DEER

The English generic name for the ruminating quadrupeds with deciduous horns, or antlers; which appendages form, in fact, the e ential character of the genus Cervus of Linnaeus. (See Cornua.) Deer are anatomically distinguished from other ruminants by the absence of a gall bladder The species of deer may be primarily divided into two 319 DEER. groups, of which one includes those with antlers more or le flattened, the other those with rounded antlers. The elk (Cervus alces, L.) is the most characteristic species of the first group, and forms the type of the subgenus Alces of modern systems. It equals or exceeds the horse in bulk; has a short body, with a still shorter neck, raised on long stilt-like legs. The muzzle is long, broad, and overhangs the mouth like a square-shaped lapel: it is very muscular, and is of e ential service to the animal in detaching the lichens and mo es from the trunks of trees and other places within its easy reach. The long legs of the elk particularly adapt it to the marshy and swampy forests which it chiefly frequents, in the northern parts of both the European and American continents. The antlers of the elk appear first in the form of dags or unbranched pointed stems; these are succeeded by a stem or beam supporting a few short branches. At five years he puts up antlers in the form of a triangular plate, supported on a pedicle, and notched along the outer margin. Afterwards the bony plate increases in its expanse, and the points between the notches are developed into long branches or snags, of which a single antler sometimes sends off as many as fourteen; and the pair will then weigh about fifty pounds. The female elk goes with young rather longer than eight months. The rein-deer ( Cervus tar and us) differs from the rest of the genus in the presence of antlers in both sexes, and in the great development of the broio -antlers, or branches which extend forwards over the foreliead from the base of the beam. The antlers are retained through the winter; and, as it is understood that the brow antlers are used to detach the frozen snow, which at that season covers the lichen rang if erinus, and other species on which the rein-deer feeds, the nece ity of the singular exception in favour of the female rein-deer becomes obvious. Her antlers are, however, always smaller than those of the male. -The rut takes place in mid-winter, and the period of gestation is about six months: as in most other species of deer, one fawn is produced. at a birth. The rein-deer is a native of the most northern parts of Europe and America. To the Lap lander it serves all the ordinary offices of the beast of draught, and supplies him with the rich variety of nutriment, clothing, and useful implements, which man in more favoured climes obtains from other species of the valuable order of Ruminant i a. The third species of deer referable to the flat horned group is that which the ancients termed plat i ceros, and which now forms the ornament of the English park; the fallow deer ( Cervus dam as, Linn.). In the technical language of the hunter, the male fallow deer is called a " buck," the female a " doe," and the young a " fawn." The buck-fawn of the second year, which is characterized by having simple dags, is a " pricket." In the third year a brow-antler is put forth, and the young buck is termed a " sorel." In the fourth year he is a "sore," and the summit of the beam presents a bifid expansion. At the fifth year the expanded summit of the beam is formed, and begins to develop snags, and the fallow deer is then a "buck of the first head." At each subsequent year the branches of the expanded beam increase in length to a certain period, after which they lose their size and regularity. The period of gestation in the fallow doe is eight months. Of the species of deer of which the beam of the antler gives a rounded form in section, the red deer (Cervus elaphus) and the roe-buck (Cervus capreolus) are indigenous species. The male red deer, in the language of " the noble art of venerie," is called a " hart," and the female a " hind." She goes with young about a week longer than the fallow doe; and brings forth in May a single fawn, rarely two. The young of both sexes are at first styled " calves." The male differs from that of the fallow deer in putting up at six months a pair of rudimental antlers, in the form of cylindrical knobs, called "bo ets." In the second year they a ume the condition of " dags," and the wearer is called a " brocket." In the third year two or three branches or " tynes " are developed, and the young deer becomes a " spayad." In the fourth year the summit of the beam expands into the crown or " surroyal," and the deer is now distinguished by the name of " staggard." In the fifth year the term " stag" is applied to him in a limited and technical sense. At the sixth year he is a "hart," and his designation is not afterwards changed; but at this period he is particularly distinguished as a "hart of ten," and is not considered fair game till his seventh year, when the hart is said to be "palmed" or "crowned," in reference to the full development of his antlers. The antlers or " attire" are shed very soon after pairing; at this period, when the hart has " lost his attire," he retreats to the shadiest or most unfrequented part of his range. New antlers begin to grow very soon after the old ones are shed, and they are completed in the month of August. The skin, or " velvet," which protected the vascular periosteum during their growth now dries, and is rubbed off against trees or any resisting body; [s. 332]