MAMMALIA. 333 
comb, ret (so called from the presence of polygonal 
spaces) ; 3. The manyplies, gs; and, lastly, the stomach 
or rennet, @. 
The deer are characterized by solid, branching antlers 
or horns that are cast yearly.* They generally have sacks 
beneath the eye, that can be opened or shut at will, con- 
taining a waxy secretion, having a pungent odor, and are 
called “tear-pits.” The females, with the exception of 
the reindeer, are hornless. The Virginia deer (Cariacus 
Virginianus) is a typical American species, and one of 
the most beautiful of the family. They attain a weight of 
two hundred and fifty pounds, and vary in color with the 
seasons ; being a light brown in summer and a reddish 
gray in winter, the under part of the throat and tail being 
a white at alltimes. The Wapiti (Fig. 357) is one of the 
noblest American deer, and is closely allied to the Eng- 
lish red deer or stag. They attain a length of nearly 
eight feet, and a height of five feet at the shoulders. The 
horns or antlers are shapely, with twelve points or more, 
and are six to seven feet long, weighing at times nearly 
eighty pounds. The tips or branches increase with years, 
and forty-five have been seen on the antlers of an Eng- 
lish stag. In the summer the wapiti are reddish brown, 
and in the winter gray. They range the northern coun- 
try east of the Missouri. The caribou is allied to the 
European reindeer; two species range our Northern for- 
* Toward the end of spring there is an increased flow of blood to 
the head, the blood-vessels being temporarily enlarged. Budding horns 
now appear; they are highly sensitive and delicate, covered with a 
downy skin, called and resembling velvet, and permeated with blood- 
vessels, They grow with marvelous rapidity, the antlers of a full-grown 
stag being completely formed in ten weeks. When full growth has 
been attained, « burr or ring forms at the base of each, that presses 
and cuts off the blood-vessels ; the velvet then shrivels and peels off, 
assisted by rubbing, the marks of the blood-vessels being now seen as 
grooves. In the Indian deer, and perhaps some other tropical spe- 
cies, the casting does not occur annually. 
