100 
FOREST AND STREAM 
THE DEER’S ANTLERS. 
A correspondent writes us from Long Branch, 
New Jersey, asking the following question: 
“Does an elk or moose shed his antlers' every 
year and get a new set?” Our reply is “Yes, all 
our deer shed and renew their horns annually.” 
The deer—represented in North America by 
the caribou, moose, elk, Virginia or white tail, 
and mule or black tail deer—are, of course, 
clearly distinguished from the other group of 
hoofed and horned animals which contains the 
cattle, sheep and antelope. All the deer have 
horns, and the character of these horns differ¬ 
entiates them from all other families. 
The horns of the cow or the sheep are perma¬ 
nent bony outgrowths from the frontal bone of 
the skull, and are enclosed in a horny sheath 
which under ordinary conditions is a permanent 
covering, the only exception being our prong¬ 
horn antelope, which sheds its horn sheaths an¬ 
nually. The bony outgrowth which form the 
core of the horn are full of holes, called air 
Sinuses, and from this the Bovidae have been 
called hollow-horned Cavicornia. In the deer 
family, however, the horns are constructed on a 
different plan. They are still outgrowths of bone 
from the frontals, but the outer sheath—the vel¬ 
vet—encloses them for a short time only, and 
as soon as their growth is complete is shed. The 
perfect horn—commonly spoken of as an antler 
—is now mere dead bone. For a few months it 
remains firmly attached to the skull and then 
drops off, to be renewed again the following 
year. From an article printed in the Century’s 
“Sport with Gun and Rod,” edited by Prof. 
Alfred M. Mayer, we quote a popular account 
of the reproduction of the deer’s antlers. The 
article is entitled “The North American Cervi- 
dae,” by George Bird Grinnell, and says of these 
antlers: 
“Their method of growth is as follows: From 
each of the frontal bones there arises a short, 
stout process, growing outward and upward,, 
forming what is called the pedicel. This pedi¬ 
cel is covered with ordinary hairy skin, except 
upon the upper flat circular surface of its ex¬ 
tremity, on which the horn of the preceding year 
was supported. Here the skin is naked and 
black. In the spring, usually about May i, the 
time varying somewhat in the different species, 
and even in different individuals of the same 
species, this flat surface becomes convex, grad¬ 
ually swells outward, becomes longer, and soon 
takes the shape of a short spike. At first, it is 
straight and swollen and is shaped somewhat 
like a cucumber. It is now little more than a 
mass of coagulated blood inclosed in a sack of 
thin skin, which is covered by a coat of fine 
brown hair called ‘velvet,’ and during the first 
part of its growth there is but little trace of 
bony structure apparent in it. The horn is soft 
to the touch, and may be somewhat compressed 
in the hand or bent a little in any direction. It 
is hot and feverish, too, and the pulsation of the 
arteries which supply it with blood may be felt. 
It is also extremely sensitive and tender, and the 
deer is extremely careful to avoid striking it 
against the trees or undergrowth near which 
he may pass. 
“When the point is reached at which the first 
tine is to be put off, the extremity of the grow¬ 
ing horn becomes somewhat flattened from side 
to side and then divides, the tine at first being 
quite small, and increasing in length much more 
gradually than the beam. The same thing takes 
place with each of the succeeding branches, so 
that the beam and all the tines attain their full 
length at the same time. During the whole period 
of their growth, the horns are abundantly sup¬ 
plied with blood-vessels, three distinct sets of 
arteries, according to Caton, passing up through 
and without the pedicel. The horns grow with 
very great rapidity, usually attaining their full 
size in about three months. Huxley, in speak¬ 
ing of this marvelously rapid growth, refers to 
a pair of antlers, weighing seventy-two pounds, 
which were produced in ten weeks. As might be 
imagined, the production of such a mass of 
osseous tissue in so short a time is a severe drain 
upon the animal’s system, and in most species 
the males at this time become very thin and 
weak. During the growth of the horn a circular 
notched and jagged ridge makes its appearance 
at the base of the horn just above the pedicel. 
