12 CHILDHOOD OF ANIMALS 



consist of a horny case fitting over a bony core, the first weapons 

 to appear persist throughout life, however they may increase in 

 size and change in shape. In Fig. 7 some of these differences are 

 shown. The takin, a rare and very large goat -like animal from the 

 highlands of Asia, shows little conical horns when it is a few months 

 old. These are placed rather far apart on the forehead, separated 

 by an expanse of hair. As the horns grow they acquire a spiral, 

 goat -like twist and the greatly expanded lower portions meet in the 

 middle line to form a stout rough helmet. In the eland, one of 

 the largest of the African antelopes, the horns first appear as stiU 

 more slender conical spikes, and as they grow usually become twisted 

 in a straight spiral in the fashion in which a stick of soft candy can 

 be twisted when one end is held firm and the other rotated. Cattle of 

 different kinds also show small spiky horns at first, and these later 

 on acquire the spreading curves of the adult. 



The change in the kinds of horns we know as antlers, and which 

 are found amongst deer, are even more interesting. Antlers are 

 shed and renewed annually, and except in the reindeer are carried 

 only by the males. In young male fawns, a pair of bosses, covered 

 by the hairy skin and consisting of outgrowths of the bones of 

 the skull on the forehead above the eyes, appear very soon. Early 

 in the first season a bony knob is formed on the summit of each 

 boss and can be felt as a warm and tender swelling. It grows 

 very quickly and in a few weeks each has become a short spike still 

 covered with the layer of skin which contains many blood-vessels 

 and is known as the velvet, because of its soft and hairy surface. 

 When the growth is nearly complete, a ring of bone is formed 

 under the velvet, near the base of the antler, and by its pressure stops 

 the circulation of blood in the skin. The velvet then peels off, the 

 deer assisting in the process by rubbing the antlers against the bark 

 of trees, and when the bloody surface has dried up, there is left the 

 burnished antler, with its brown and roughened surface forming what 

 we know as deer's horn. At the end of the season these antlers are 

 shed, breaking away from the bony bosses of the skull. Next year, 

 and in each successive year, they are re-formed by exactly the same 

 process, and in the simpler kinds of deer grow a little larger each 

 year but without much change of shape. In other deer, however, 

 each antler may branch, producing a second point or snag, and year 

 after year when the new antlers are produced, they may develop 

 additional points until noble heads such as those of fine red stags are 

 droduced, with as many as forty points on each antler. Young 



