6 



Introductory 



first or a new antler is about to be formed, the summits of these pedicles 

 become tender, and bear small velvet-like knobs, which have a high tempera- 

 ture, and are supplied by an extra quantity of blood, which commences to 

 deposit bony matter. This deposition of bony matter progresses very 

 rapidlv, and although in young deer and the adults of some species the 

 resulting antler merely forms a simple spike, or a single fork, in full-grown 

 individuals of the majority it assumes a more or less complexly branched 

 structure. All this time the growing antler is invested with a skin clothed 

 with exceedingly fine short hairs, and is most liberally supplied with 

 blood-vessels ; this sensitive skin being called the velvet. Towards the 

 completion of its growth a more or less prominent ring of bone, termed 

 the burr or coronet, is deposited at its base just above the junction with 

 the pedicle ; this ring tending to constrict the blood-vessels, and thus cut 

 off the supply of blood from the antlers. 



As some diversity of opinion exists with regard to the state of the antler 

 after the cutting off of the supply of blood to the velvet, two some- 

 what opposing statements may be quoted. On page 43 1 of the article 

 " Mammalia " in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th edition) Sir W. H. Flower 

 writes as follows : — " When the growth of the antler is complete, the 

 supply of blood to it ceases, the skin dies and peels off, leaving the bone 

 bare and insensible, and after a time, by a process of absorption near the 

 base, it becomes detached from the skull and is shed. A more or less 

 elongated portion, or pedicle, always remains on the skull, from the summit 

 of which a new antler is developed." 



On the other hand, Mr. A. Gordon Cameron, writing in the Field 

 newspaper of 22nd August 1896, makes the following observations : — "A 

 stag's antlers, though commonly described as horns, are not horns in the 

 physiological sense of the word, but bones of similar texture to the flat 

 bones of the skull, and developed by a similar process. Nor are they dead 

 hones though commonly described as such, but living bones composed of a 

 hardened surface and a porous centre with blood circulating through it." 

 And the same gentleman and other writers have adduced instances where 

 the antlers of a deer have bled when sawn off above the pedicles. It is 

 quite true that internally antlers display a honey-comb or cancellous 

 structure ; but the fact that in some instances the pedicles are formed of 

 impermeable ivory-like bone, seems to preclude the possibility of there 



