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Show 494 ON VARIATION IN THE ANTLERS OF THE FALLOW DEER. [June 19, with a separate burr1; but it must be remembered that, so far, I have only been able to handle a few specimens, and there is room for surprise that on these few such continuity should be shown. The remaining specimens of this British Museum series are not of immediate interest, but are recorded here for the sake of completeness. 14. Heavy antlers, broken across below the tray-tyne, apparently after full growth but before burnishing. A tyne had grown outwards from one of them at the fractured surface2. 44. A single antler of the character of R. C. S. specimen 1567 (fig. 8), with a slight brow-tyne, and a bifurcating tyne a little above this. 45. A similar specimen to 44, but with only a brow-tyne. 46. A single antler of stunted growth, with a brow aud three points. In conclusion, I have but to express m y thanks to Sir William Flower, Prof. Charles Stewart, and Mr. Oldfield Thomas, for the facilities granted to m e in the examination of specimens, and to Mr. J. E. Harting for help with the literature of the subject; and m y hopes that the incomplete character of these notes may induce Fellows of the Society, who own a herd of Fallow Deer or have influence with their owners, to arrange a series of systematic observations on the abnormalities of antlers. EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXXIV. Fig. 1. R. C. S. Osteol. Cat., 1556. 2. R. C. S. Osteol. Cat., 1561: right antler from outer side. 3. P. C. S. Osteol. Cat., 1565 : right antler from outer side. 4. R. C. S. Osteol. Cat., 1562: left antler from inner side. 5. R. C. S. Osteol. Cat., 1564: right antler from outer side. 6. R. C. S. Osteol. Cat., 1557 : left antler from inner side. 7. R. C. S. Osteol. Cat., 1567 : right antler from outer side. 8. R. C. S. Osteol. Cat., 1567 : left antler from inner side. 9. Specimen in the possession of J. A. Wallace, Esq.: left antler from outer side. 1 It is of course possible to regard the small tyne of B. M . specimen 20 as a separate beam with its own burr, but its direction and position with regard to the other tyne distinctly indicate that it is really a separate brow-tyne, and not an instance of reduplication. Of this reduplication, however, an example is afforded by specimen 382 of the Roy. Coll. Surg. Teratological Series. This is a calvarium of-the Axis Deer, with brow-tyne and a broken beam on the R. side: on the L. side the usual process of the frontal bone (1) carries a burr, from which spring a brow-tyne (8 in. from burr to tip ; only 1 in. shorter than that of the other side) and three little tynes about 1^ in. in the clear ; one of these bifurcates slightly, and they surround the spot from which the beam should spring ; (2) below this burr it grows outwards and downwards, at an angle to the horizon of about 45°, and carries another burr, a thick brow-tyne, and beam of 6 in. in length. Here, therefore, are two distinct antlers, carried on different points of an elongated and bent process of the frontal bone. The first one is in the usual position with respect to the head; the second lies parallel to the long axis of the head, with tyne and beam in the same line, and therefore, as regards the curvature of the brow-tyne, is not an optical reflection of even a normal antler. 2 Collyns (op. cit.) records that from the stump of the sawn-off antler of a Red Deer a dag was put up after four years. |