Ihis ‘burr’ serves in a measure to protect the 
blood-vessels which pass along beneath the skin 
of the pedicel, and these take their way through 
it and between its projections, and thence along 
the channels in the surface of the horn beneath 
the periosteum—the membrance which incases 
the living bone. 
“The horns reach their full size in August, 
and, from being at first very soft and afterward 
spongy, have at length become quite hard. They 
are, however, still covered with the ‘velvet,’ and 
beneath this the blood continues to circulate, but 
now more slowly than at any time since the horn 
began to grow. The time at which the horn be¬ 
comes fit for use as a weapon of offense or de¬ 
fense varies slightly in the different species of 
our deer, but is usually about September i. The 
animal’s head now appears to trouble him, and 
to be irritated like a healing wound, and he rubs 
his horns violently in the bushes or against the 
branches and trunks of trees. The tender ‘vel¬ 
vet is thus torn off and hangs in bleeding strips 
about his horns and head, but he continues to 
rub for several days, until at length the antlers 
are quite free from skin, their tips white and 
polished, and the inequalities about the burr 
filled with finely crushed fragments of bark. He 
is then ready for the rutting season, which 
immediately ensues. 
The horn is now dead, and at its connection 
with the skull—the extremity of the pedicel— 
absorption begins to take place, and in the course 
of four or five months the attachment to the 
frontal is so weakened that the horn drops off 
of its own weight. The end of the pedicel bleeds 
a little at first, but almost at once heals over, 
and until the following spring is covered with 
the black skin already mentioned. 
“As a rule, these weapons are borne only by 
the male deer; but the female caribou always 
has small horns, and in very rare instances the 
female Virginia deer has been killed with a sin¬ 
gle spike, or a pair of straight, short, and 
scarcely branched horns. The horns of all our 
North American deer become fit for service in 
September, and they are shed at various times 
from December to March.” 
WHEN DO MUSCALLONGE SHED TEETH? 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I venture to ask Forest and Stream a ques¬ 
tion which may be of interest to your readers. 
When do Muscallonge shed their teeth? There 
is no question, but they do shed their teeth, 
but when? Is it once a year and if so do they 
all shed at the same time, and what month or 
months or is it at a certain age of the fish, 
and but once? Among fishermen and guides 
there is great difference of opinions. 
As far as I know there is no discussion of 
this matter in print. However, judged by what 
we know of the loss and replacement of teeth 
in other fishes it would seem quite improbable 
that the muscallonge sheds its teeth with any 
regularity. As far as I know there is no known 
case of the regular moulting of the teeth in any 
fish. They are shed irregularly after being in 
place for an indefinite time and are replaced by 
others which grow up in the same or a nearby 
location. 
It is a very common experience in studying 
those species of fishes in which the teeth are 
used for identification to find one or more teeth 
absent from the series and represented merely 
by a space or by a partially erupted tooth. 
I am therefore practically certain that the 
muscallonge will be found to follow the general 
rule and that at no period would all the teeth 
be shed at once.. 
RAYMOND C. OSBURN, Assistant Director 
New York Aquarium. 
HOW TO GROW TROUT WITH PINK FLESH. 
About thirty years ago Mr. P. D. Malloch 
sent me from Scotland, in water, in a large tin 
can like a big oil-can, some thousands of fresh¬ 
water shrimps, with which I hoped to stock a 
small lake, but in the long journey from Perth 
to Croydon the majority of the shrimps 
( gammarus ) had died; there were a few hundred 
still alive. What struck me as curious was that 
while the live shrimps were of a semi-trans¬ 
parent dark olive color, most of the dead ones 
were opaque and almost of the color of boiled 
prawns, quite pinkish in appearance. I had put 
some trout in the water and hoped to get a stock 
of live shrimps established in the Canadian weed 
and other weeds—crowsfoot, vallisneria, etc. It 
