Exhibition of Heads of the Red Deer. 209 



forest of North Uist, in the month of September last. The 

 horns are well marked and characteristic, though of rather 

 a small size, as is to be expected in the island deer. One 

 of them is a royal stag of twelve, and another of eleven 

 points. 



The two heads, however, of special interest, are those 

 strangely formed and distorted ones, of which one head has 

 the right horn bent backwards, and measures 7 J inches in 

 length, a short brow antler, 4 inches long, rises upwards from 

 it in front, the second or bezantler is 5 J inches in length, 

 but points backwards ; and behind this, or rather immediately 

 at the back of this, is the end of the beam, projecting as 

 a mere point. The horn of the left side of the head has a 

 longer, slightly bent and tapering beam, which measures 

 17 inches in length ; with two short points, the brow antler 

 about 1J, and the bezantler 2\ inches in length. Another 

 head has the beam of the right horn thrown completely 

 backwards, and 9 inches in length, ending in a short and 

 rough hook-like extremity, and the brow antler (the only 

 one present) projects forwards, and is 10 inches long. The 

 left horn has the beam also bent back, short, and broad, 

 and 8 inches in length ; the brow antler turned backwards, 

 and 7 inches long, the second or bezantler also bent back- 

 wards, and 3J inches long, with merely a small, short point 

 projecting above it ; beyond which the beam bends back- 

 wards, and terminates in a rough hook-like extremity. The 

 teeth are perfect in both skulls, eight incisors and six molars 

 in each jaw, and two tusks in the upper jaw of each. 



Captain Orde states that these deer were both in good 

 condition, and he considers the peculiarly formed horns to 

 be those of very old deer ; that after they have attained to 

 old age, the horns become smaller, and also generally irre- 

 gular in character, as these are. He mentions that for 

 the last twelve years very few deer have been killed in the 

 forest of North Uist, and that several other deer, showing 

 similar peculiarities, have been also noticed in the forest. 

 The peculiarly formed ones he is inclined to consider may 

 be also due, to a certain extent, to deterioration from the 

 comparatively small number of the deer, breeding in and 



