ANTLERS 8 1 



hind quite plainly with it in her mouth, gnawing 

 away at it near the point. He added that a 

 shepherd, in the parish of Lairg, had a cow that 

 ate all the bones she could find, going miles for 

 them, and eating up shank bones and all ; the ribs 

 being eaten easily, and seeming to give no trouble 

 whatever." 



Not only is it a fact, then, that deer eat the old 

 horns that are shed every year, but they will also 

 gnaw at them when they have a chance before they 

 are shed. The late Sir Thomas Moncriefife in- 

 formed Dr Buchanan White, of Perth, that he once 

 watched a hind gnawing the tines of the horns on 

 a stag that was lying beside her, and which he 

 afterwards shot. 



Mr Overton, the head keeper at Bradgate Park, 

 near Leicester, where both red and fallow deer are 

 kept, states that he has not the least doubt of their 

 eating each other's horns. He has himself noticed 

 several cases in which both the broad antlers and 

 top points had been gnawed off, and had also seen 

 Scotch heads that had been quite spoiled by the 

 tines having been gnawed, which he thought must 

 have been done after the horn had become hard 

 and whilst the owner of it was still living. 



Fallow deer, as well as red deer, have the same 

 propensity and liking apparently for the saline 

 flavour of the cast horn. I have several times picked 

 up fragments of antlers thus gnawed in parks where 

 only fallow deer are kept. Doubtless the habit is 

 common to all deer. 



The character of heads, as every deer-stalker 



