io Introductory 



systematic classification largely simplifies the study of what is in many 

 respects an exceedingly difficult group of animals. 



W ith regard to the origin or antlers, it has already been mentioned 

 that the earliest known deer were devoid of these appendages, and that 

 when they first made their appearance they were of the simply forked type. 

 In some at least of these primitive types the entire antler seems to have 

 been very similar to the pedicle, from which it was not separated by a 

 distinct burr, and the whole structure was probably covered permanently 

 with skin, as are the horns of the giraffe at the present day. Such a skin- 

 clothed structure would, however, obviously have been extremely exposed 

 to injury ; and the development of a burr led to the cutting off of the 

 supply of blood from the portion above the ring, and the evolution of the 

 antler in its present form. But such a structure is incapable of any repara- 

 tion of an injury, and the next stage in the development was in all prob- 

 ability the periodical shedding and reproduction. As this reproduction in 

 the species where the shedding is annual is, as already said, always com- 

 pleted at the commencement of the pairing-season, it is a natural inference 

 that, at the present time at least, antlers are largely connected with the 

 sexual function. And further evidence of this is afforded by their almost 

 universal restriction to the males. It has indeed been very generally con- 

 sidered that stags with the largest antlers were those which succeeded in 

 obtaining the leadership of the herd and the mastery of the females. But 

 some years ago Mr. Caton remarked that among a herd of wapiti in 

 captivity in Ottawa the mastership was held by a large stag with small 

 antlers, while a smaller stag with much larger antlers was kept at a distance. 

 And more recently Mr. A. Gordon Cameron has stated that among Scotch 

 red deer antlerless or "bald" stags, though wielding no weapons and dis- 

 playing no ornament, prove to be in all respects a match for their armed 

 and theoretically more attractive rivals, so that they are usually master- 

 stags, and sometimes acknowledged monarchs of large herds. 



This is certainly very strong evidence against the theory that sexual 

 -election can be regarded as sufficient to account for the origin and purpose 

 of the frontal weapons of this group of ruminants. And in the opinion of 

 the writer last quoted their original purpose was as weapons of offence 

 against the attacks of beasts of prey ; such weapons having at first been 

 common to both sexes, but subsequently lost, as a normal feature, in the 



