OCR Text |
Show 490 DR. G. HERBERT FOWLER ON VARIATION [June 19, normal type, but of a grade characteristic of bucks much younger than this specimen, the other is profoundly modified. Other modified specimens, which appear to m e likely to have the same history, are 1561, 1562, 1564. 3. Antlers of castrated deer can be shed (? if castrated at birth). This is shown by 1561, 1562, 1564; if castrated after the horns for the year are " burnished," the animal may shed them prematurely (1560); antlers put up after castration maybe retained for at least two years (1565). When shed the burr is concave below, not flat or convex (passim). 4. Pariicd castration soon after birth may result in a comparatively feeble but normal development of the antlers (1557) \ 5. Castration on one side may result in the nearly normal development of one antler, and the abnormality and reduction of the other (1567, and Mr. AVallace's specimen). This reduction may occur on the castrated side of the animal (1567), but is traditionally stated in the second specimen to be of the opposite side to castration. There remain two doubtful specimens, the one (1558 and 1559 supra) with the rather incomprehensible label; the other (1568) a fine head of eight points, which is said to have been castrated ; the catalogue is, however, uncertain on this point. Very interesting in the light of the specimens gelded on one side are the observations of Collyns (' Notes on the Chase of the Wild Bed Deer,' London, 1862, 8vo) :-" Not unfrequently I have found deer killed by the hounds with horns deformed, or wanting. I used to attribute this to injuries clone to the horns during their growth by fighting or otherwise ; but from frequent investigations and dissections I have come to the conclusion that the appearances have generally been due to the shot or slug of the poacher injuring the deer in the testicle before his horns are shed, or during the growth of the new horn." He figures a pair of antlers of a specimen killed by the Devon and Somerset hounds ; one of these was abortive, the other fairly w^ell developed ; there were shot-wounds in the testis of the same side as the defective horn. At the Natural History Museum at South Kensington is an interesting series of abnormal antlers of Cervus clama from the N e w Forest, to which Mr. Oldfield Thomas has kindly called my attention (50.2.5.1 to 46). While there is no history as to the generative organs of these specimens, I have personally little doubt, after comparison with the B. C. S. specimens, that in the bulk of cases the abnormality is due to disease, removal, or incomplete development of the generative organs2. Apart from 1 This appears to be commonly practised in some parks (Shirley, ' Some Account of English Deer Parks,'" London, 1867. 8vo, p. 241) and among the Lapps (Catou, 'Antelope and Deer of America,' Boston, 1881, 8vo). 2 A belief exists that an injury of almost any kind will affect the development of the antler; this may be illustrated by two specimens in the Roy. Coll. Surg. |