24 
MAMMALIA. 
from eight inches, or ten inches at the very utmost, down to two or 
three inches in length. It is only the largest of these that any have 
claimed to be adults. It is very easy for a hunter to say, and even 
believe, that he has killed deer with spikes ten inches long, but did 
he actually measure them, and make a note of the fact, with time and 
place, describing its appearance, and take and note the measurements 
of the animal, or did he preserve the head, so that he could carefully 
examine it, after the excitement of the chase was over, or so that he 
could submit it to the examination of others ? 
“ Continued observations upon' the young deer in my parks have 
enlightened me much on this subject. For several years, I really 
persuaded myselt that I had the true spike-antlered bucks, and set 
myself to carefully note their peculiarities, and fondly believed that 
I was about to add an important chapter to scientific knowledge. 
But these careful and continued observations soon undeceived and 
disappointed me. By marking the spike buck of one year, which was 
as large as one feeding by its side having two or three tines on each 
antler, I found the next year that his antlers were also branched, and 
my spike-antlered buck had become a fine specimen ol the ordinary 
kind. And then the early fawn of the year before, dropped from a 
fully adult vigorous doe, which had furnished him plenty of milk, had 
now grown to the size of a medium adult, and had fine spike-antlers, 
resembling in all things his older brother of the preceding year now 
bearing the pronged antlers. And so I anxiously pursued my ob- 
servations for a number of years, ever looking in vain for a second 
antler without prongs. Without this certain means of knowledge, I 
should have believed that those large spike-antlered bucks were more 
than yearlings and nearly adult. It is true the dentition might have 
undeceived me, but this I could not ascertain while the animal was 
alive, and this test has probably been rarely examined and carefully 
studied by those hunters who believe they have killed adult deer 
with spike antlers. I feel quite sure that they had not the means ot 
accurately determining the true ages of the wild deer which they 
