RED DEER. 349 



a group as is to be found in the whole of the mamrai- 

 liferous class. The single character of the possession of 

 branching bony antlers, without any horny covering, and 

 shed annually, is at once so tangible and important as to 

 leave no doubt of the relationship of any one species of 

 the whole group. The only approach to a connecting 

 link in this respect is found in the Prong-horn Antelope 

 of America {Antilocapra americana, Ord), in which the 

 horny sheaths of the horns are now known to be deciduous, 

 but as the bony cores remain persistent it can only be 

 considered as a very distant approach to the peculiar 

 organization of the present family. 



That the horns, or as they should rather be named the 

 antlers, of Deer are intimately connected with sex, is 

 proved by every circumstance of their growth and 

 economy. With the exception of the Reindeer {Rangi- 

 fer tarandus, Linn.) of the northern regions, the female 

 possesses no antlers, the annual shedding takes place 

 shortly after the pairing season, and horns are either 

 absent or very rudimentarily developed in the castrated 

 male. The antlers of the Deer rise from the frontal 

 bone, and consist of the burr or rough protuberant ring 

 at the base, the beam or main stem, and the branches or 

 antlers, which have various names according to their 

 position, as the brow-antler, bez-antler, and royal. The 

 growth of such a mass of bony matter, amounting in 

 some of the larger species to many pounds weight, is an 

 astonishing instance of the rapidity of the production of 

 bone under particular circumstances, the antlers of a full- 

 grown Stag being produced in about ten weeks. The 

 new weapon is at first soft and extremely vascular, it is 

 covered with skin and clad with a soft hairy coat termed 

 the velvet, and is provided throughout with blood-vessels, 

 which transmit the necessary nourishment from the 



