210 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



in ; cut off, as they in a great measure are, by tbeir insular 

 position, and thus prevented from mixing with the deer 

 over a more extended range of country. 



There appears to be no doubt that with great age the 

 horns of the stag do lose their size, and return at last, it is 

 said, to the simple spire or beam with the brow antler alone, 

 and it has been believed that some of these horns showing 

 irregularities of form may be due to great age. It is not 

 improbable also that some deteriorating effect may be caused 

 from the breeding in and in of a small flock of deer, though 

 we know that the strongest deer are the fathers of the 

 herd. It has also been supposed that these varieties in form 

 might be the result of injuries received by the horn itself in 

 the earlier stages of its growth ; the most probable cause, 

 however, may be considered to be any injury of an exhaustive 

 nature received by the stag either in the previous autumn 

 or spring ; and the effect of castration in stopping or 

 altogether preventing the growth of the horns is well known. 

 In a work entitled " Notes on the Chase of the Wild Ked 

 Deer in Devon and Somerset/' by Charles Palk Collyns, 

 surgeon, published in London in 1862, this subject is pretty 

 fully discussed. Mr Collyns states, that " from frequent 

 investigations and dissections, I have come to the con- 

 clusion that the appearances (of short and distorted horns) 

 have been generally due to shot or slug injuring the deer 

 in his testicles before his borns are shed, or during the 

 growth of the new horn," or " to accident or over-exertion 

 during the season preceding the shedding of the horns." 

 He has also observed " the testes to have been injured on 

 the same side where the defective horn appeared/' 



It would therefore be an interesting addition to our know- 

 ledge of this curious subject, if Captain Orde would cause 

 any of the deer showing these irregularities in the size 

 or shape of the horns, to be carefully examined for the traces 

 of previous injuries of any kind sustained by them, in the 

 region of the testes especially, or in any other part of the 

 animal. 



In November 1856, 1 exhibited a curious analogous variety 

 in the horns of a red deer, in which the first or brow antler 



