120 
ORDERS OP MAMMALS— HOOFED ANIMALS 
disc of bone belonging to the frontal bone of 
the skull. No blood flows. Dropped antlers are 
sometimes gnawed by rodents until destroyed; 
but many are picked up by those who look for 
them. At the end of the first week, the bony disc 
or seat of the antler is covered over by the dark 
brown skin of the head. At the end of two 
weeks, a rounded bunch, like a big brown tomato, 
has risen on the pedicle of each antler. It is 
soft, full of blood, and easily injured. 
Gradually this elongates into the form of a 
thick, blunt-ended club, in color brown or pink, 
shiny, and thinly covered with minute hairs. 
When fairly started, the antlers of a healthy 
and vigorous elk or caribou grow at the rate of 
one-third of an inch per day, or even more. 
They are soft, spongy, warm, full of blood, are 
easily injured, and if cut will bleed freely. The 
material of which they are composed, internally, 
is the same as that which forms the hair. The 
drain upon the animal’s vitality during this 
period is very severe, and it is not strange that 
the animal is then meek and spiritless. 
A large pair of elk antlers, dropped in the 
Zoological Park on March 21st, had been renewed 
to their full length by June 21st, but the tips 
were flat and club-lilce. The first sign of the 
hardening process was the shrinkage of the blunt 
tips of the tines to sharp points. Gradually the 
diameter of the entire antler decreased in size, 
and at the same time the hair composing the 
velvet grew longer. The surface now assumed 
a gray appearance. On August 1st all the points 
were sharp, and the antlers were in perfect form, 
but the velvet was all on. (See “ The Elk’s Calen- 
dar,” page 122.) 
Deer as Dangerous Animals. — The rapid 
multiplication of deer parks, and small collec- 
tions of captive animals, renders it necessary to 
offer a few words of warning regarding deer of all 
species. During the season immediately fol- 
lowing the perfect development of the new ant- 
lers, — say September, October and November, — 
male deer, elk, caribou and moose sometimes 
become as savage as whelp-robbed tigers. The 
neck swells far beyond its natural size, the eye- 
pits distend, and the buck goes stalking about 
with ears laid back and nostrils expanded, fairly 
spoiling for a fight. I have seen stags that were 
mild and gentle during eight or nine months of 
the year suddenly transformed into murderous 
demons, ready and anxious to stab to death any 
unarmed man who ventured near. 
At first a buck walks slowly up to his victim, 
makes a wry face, and with his sharp, new antlers 
makes believe to play with him. Not wishing 
to be punctured, the intended victim lays hold 
of the antlers, and seeks to keep them out of his 
vitals. On finding himself opposed, the buck 
begins to drive forward like a battering ram, 
and then the struggle is on. 
Heaven help the man thus attacked, if no 
other help be near! He shuts his teeth, grips 
the murderous bone spears with all his strength, 
leans well forward, and with the strength and 
nimbleness of desperation, struggles to maintain 
his grasp and keep his feet. Each passing in- 
stant the rage of the buck, and his joy of com- 
bat, increases. If the man goes down, and help 
fails to come quickly, his chances to escape the 
spears are few. 
Once when unarmed and alone, I saved myself 
from an infuriated buck (fortunately a small 
one), by suddenly releasing one antler, seizing 
a fore-leg low down, and pulling it up so high 
that the animal was powerless to lunge forward 
as he had been doing. In this way I held him 
at bay, and at last worked him to a spot where I 
secured a stout cudgel, with which I belabored 
him so unmercifully that he was conquered for 
that day. 
The strength and fury of a buck of insignifi- 
cant size are often beyond belief. The loving 
“pet” of May readily becomes the dangerous, 
fury-filled murderer of October. With a large 
deer of any species, a man not fully armed has- 
little chance. In the winter of 1902, at Helena, 
Montana, a man armed with a pitchfork entered 
an elk corral, to show a friend that the large male 
elk feared him. The elk attacked him furiously, 
and killed him before he could be rescued. 
Men who have charge of deer herds must keep' 
the bucks in a perpetual state of fear. Do not 
make a pet of any male member of the Deer 
Family after it is two years old. It is dangerous. 
In the autumn or winter, never enter an en- 
closure containing deer, elk or caribou unless, 
armed with a pitchfork, or a long pole of tough 
wood, with an iron spike in the end. If a buck 
threatens to attack you, strike him across the 
nose; for that is his tender spot. When angry 
he can take any amount of punishment on the 
