90 British Deer and their Horns 
fact is that whenever observation supplies us with a crucial test (as with the tuskless elephant 
or the hornless stag), these weaponless individuals are almost invariably masters of the herd. 
Those of us who have had the advantage of observing deer frequently in the rutting 
From an animal kept in a Yorkshire Park ; horns now in'Natural History Museum, S. Kensington. Animal was bom in 1880, and in year of its birth 
had no antlers. No. 1, grown 1881, shed spring 1882. No. 2, grown 1882, shed April 1883. No. 3, grown 1883, shed spring 1884. No. 4, grown 1884, 
shed 1885. No. 5, grown 1885, shed 1886. No. 6, grown 1886, during which year the animal was shot. 1 
season will have noticed how an active heavy-bodied stag will almost invariably obtain the 
mastery of a herd, often beating the better-antlered ones. Mr. Baillie Grohman, in his 
excellent Sport in the Alps , however, makes a very questionable suggestion, which, if he had 
had a wider experience of Scotch forests, he would not have made. He says that good- 
1 By kind permission of Sir William Flower. 
