THE ANTLERS. 225 



number of points, the other is quite sure to have an unusual 

 number also. 



A very common idea has prevailed among hunters and fron- 

 tiersmen that the number of tines on the antlers of the deer in- 

 dicate its age, each point representing a year. This certainly is 

 a popular error, though it approximates the truth more with 

 young animals than with old ones. The most that can be said is, 

 that the older the animal the more prongs are likely to occur 

 on the antlers. In domestication, I have never seen one grown 

 with more than five points. I have, however, in my collection 

 two pairs of antlers of the Common Deer, both of which were 

 killed in this vicinity (La Salle County, 111.) in 1848, which are 

 of nearly equal size, and the largest I ever remember to have 

 seen. The antlers of the one which fell to my own rifle weigh 

 five pounds and eleven ounces ; each antler has six points besides 

 the stub of a broken prong on the left antler. The other, killed 

 by Mr. JNIackey, weigh five pounds and one ounce. The right 

 antler has eleven points, and the left twelve. Thus we see that 

 the largest antlers have but about half the number of points that 

 are found on the smaller ones. On each of these antlers the 

 basal snag is bifurcated, which only occurs on the largest speci- 

 mens. One of the prongs of the basal snag of the left of the 

 largest antlers is five inches in length. The size and positions 

 of these basal snags would almost entitle them to the name of 

 brow-tines, although ordinarily that term would be quite inap- 

 propriate to this member on the antlers of the Virginia, the 

 mule, or the black-tailed deer. 



Many abnormal growths of the antlers of the Common Deer 

 are to be met with, one of which now in my collection is illus- 

 trated on p. 226, and was referred to when considering the mode 

 of growth of antlers. In these we see there is no beam, but they 

 consist entirely of tines an,d snags starting out from the circum- 

 ference of the bases of the antlers. The bases of these tines 

 constitute rims of depressions forming cups, each of which would 

 hold a quantity of water, and so in this regard resemble the 

 crown antler of the red deer and wapiti. Others have the ap- 

 pearance of two beams arising from the same pedicel with an un- 

 common system of snags or tines. Probably all of these cases 

 are due to accidental injuries, either to the pedicel or to the 

 antler in its early growth, as was no doubt the case with the 

 spike antler on the deer in Lincoln Park, which has proved so 

 destructive a weapon in battle, with which he killed all the other 



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