DEER. 
385 
The American deer are, however, still better distinguished from their Old 
World cousins, by the characters of their antlers, which are either in the form of 
simple spikes, or are divided in a fork-like manner, with the anterior prong directed 
forwards, and no brow-tine. These characteristic features are well shown in the 
PROFILE VIEWS OF THE ANTLERS OF THE 
MARSH-DEER (^4), THE VIRGINIAN DEER 
( B ), AND THE MULE-DEER (C). 
accompanying figures, from which 
it will be seen that while in one 
case the two prongs of the antler 
may be nearly equally developed 
(A), in another the anterior prong 
(a) may be greatly developed at 
the expense of the posterior ( b ), 
as in the middle figure. It will 
also be seen that there may be 
either a large or small sub-basal 
tine ( c) rising from the inner side 
of the front of the antler, some 
distance above the burr, and directed upwardly. It was long considered that this 
sub-basal tine represented the brow-tine of the antlers of the Old World deer, and 
attempts were made to correlate the other tines of the American deer with those of 
the genus Cervus. Mr. Allan Gordon Cameron has, however, pointed out that this 
is a totally erroneous notion ; the truth being, that while the members of the genus 
vol. 11.—25 
