THE WILD LIFE OF LAKE SUPERIOR 



143 



seventy-five years, and 

 most of those of un- 

 usual size or marked 

 eccentricities in growth 

 have been saved ; so 

 that it would be strange 

 if in this large total 

 there were not several 

 dozen having an ab- 

 normal number of 

 points or some un- 

 usual malformation. 



The yearling buck is 

 called a "spike horn" ; 

 the second year the 

 antler has two points 

 and is Y-shaped, and 

 on the third, fourth, 

 and sometimes the 

 fifth there is an ad- 

 ditional prong, repre- 

 senting with fair ac- 

 curacy the earlier 

 years. Thereafter 

 there is no means of 

 estimating the age ex- 

 cept by the size and 

 massiveness of the 

 beam, which becomes 

 uncertain when a deer 

 passes beyond its 

 prime, for then there 

 is usually a recession 

 in the size and weight 

 of the antlers. 



The maximum number of points vary 

 from four to five, according to the range. 

 In the south they are usually "four- 

 pointers" ; in the north and southwest 

 the largest bucks average five points, 

 which may be considered the standard in 

 the respective localities. 



PECULIAR GROWTH OF ANTLERS NOT DUE 

 TO INJURY WHEN YOUNG 



Sometime it has been suggested that a 

 head having a great cluster of tines or 

 other abnormalities has resulted from an 

 external injury during early growth, but 

 this, too, is erroneous, for with hardly an 

 exception a peculiarity in one antler is 

 duplicated in the other; and, moreover, 

 these persist year after year in the same 

 animal ; consequently the internal growth 

 is of symmetrical formation and in no- 

 wise affected by external causes. 



Another fallacy — in fact, a double 



Photograph by George Shiras, 3d 



A RUEEED GROUSE THAT TOOK ITS OWN PICTURE 



At the edge of a clearing- a bunch of mountain-ash berries was 

 hung on a maple sapling, with a thread running to the camera shut- 

 ter. A little later a female grouse pressed against the thread, with 

 the resultant picture. 



one — is the belief of many that the vari- 

 ance often noticed in the color of the 

 antlers is due to a stain when the velvet 

 is supposedly rubbed off on saplings, 

 those of resinous character staining one 

 color and those with a different sap an- 

 other color. Any such uniformity in re- 

 sults is impossible, and would only cause 

 a temporary and limited discoloration. 



But, what is more to the point, no 

 member of the deer family removes the 

 skin-covering, or so-called velvet, at the 

 time or in the manner suggested, though 

 occasionally a buck will use its forefeet 

 for this purpose, or gently switch its ant- 

 lers in the brush. 



"horning" oe trees a sexual 

 manifestation 



The "horning" of a young tree evi- 

 dences the beginning of the rutting sea- 

 son, being purely a sexual manifestation. 



