The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1881-08-19
TIE BEERS -ANELERS.
Anorhe~ of Darwin. Peculiar scIeHtla

Ded"ciiOns.
The historical development of antlers
in the deer tribe is very marked. While
the group was still young and dominant,
with the open glass-clad tertiary plains
III before it and with plenty of elbow
room to spread and multiply, 1t had as yet
no weapons of offense of any kind. But
as the races grew thicker and more nu-
merous and as space failed the younger
generation-for deer like men, are subject
to the mexorable logic of the Malthu-
sians-the fathers of the herd began to
fight among themselves for the posses
sion of the does, and only the strongest
survived to become the parents of future
deerkind Butting naturally produces
hard bosses or proturberances of some
sort, and III the ancestral deer these pro-
turberances took the shape of bony pro-
iections ON the forehead Again, those
deer which had the most marked and
most pointed projections would best van
Quish their rivals, and SO fare best IN the
struggle for their kinds. Their descend
ants would inherit their peculiarities
with more or less variation ; and wOIld
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 Il prjOri by
Mr.. Darwin. exactly tallies with the geo
logical record as interpreted by Prof.
Boyd Dawkius. The very vague and un-
specialized deer of the lower miocene
period had no autlers at all they were
somewhat like musk deer without the
tusks, or like young fawns III their first
summer But IN the mid miocene ant
lers make their first appearance as mere
short pointed knobs next, they develop
a single side tine aud in the upper mo-
Gene they come out as fully evolved as IN
our modern species. Every intermediate
stage can be traced between the mere
nascent boss ike that of a budding roe
in our own day, and the many brauched
headpiece of the existing reindeer In
deed, one late tertiary species had pair
of wonderfully intricate antlers which
far surpassed Ia cOmplexity those of any
living elk but, like many other highly
specialized creatures, this over-devel-
oped type seems to have fallen a prey to
the great extinct carnivorts of the same
period. Before the advent Of man. many
such high types existed, and they may
perhaps huve been, partly destroyed 10y
his monopohzing all the most open arct-
desirable plains his special hunting
grounds. For we now know that man Is
certainly quarternary and probably a
tertiary genus as well and even III his
lowest and humblest form, his intelh-
gence must have made him from the
very first a 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 individual
red deer. In the first year stag has no
horns at all, and is technically known as
a calf In the second year he puts forth
pair of rounded bosses, and is there
fore called knobber IN the slang Of the
gillies. With his third year the knobs
fall off, and are replaced by longer horns,
called days, while the stag himself is
now known as 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
horn expands into a broad crown, and
the beast is then finally dubbed 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 recapit-
ulates IN his own person the whole evo-
luton Of his race, the antlers of each
successive year being different, not only
in size but III form and arrangement rs
well, from those of all previous seasons.
From the Pan MAJ Gazette.