. California fish and game. Fisheries -- California; Game and game-birds -- California; Fishes -- California; Animal Population Groups; Pêches; Gibier; Poissons. 122 CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 3. Result of Castration. If castrated when youn«?, a buck -will not produce antlers of much size, if any at all; and if antlers are produced, they will be greatly deformed. If castrated when in the velvet the deer will retain his antlers permanently. They will continue to grow slowly but in a very irregular sliape and will always retain the velvet (see figure 41). Several hunters have brought in deer in t
. California fish and game. Fisheries -- California; Game and game-birds -- California; Fishes -- California; Animal Population Groups; Pêches; Gibier; Poissons. 122 CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 3. Result of Castration. If castrated when youn«?, a buck -will not produce antlers of much size, if any at all; and if antlers are produced, they will be greatly deformed. If castrated when in the velvet the deer will retain his antlers permanently. They will continue to grow slowly but in a very irregular sliape and will always retain the velvet (see figure 41). Several hunters have brought in deer in the late winter as well as at other times of the year with antlers in this condition. It is claimed by experienced hunters that, if a buck is castrated when his antlers are mature and the velvet shed, he will not drop them. This claim is based on the fact that castrated deer have been found with normal "hard" antlers at the time of year when they should have been shed. Evidently these bucks had been castrated after the maturity of the antlers for that year. The causae of the castration of deer in nature is almost as puzzling as that of malformed antlers. Few facts are known concerning this phenomenon. The commonest form of antler found on deer stags is that shown in figure 42. Each is proportionately large at the base, often from six to ten inches in circumference. The antlere, furthermore, are short and stubbj"" with many knobs or bumps upon Fig. 42. Malformed antlers of unusual type, causes unknown. Photographs by F. C. Clarke. A "spike" buck (yearling) under observation was castrated when the "spikes" were immature. They remained in practically this same condition for a year, when the deer was killed. A stag that was killed late in the winter when antlers were normally shed, still possessed a pair of "forked" antlers. They were soft and in the velvet. A very unusual pair of antlers from a medium-sized buck killed near
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