DEER AND DEER-HUNTING IN TEXAS. 469 




hey sometimes trespass on cornfields, where they crop the 
bean-vines if there are any, but Iam not aware that they 
injure the corn. 
_ The bucks shed their horns late in the winter. I have 
heard it affirmed that they pull them off with their feet, 
_ When the time arrives that they should be shed. It is quite 
_ probable, too, that they may be pulled off when running 
r through thickets. They are sometimes observed at this 
ason with but one antler. It is reasonable to suppose, 
_ aso, that they may be thrown off by a violent shake of the — 
head when nearly ready to fall, particularly where there are 
to bushes, as in the great prairies. They soon begin to 
_ Sow anew, increasing rapidly, and at first they are flexible 
_ md covered with soft hair. In this stage they are said to 
be “in the velvet.” In August they have become fully 
formed; and at, or before this time, they rub their horns 
q against bushes to rid them of the velvet. I have often seen 
a bushes stripped of their bark at a later season, and I con- 
- lecture that the practice is connected with the sexual passion. 
a Another custom I am quite confident is due to this cause. 
they stand under the spreading branch of a tree, which 
May be about at the height of the animal’s head, and paw 
ay with the feet all the leaves and weeds, or herbs if there 
., ‘ly, making a bare spot of ground two or three feet in 
“ameter, This is done only at the period when the buck 
: sag the doe. It is said that bucks will rua a castrated in- 
dividual of their own sex as they do the doe. The place is 
ta either by different animals from time to time, or 
= one deer returns repeatedly to the same spot to scrape 
=- Whether it is done by one or both sexes I do not 
ot kti, probably, analogous to the habit of the bear 
p barks a pine tree. The second year the antler of 
belie ck is a simple spike; and, according to the general 
a! z branch is added each year for five or six years, 
“Doi Which there is rarely any increase in the number of 
© CS. I killed a buck with one antler normally formed, 



iq 












