UNGULATA. 563 



usually more or less branched (fig. 219), and they are annually 

 shed and annually reproduced at the breeding season. They 

 increase in size and in the number of branches every time they 

 are reproduced, until in the old males they may attain an en- 

 ormous size. The first time they are produced, the horns are 

 in the form of simple cylindrical shafts; the second year's 

 hoins have one or two " tynes," and so on. The antlers are 

 carried upon the frontal bone, and are produced by a process 

 not at all unhke that by which injuries of osseous structures 

 are made good in man. At first the antlers are covered with a 



Fig. 2ISi. — Head of the Red-deer {Cervus elaphus), 



sensitive hairy skin ; but as development proceeds, the vessels 

 of the skin are gradually obliterated, and the skin dies and peels 

 off. In all the Deer there is a sebaceous gland, called the 

 " lachrymal sinus," or " larmier," which is placed beneath each 

 eye, and secretes a strongly-smelling waxy substance. 



The CervidiB are very generally distributed, but no member 

 of the group has hitherto been discovered in either Australia 

 or South Africa, their place in the latter continent seeming to 

 be taken by the nearly-allied Antelopes (distinguished by their 

 hollow horns). 



