Animal products; . and varieties of deer horns from India, Siam, &c. ; also feet ofthe elk or moose formed into paper racks or pockets in Case 96; a stuffed headof the eland, and horns of the waterbok and various other antelopes. GROWTH OF STAG-HORN. 179 skin; the second year the horns are single and straight; the thirdyear they have two antlers ; the fourth, three ; the fifth, four; andthe sixth, five. When arrived at the sixth year the antlers do notalways increase, and though the number may amount to six orseven on each side, the stags age is then estimated rather bythe size and thickness o
Animal products; . and varieties of deer horns from India, Siam, &c. ; also feet ofthe elk or moose formed into paper racks or pockets in Case 96; a stuffed headof the eland, and horns of the waterbok and various other antelopes. GROWTH OF STAG-HORN. 179 skin; the second year the horns are single and straight; the thirdyear they have two antlers ; the fourth, three ; the fifth, four; andthe sixth, five. When arrived at the sixth year the antlers do notalways increase, and though the number may amount to six orseven on each side, the stags age is then estimated rather bythe size and thickness of the branch that sustains them thanfrom their number. The proportional length, direction, andcurvature of the antlers vary, and it oftens happens that there isone more or less on the one side, than on the other; the hornsalso become larger, the superficial furrows more marked, and theburr is more projecting. Nothwithstanding their magnitude, thosehorns are annually shed in the spring of the year, and succeeded. STAGES OF GROWTH. by new ones. A full grown stags horn frequently weighs 24 lbs.,and the whole of this immense mass of true bone is produced inabout ten weeks. The form of the horns diners at different ages; but it is not soeasy to tell the age of a stag by its horns. A correspondent in Land and Water thus describes the stagesof growth. Eight or nine months after birth the horns appear asnearly straight branches, growing to the length of from six to N 2 180 ANTLERS OF THE DEER. twelve inches. This single horn being cast, the two-year-old stagsets up his second pair, on which one side prong appears a fewinches above the point of junction with the head. In the thirdyear each horn acquires two ends. The lower prong increases inlength, and is developed somewhat lower down on the upper prong is somewhat smaller than this. The third endpreserves the character of the original single horn. In the nextyear the stag sets up four points on each horn, the lower prongdrawin
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