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ALMOST HUMAN 
they sprout annually. Not very long after this was done, the female 
Eland had the misfortune to break off one of her horns, and with it a 
considerable amount of skull. She was in great distress, so the heads of 
the Veterinary College came up very quickly, and a doctor gave her chloro- 
form, while the professor operated. A number of students accompanied 
these gentlemen to watch so unusual an operation, and several onlookers, 
profoundly interested in the performance, as they did not know much 
about it, were very liberal with their advice as to how it should be done. 
One man caught sight of the dehorned deer, which, in fear and trembling, 
was watching through the fence the unwonted bustle and confusion in its 
neighbor’s house. He at once spoke to one of the keepers, and demanded : 
“Who operated on that animal?” 
“I’m not sure whether I did, or the carpenter,” was the reply. 
“It is a painfully crude piece of work,” was the comment. “Now, 
if it had been in my hands, I should have cut that ugly projecting piece 
right out, and have drawn the skin right over the wound. In a couple 
of months it would have been impossible to see that an operation had 
been performed.” 
“I see,” came the quiet answer. “But, what would have happened 
when his new antlers began to sprout?” 
As the discomfited man moved away from the laughing crowd, he 
said hastily;. 
“Of course, I was referring to antelopes, not deer!” 
Deer shed their antlers each year, antelope keep the one pair of 
horns throughout life. Therefore, to fix up the poor Eland, there was 
an attempt made to carry out the programme sketched by the officious 
pe rsonage. Unfortunately the shock was too great for the timid thing. 
She lived less than a fortnight after the accident, and died as much 
from fright at all the handling she had suffered as from the wound. 
Deer and antelope are so nervous that it has sometimes happened that 
a perfectly healthy one will be caught for transportation, and an hour 
after it has been placed in its new box it will be found dead from fright. 
REDUCED TO CIVILITY. 
It is only for four months in the year that the deer’s antlers are 
hard enough for him to be a menace to the peace of all about him. In 
the early Spring, before the fawns are born, they begin to be a worry 
to him, and he seeks desperately to get rid of the encumbrances. He 
will butt at tree guards or fences savagely until one antler will go snap. 
This never fails to give him a good fright, and he bounds off round and 
