THE ANTLERS. 219 
always find their paths avoid such places when practicable, and 
are made through the open glades; though they seem to have 
no objection to the deep shades produced by dense foliage above. 
In our latitude, the velvet on the antler of the aged elk is with 
great uniformity discarded in August, and the antler is invari- 
ably dropped in April. The Wapiti is the only species of our 
deer which carries its antlers for so long a time, or so late in the 
spring, and is so uniform in the time of shedding them. I was 
for a long time disinclined to credit this exceptional uniformity, 
but its recurrence for many years and with every individual (and 
I have had large numbers to observe), compelled me to relinquish 
my doubt. That the times of shedding may differ in different 
latitudes is no doubt true, but I feel confident that the same 
uniformity prevails everywhere. I may remark here, that the 
European red deer also carries its antlers throughout the winter, 
and with the same uniformity drops them in the spring about 
the season that fresh vegetation begins to shoot forth. Such is 
the information given me by the director of the zodlogical gar- 
dens at Berlin, where there are a considerable number of red 
deer, and I found his observations corroborated by others. 
Although possessing many marked specific differences, the Mule 
Deer and the Columbia Black-tailed Deer have antlers so nearly 
alike in all their features, even in their eccentricities, that I, at 
least, am unable to distinguish them from each other, and so shall 
treat of them together. 
As might be expected, the first antler on the young buck is 
usually a spike from six to nine inches long. 
The first which I had dropped in my grounds was a Columbia 
Deer, with a spike antler about six inches in length. The next 
was a Mule Deer. It was an early fawn dropped the last of May. 
His first antlers were eight inches long, and both were forked at 
the ends with tines two inches long. Another Mule fawn had 
spike antlers about six inches long. 
The antlers of these deer start from the head in a direction 
inclining backward and outward; but below the middle of the 
antler, commence a graceful forward curve. They present a 
slightly crinkled appearance and are not perfectly round. 
After the dag antlers, their distinguishing characteristic is a 
bifurcation into pretty nearly equal parts, and on old specimens 
a second bifurcation, or a division of these parts into nearly equal 
tines; but there is less certainly in the regularity of these divis- 
ions than in the former. These characteristics I find as constant 
