290 



MAMMALIA. 



They fall off, and are renewed periodically every year up to a 

 certain age, hence comes their descriptive appellation. 



In the adult individual the antler is composed of a cylindrical 

 or flattened stem, according to the genus, which is called the 

 hroiv-antlcr, from which branch out at intervals slighter and 

 shorter additions, called tines or hranches. The base of the brow- 

 antler is surrounded with a circle of small bony excrescences, 

 which afford a passage to the blood-vessels intended to provide for 

 the growth of the antler ; these are called hurrs. 



We must now turn to the various terms used to indicate the 

 growth of the antlers. In the first place, on the brow of the 

 young animal two small elevations or hwbs are seen to make 



Fig. 115 Charolaise BuU. 



their appearance, above each of which there soon grows a carti- 

 laginous prolongation, which is not long before it assumes a bony 

 texture. Until they become perfectly hard these two early 

 sprouts are protected against wiy external friction by a kind of 

 velvetjr skia, which serves as a vehicle for the calcareous matter, 

 and dries up as soon as ossification is accomplished, the beast 

 getting rid of the velvet by rubbing its head against a tree. 

 The short horns which then adorn its brow take the name of 

 dags. At the commencement of the third year the dags fall off, 

 but soon after they are replaced by other and longer ones, which 

 throw out their first tines ; from this time they are considered as 

 entitled to the name of antler. 



