Stags’ Heads 
o 
99 
walls, and when he has taken them down and been examining them he may have noticed 
how exceedingly greasy or oily to 
the touch this or that head has felt. 
Now this is nothing but the horns 
“ sweating ” as it were, and the oily 
matter forcing its way through the 
outer coating to the surface. 
Now for a rum story, which, 
however, is perfectly true. One day 
my old friend Mr. J. E. Harting was 
talking to Captain Marriott (he that 
was recently collared by the brigands 
close to Smyrna) about curiosities ot 
natural history, when the gallant 
captain mentioned the fact that in 
the mess of the 9th Norfolk Regi¬ 
ment at Aldershot there was the 
head of a Burmese stag (Gervus eldi ) 
from the horns of which drops of 
blood had been falling steadily at 
intervals for the last seven or eight 
years. This was sufficiently extra- Q w ^ r . faille fa- 
ordinary to warrant an inspection, 
J A PARK STAG 
so Mr. Harting went down and saw 
the head hanging up in the mess-room. On close 
inspection there was a drop of what looked like blood 
ready to fall from a crack or small hole just underneath 
one of the brow points. A plate had always been kept 
under the head for years which caught the drops as they 
fell at intervals. Mr. Harting had at first expected that 
some joke was going on, so had rather laughed at the 
whole affair, but here the exudation was taking place under 
his eyes, and continues even unto this day, unless the head 
has been removed. My friend very wisely caught the 
drop in a small bottle and took it to Professor Stewart at 
the Royal College of Surgeons, who microscopically ex¬ 
amined it, afterwards reporting that the exudation was not 
blood but a dark mixture like it composed of mucus and 
grease. 
When the velvet begins to strip off the completed antler 
it leaves on the surface of the horn a small amount of 
gelatinous moisture which is ready to take on colour after 
some days’ exposure to the sun and air. The idea that the animal goes out of his way to 
o 2 
