COMMON AMERICAN DEER. 
169 
effect of castration on the horns of the buck. When this operation has 
been performed during the season when the horns are fully grown, it is 
said they are not dropped, but continue on the head for many years ; when 
the operation has been performed after they are dropped, there is no 
subsequent growth of horns, and the head appears ever afterwards like 
that of a doe. 
We had an opportunity at the JBlue Sulphur Springs in Virginia, of 
examining two tame bucks which had been castrated during the time 
that their horns were in velvet. Their horns continued to grow for 
several years ; the antlers were of enormous length, and very irregularly 
branched, but the velvet was still retained on them ; they presented a soft 
spongy appearance, and from slight scratches or injuries were continu- 
ally bleeding ; the neck had ceased to swell periodically as in the perfect 
bucks, they had become very large, seemed to be quite fat, and when first 
seen at a distance we supposed them to be elks. 
vol. in.— 22 
