I oo 
British Deer and their Horns 
find certain trees on which to rub his horns and colour them is absurd. His motto is the same 
as Longfellow’s :— 
That is best which lieth nearest ; 
and when instinct tells him that the horns are complete and the velvet is becoming dry on 
the surface, he simply rubs and cleans them on any substance that is raised from the ground, 
presenting a suitable roughness. 
A stag in a park does not go and hunt out a tree whose colour he desires to transmit to 
his bonnet, and he will just as soon rub against the boards protecting young trees, the palings 
of the park, whether iron or wood, or any old stump that comes handy. So the stag living 
in fir, birch, or beech woods uses the tree that comes first, and may thereby colour his 
horns to a certain extent. Exposure to the weather plays no small part in affecting the 
invisible life which, I think, still exists in and on the surface of the horn for some time after 
it is clean, but of this we at present know little. 1 More than half the stags in Scotland never 
touch a tree at all when they are cleaning, nor, in fact, are they near them. 
I remember seeing a party of about twenty-five at Guisachan in the middle of August, 
and eight or ten of them were cleaning their horns on rocks and grassy hummocks. During 
Just as this work goes to press this point is very properly referred to in an editorial note on this subject in the Field. It 
was noticed that the deer in the Zoological Gardens frayed their horns annually against painted iron bars , and even then they 
were of the normal colour. It concludes with the sensible suggestion that “ this is due to the chemical change or oxygenation 
which takes place in the superficially deposited blood (?) stains caused by fraying, as they gradually dry on exposure to the air 
and get rubbed into the bony surface while still in a sensitive condition. The intensity of the colour will naturally vary in 
individuals.” 
A WELBECK Stag’s HEAD. (PARK) 
Points, 19 j length, 35J; span inside, 32 ; beam 7. 
