48 THE INFANCY OF ANIMALS 



small in proportion to their skin-covered bases, or 

 " pedicles." 



But in the majority of deer the antler has increased 

 enormously in size, while the pedicle is commonly reduced 

 to a short column at its very base. The antlers, as 

 everybody knows, present a most wonderful variety in 

 shape, and in the number and form of the " tines " or 

 branches ; but whether we contemplate the enormous 

 weapons of the extinct Irish " elk," the huge palmated 

 antlers of the moose, or the singularly beautiful and 

 branching beams of the red-deer or caribou, we must 

 remember that all alike have their origin in a simple, 

 short pillar of bone, and that all alike start to-day from 

 the same point, as we shall presently sh6w. 



Before we enter on this aspect of their history, however, 

 let uS pause for a moment to contrast the antlers of the 

 deer with the horns of the ox and antelope. These last, 

 it will be remembered, are bony outgrowths of the skull 

 protected by a sheath of horny matter : while in the 

 deer, as we have remarked, they are not thus protected, 

 but are exposed to the action of the weather. 



Now, since the permanent retention of such a mass of 

 dead bone seems, for some obscure reason, to be inimical 

 to the well-being of the animal, these antlers are periodi- 

 cally shed and replaced. The work of rebuilding begins 

 in the form of a swollen knob surmounting the pedicle, 

 and covered with a peculiar velvet-like skin. This 

 " knob " is made up of a mass of growing bone-tissue 

 and blood-vessels. Rapidly increasing in size, it presently 

 assumes the form of a pair of knobs : one of these forms 

 the first or " brow " tine, the other grows up to form 

 the main shaft or " beam " of the antler, from which, 

 at their appointed place, the " tines " characteristic of 



