THE ANTLERS. 197 
April, or even the May following. After the rutting season is 
past, during which the antlers are still in an effective condition 
as weapons or shields, there is rarely occasion for their use, as 
the belligerent disposition ceases with the rut. 
As my experiments show that the absorbent process which 
loosens the antler from its seat, requires about one month to ac- 
complish its work, during which it is an inert foreign appendage, 
we see that the weapon retains. its vitality and efficiency for a 
considerable time, when its use would seem to be no longer de- 
manded by the disposition of the animal. 
The following are the observations of Mr. Morrow of Halifax, 
on this subject: “ The old Moose shed their horns in the early 
part of winter, a very few in December, the greatest number in 
January and February. I have seen some in February, which 
had just lost their horns. I once shot a young bull in February, 
which ‘still wore his horns firmly set on his head. The first 
horns I believe are carried until early spring. The Moose rub 
their'velvet from’ their aus just before and during the early 
part of the rutting season.” Captain Hardy, in “ Forest Life in 
Acadie,” says, “ The young bull moose grows his first horn (a 
little dag of a cylindrical form) in his second summer, 7. e., when 
one year old. Both these and the next year’s growth, which are 
bifurcate, remain on the head throughout the winter, till April 
or May. The palmate horns of succeeding years are dropped 
earlier, in January or February, a new growth commencing 
in April. The full development of the horn appears to be at- 
tained when the animal is in its seventh year.” 
Dr. Gilpin says,! ‘In the bull calf of the first year two knobs 
swell out upon the forehead beneath the skin; in the second 
year the true horn appears, —a single prong six or eight inches 
long; in the third year the new horn is usually trifingered and a 
little flattened; and in the fourth year assumes the adult form, 
though small. The Indians and hunters say, they increase till 
the eighth year. The horn of the adult bull springs at right 
angles from a broad knobby base on the forehead, throws off 
one, two, or three brow-prongs or tines, and then rapidly flat- 
tening, reflects backwards nearly at right angles, forming a broad 
flattened palm, the anterior convex edge of which is subdivided 
into more or less numerous tines. There is some analogy be- 
tween the number of these tines and the age of the owner, but 
1In Art. iv., On the Mammalia of Nova Scotia, by J. Barnard Gilpin, A. B., M. 
D., M. R. S.C. 
