556 
VEHTEBEATA. 
THE OEEYIDJE. 
These, the animals of the somewhat numerous and diversified Deer Family, are distinguished 
principally by the peculiar nature of the horns or antlers, which, with but a single exception, 
that of the reindeer, are possessed only by the males. Unlike the horns of the ox, goat, sheep, 
and antilope, the antlers of the deer are deciduous — that is to say, they are cast every year after 
the breeding season, and again renewed before that period of excitement returns. They are pro- 
duced upon a pair of processes of the frontal bone, by an action analogous to that by which in- 
juries to the bones are repaired. The process forming the base of the horn is covered by a skin, 
beneath which a sort of inflammation is set up ; this produces cartilaginous matter, which in- 
creases rapidly in amount, gradually becomes ossified, and finally forms the horn, which, when 
mature, is still covered by the vascular skin beneath which it has been formed. This however, 
dries up and peels off soon after the complete development of the organs, and the latter then con- 
sist of bare bone. The antlers are sometimes small, but generally of comparatively large size, and 
very variously branched ; their size and the number of branches usually increase with age, and 
the old males of several species are adorned with a most enormous pair of spreading horns. 
Beneath each eye, in almost all the species, there is a cavity called the lachrymal simis^ which 
the animal is able to open at pleasure, and which secretes a thick waxy fluid of a disagreeable 
odor. The metatarsus is also usually furnished with one or two glands, covered with a small tuft 
of hair; the presence of these furnishes a good character for distinguishing the hornless females 
of this family from those of such antilopes as are also destitute of horns. They are deficient only 
in the Muntjacs — a small group of Oriental deer fonning the genus Cervalus. 
