jQ 2 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



one small prong on each. He killed this doe near the West Canada Lakes, in Hamil- 

 ton county, N. Y. That there should be such cases need not occasion any great 

 surprise or wonderment. The females of the antelope, reindeer and caribou have 

 horns, while in many other species, bovines for instance, both sexes have horns. 

 That the does of the cervidae should have horns is probably due to atavism. 



In the Adirondacks, some of the males have, in place of branching antlers, 

 a pair of short, straight horns, projecting forward. These horns, which are 

 comparatively slender and sharp-pointed, are called spikes, and the animal is known 

 as a "spike-horn buck." At one time the naturalists were inclined to classify these 

 as a distinct variety or species. It was argued that the spike-horn bucks had an 

 advantage over those with spreading antlers, in the greater facility with which they 

 could dash at full speed through dense forests, tangled underbrush, or fallen tree 

 tops, thereby eluding pursuit more easily ; also that the spike-horn was a more 

 effective weapon of defense in fighting with other bucks. From all of which, 

 together with the large number of spike-horns recently observed, it was argued that 

 the latter were increasing ; that they were evolved at the cost of the others ; and, 

 that in time the antlered variety would thus become extinct.* The theory was a 

 plausible one, especially with the believers in evolution and natural selection ; but 

 a closer examination of some spike-horns, extended through several seasons, elicited 

 the fact that their peculiar horn was due to lack of years or some arrested develop- 

 ment, and that in time their spikes were exchanged for branching antlers. 



The antlers have an important influence on the reproduction of the species, 

 because at the time when the males seek the company of the other sex — the 

 " rutting" season as it is termed — the .bucks very often fight with each other for the 

 possession of the does. In these combats, which are of a fierce, desperate character, 

 the bucks use their antlers as weapons, the victory generally going to the younger 

 ones which have just attained their full growth, and whose horns are sharper than 

 those of the older ones. 



Instances have occurred where two furious bucks have interlocked their horns 

 so firmly that they could not disengage them, and the animals thus fastened together 

 died of starvation. In such cases the horns are fastened together in such a manner 

 that it is impossible to separate them or spring them apart by mere manual strength. 

 In Audubon's "Quadrupeds of North America" the statement is made that on one 

 occasion three pairs of horns were found thus interlocked and, as in similar cases, 

 the skulls and skeletons of the combatants were found attached. 



The color of the deer changes at certain seasons. In summer it is of a light 

 reddish hue, with the exception of the under portion of the body, neck, and tail, 



* Mammals of the Adirondack Region : by Clinton Hart Merriam, M.D. 



