They fall off, and are renewed periodically every year up to a 
certain age, hence comes their descriptive appellation. 
In the adult individual the antler is composed of a cylindrical 
or flattened stem, according to the genus, which is called the 
brow-antler , from which branch out at intervals slighter and 
shorter additions, called tines or branches. The base of the brow- 
antler is surrounded with a circle of small bony excrescences, 
which afford a passage to the blood-vessels intended to provide for 
the growth of the antler ; these are called burrs. 
We must now turn to the various terms used to indicate the 
growth of the antlers. In the first place, on the brow of the 
young animal two small elevations or knobs are seen to make 
e/iCCH/IM 
Fig. 115.— Cliarolaise Bull. L a 
their appearance, above each of which there soon grows a carti- i ; 
laginous prolongation, which is not long before it assumes a bony 
texture. Until they become perfectly hard these two early i 
sprouts are protected against any external friction by a kind of 
velvety skin, which serves as a vehicle for the calcareous matter, 
and dries up as soon as ossification is accomplished, the beast 
getting rid of the velvet by rubbing its head against a tree. 
The short horns which then adorn its brow take the name of 
dags. At the commencement of the third year the dags fall off, 
but soon after they are replaced by other and longer ones, which 
throw out their first tines ; from this time they are considered as 
entitled to the name of antler. 
