24 FIELD AND FOREST. 



Cervus and functionally usurping the place of the main ones, and (2) 

 the posterior being correspondingly reduced and thrown backward. 



In an article published several years ago in a popular periodical, * 

 in response to a solicitation for information, I expressed my views as 

 to the morphology of the antlers of Elaphurus, based on the inspection 

 of the illustrations of the antlers of different ages. It does not appear 

 to me, in view of the known facts of development, that there can be a 

 reasonable doubt as to the correctness of the interpretation offered, 

 and the remarks then made are thus reproduced : 



" They may be compared to those of the typical stags, so far as the 

 main antlers (homologically speaking) are concerned, but with the 

 brow antlers extraordinarily developed, branched, and usurping the 

 place of the main antlers ; in other words, the several elements of the 

 horns, compared with those of the ordinary deer, are reversed, the 

 direction of the growth being upward or forward instead of back- 

 ward, so that what in most deer are the "main " antlers, are thrown 

 out of axis and deflected backward, while those which correspond to 

 the brow antlers of other deer take the place of the " main " antlers 

 and develope two to four tines, f according to age. J This mode of 

 growth is unexampled in any other deer and apparently justifies the 

 generic distinction of the species from the others, as M. Alphonse 

 Milne-Edwards has proposed." 



Of course it is to be understood that the growth is "unexampled " 

 only in degree and not in kind. 



II. In order to avoid the ambiguity and misconception that might 

 be entailed by the use of the terms employed by sportsmen to desig- 

 nate the several prongs of the antlers of the stag, a uniform system of 

 nomenclature seems to be desirable. Such is farther needed to insure 

 conciseness and precision of diagnosis. (1) The simple spikes of the 

 first year and their after growths may be designated protoceres, (2) the 



* "On the Elaphure of China." <^ Forest and Stream, vol, 1, pp. 242-243, 

 Nov. 27, 1873. 



f Misprinted " tines." 



j " The growing antlers of the young (three year old) exhibit approximately 

 proportions like those of the three year old red deer — " Spayad " [misprinted 

 " Spoxod "] — but they are much more robust, and the brow-antlers relatively larger; 

 the difference then is the result of the disproportionate increase or hypertrophy of 

 the " brozv'" -antlers, and corresponding atrophy of the "main" antlers. — Original 

 note to communication to Forest and Stream. 



