The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-08-06
Darwin's Theory and the Antlers OF
Deer.

The historical development of antlers
in the deer tribe is very marked. While
the group was still young and dominant,
with the open, grass-clad tertiary plains
all before it, and with plenty of elbow
room to spread and multiply, it had as
yet no weapons of offense of any kind.
But as the races grew thicker and more
numerous, and as space failed the
younger generations-for deer, like men,
are subject to the memorable logic of the
Malthusians-th fathers of the herd be-
gan to fight among themselves for the
possession of the does, and only the
strongest survived to become the parents
OF future deerkind. Butting naturally
produced hard bosses or protuberances
OF some Sort and in the ancestral deer
these protuberances took the shape OF
bony projections on the forehead
Again those deer which had the most
marked and NEST pointed projections
would best vanquish their rivals, and so
fare best in the struggle for the kinds,
Their descendants would inherit their
peculiarities with more or less variation !;
and would similarly be selected by the
law of battle in accordance with their
fighting powers and the fitness of their
weapons. And this probability, set
forth a priori by Mr.. Darwin, exactly
tallies with the geological record, as in
terpreted by Professor Boyd Dawkins.
The very vague and unspecialized deer
of the lower miocene period had no
antlers at all they were somewhat like
musk-deer without the tusks, or like
young fawns in their first summer. But
in the mid miocene antlers make their
first appearance as mere short pointed
knobs; next they develope single side
tine; and in the upper miocene they
come out as fully evolved as in our
modern species. Every intermediate
stage can be traced between the mere
nascent boss like that of budding roe in
our own day, and the many branched
headpiece OF the existing reindeer. In
deed, one late tertiary species had a
pair of wonderfully intricate antlers
which far surpassed in completely those
of any living elk; but, like many other
highly specialized creatures, this over
developed type seems to have fallen a
prey to the great extinct carnivores of
The same period. Before the advent of
man, many such high types existed, and
they may perhaps have been partly de-
stroyed by his monopolizing all the most
open and desirable plains as his special
hunting grounds. For we now know
that man is certainly quaternary, and
probably tertiary genus as well; and,
even in his lowest and humblest form,
his intelligence must have made him
from the very first dominant race and
the real lord of creation.
1t is interesting to note, too, that the
historical evolution of antlers in the
deer tribe is exactly paralleled by the
modern evolution of antlers in every in
dividual red deer. In the first year a
stag has no horns at all, and is techni-
cally known as calf. In his second
year, he puts forth a pair of rounded
bosses, and is therefore called knobber
in the slang of the gillies. With his
third year the knobs fall off, and are re-
placed by longer horns, called days
while the stag himself is now known a;
brocket. Thus, year after year, the
growing deer reproduces one stage after
another of the ancestral development
till at length the top of the harta--ay.
rs unen fnally dubbed a hart or "stag
of ten," from the number of tines on
each of his antlers. 1t would be quite
possible to pair the cast horns of each
year tolerably exactly with correspond
ing adult horns from the successive ter
tiary strata. Every deer in fact recapi
tulates in his own person the whole evo
luton of his race, the antler of each sue
cessive year being different, not only il
size but in form and arrangement a;
we'll, from those of all previous seasons
Pail Mall Gazette.