THE ANTLERS. 228 
ever, it gradually resumes the cylindrical form, so that its upper 
part is again round. This form is more observable on the lower . 
tine than on those above it. On all the specimens I have met 
with the beam is round, while on the Virginia deer the beam is 
frequently flattened, having a lateral compression. 
Altogether the careful observer will have little trouble in dis- 
tinguishing this exceptional form of the antlers of these deer 
from those of the Virginia deer, although the resemblance is 
very strong in some of their features. Indeed, the basal snag 
alone would in most cases be sufficient to distinguish them be- 
yond a doubt. To me it was an interesting fact to observe that 
not only the antlers of the ordinary form on these two species 
are indistinguishable from each other, but that on both are some- 
times found this exceptional form, having the same peculiarities 
which distinguish it from that of the Virginia deer. This form 
is not by any means anomalistic, for when it occurs it conforms 
to those described, and so seems to obey an established law, but 
it is simply unusual. The Mule Deer in my grounds whose first 
antlers after the spikes were of this exceptional form, the next 
year had antlers of the same form, and had he lived we may con- 
clude would always have had them. So we may strongly sus- 
pect it is a characteristic of the individual. I wish I knew if it 
is hereditary. : 
In comparing this unusual antler with that of the Virginia 
deer, I find that the tubercles found on both, for some distance 
above the burrs, are nearly all confined on the former to the up- 
per side while the lower side is quite smooth, as is usually the 
case on those of the ordinary bifurcated form, while on the antler of 
the Virginia deer the tubercles are found on the lower as well as 
the upper side, and are larger and more abundant than on either 
form from the Mule Deer or the Columbia Deer. 
What has been already said must give some idea of the pe- 
culiar characteristics of the antlers of C. Virginianus, — our 
Common Deer. 
They are in form quite unlike those of any other of the genus, 
unless it be the exceptional form of the antlers of the mule and 
the Columbia deer, already described. Their great characteris- 
tic, which distinguishes them from the antlers of all the other 
Cervidee, except as before stated, is that all the normal tines have 
a posterior projection. This necessitates a peculiar shape of the 
beam in order to present these tines to the adversary to make 
them efficient weapons of offense or defense in their battles. 
