t 
THE VIRGINIAN FALLOW-DEER. 207 
falls under the notice of naturalists is described as new, 
in consequence of some trifling variation in its horns, 
a variation w^hich is frequently replaced in the same 
individual in the succeeding year by another equally 
unessential. That these organs furnish the best dis- 
tinctions that have yet been pointed out we willingly 
admit; but we feel convinced that the real differences 
can never be regarded as satisfactorily established until 
they shall have been traced through the whole course 
of life. Not to speak of the changes that have been 
observed in other races, the variations which are known 
to all as occurring in the European Stag, and those 
which have been pointed out by M. Cuvier as existing 
in the Rein-deer of the north, are conspicuous instances 
of the fallacy of any criterion drawn from individual 
specimens at an isolated period of their growth. 
Not only do the horns of these animals furnish the 
most readily applicable means of distinguishing the 
species from each other ; they aflbrd moreover almost 
the only essential characters which, uniting them under 
one common genus, separate them from the rest of the 
Ruminant Order. Unlike the horns of the Antelopes, 
the Goats, the Sheep, and the Oxen, those of the Deer 
are entirely composed of one homogeneous bony sub- 
stance, of close and solid texture, and sheathed by no 
other covering than the soft velvety down which enve- 
lopes them during the progress of their growth and 
disappears as soon as they have reached maturity. 
Instead of being permanently attached to the skull they 
are subject to an annual falling ofl* and renewal, the 
regular recurrence of which is interrupted only under 
peculiar circumstances of climate or of mutilation. They 
are besides almost invariably branched in a greater or 
less degree, except in the first year of their appearance, 
when they are generally simple ; while a similar occur- 
