Chap. XVIII. 
LAW OF BATTLE. 
253 
1699 by Frederick I., each of which bears the aston- 
ishing number of thirty-three branches. Richardson 
figures a pair of antlers of the wild reindeer with twenty- 
nine points.^^ From the manner in which the horns 
are branched, and more especially from deer being 
known occasionally to fight together by kicking with 
their fore-feet, M. Bailly actually came to the con- 
clusion that their horns were more injurious than useful 
to them ! But this author overlooks the pitched battles 
between rival males. As I felt much perplexed about 
the use or advantage of the branches, I applied to Mr. 
McNeill of Colinsay, who has long and carefully ob- 
served the habits of red-deer, and he informs me that 
he has never seen some of the branches brought into 
action, but that the brow-antlers, from inclining down- 
wards, are a great protection to the forehead, and their 
points are likewise used in attack. Sir Philip Egerton 
also informs me in regard both to red-deer and fallow- 
deer, that when they fight they suddenly dash together, 
and getting their horns fixed against each other’s bodies 
a desperate struggle ensues. When one is at last 
forced to yield and turn round, the victor endeavours 
to plunge his brow-antlers into his defeated foe. It 
thus appears that the upper branches are used chiefly 
or exclusively for pushing and fencing. Nevertheless 
with some species the upper branches are used as 
weapons of offence; when a man was attacked by a 
Owen, on the Horns of Ked-deer, ‘ British Fossil Mammals,’ 1846, 
p. 478 ; ‘ Forest Creatures,’ by Charles Boner, 1861, p. 76, 62. Eich- 
ardson on the Horns of the Keindeer, ‘ Fauna Bor. Americana/ 1829^ 
p. 240. 
Hon. J. D. Caton (‘ Ottawa Acad, of Xat. Science,’ May, 1868, p. 
9), says that the American deer fight with their fore-feet, after “ the 
question of superiority has been once settled and acknowledged in the 
herd.” Bailly, ‘‘ Sur I’usage des Comes,” ‘ Annales des Sc. Nat.’ tom. 
ii. 1824, p. 371. 
