in most cases be sufficient to distinguish them be- 

 yond a doubt. To me it was an interesting fact to observe that 

 not only the antlers of the ordinary form on these two species 

 are indistinguishable from each other, but that on both are some- 

 times found this exceptional form, having the same peculiarities 

 which distinguish it from that of the Virginia deer. This form 

 is not by any means anomalistic, for when it occurs it conforms 

 to those described, and so seems to obey an established law, but 

 it is simply unusual. The Mule Deer in my grounds whose first 

 antlers after the spikes were of this exceptional form, the next 

 year had antlers of the same form, and had he lived we may con- 

 clude would always have had them. So we may strongly sus- 

 pect it is a characteristic of the individual. I wish I knew if it 

 is hereditary. 



In comparing this unusual antler with that of the Virginia 

 deer, I find that the tubercles found on both, for some distance 

 above the burrs, are nearly all confined on the former to the up- 

 per side while the lower side is quite smooth, as is usually the 

 case on those of the ordinary bifurcated form, while on the antler of 

 the Virginia deer the tubercles are found on the lower as well as 

 the upper side, and are larger and more abundant than on either 

 form from the Mule Deer or the Columbia Deer. 



What has been already said must give some idea of the pe- 

 culiar characteristics of the antlers of (7. Virginianus, — our 

 Common Deer. 



They are in form quite unlike those of any other of the genus, 

 unless it be the exceptional form of the antlers of the mule and 

 the Columbia deer, already described. Their great characteris- 

 tic, which distinguishes them from the antlers of all the other 

 Cervidse, except as before stated, is that all the normal tines have 

 a posterior projection. This necessitates a peculiar shape of the 

 beam in order to present these tines to the adversary to make 

 them efiicient weapons of ofifense or defense in their battles. 



