Antlers of Deer | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 30, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 50.

Antlers of Deer.

THE antlers of a deer are occasionally, though very erroneously, called horns, from which they differ essentially in every respect except that of growing from the head of the animal which produces them. True horns, as seen on oxen, are never shed; they are formed of horny or animal material capable of being softened by heat, and usually semi-transparent. Antlers, on the contrary, are but temporary; they grow annually, being shed every year. In place of consisting of horn, they are formed of most solid bone, which grows from the forehead. Their rapid growth, which only takes a few weeks in the year, is due to the blood-vessels in the velvety skin covering the budding antlers, bringing the bony material and depositing it in the form of an antler. When this is fully formed, the velvety skin dries up, and the hard, firm, solid antler, with which the stag can attack others or defend itself, is left, the dried skins coming off in long strips, which may often be seen on the deer in the Zoological Gardens.

At the end of the season the base of the antler, where it springs from the bone of the forehead, is absorbed and the antler falls, leaving a raw place, which quickly skins over, and in due time another pair of antlers—larger and with more points than those of the preceding year—take their place. With the exception of the reindeer, the females are destitute of antlers. There are many distinct families of deer, some, like the red deer, having cylindrical horns, with sharp points, capable of inflicting the most fatal injuries; others, like the fallow deer, have the antlers flattened out into broad plates.—London Queen.