"The six pairs of horns belonged to the same animal, reared from a calf by John Clarke, of Lynton, N. Devon, and were shed annually in the spring. The drawings illustrate the mode of growth of the horns or antlers and their annual increase in size from the first to the eighth year of the animal's life. This Red Deer was kept in a dry grass field without water, and was never supplied with any artificial food whatever. Before the animal was one year old the horns began to appear, about the latter end of May. In the following April these were shed, when

PH.D.

FIG. 7.-RED DEER, EIGHT YEARS OLD.

they were nine inches long (Fig. 1). A very short time afterwards, others began to be developed, and in the latter end of April following these were also shed, though not both on the same day. These had 'brow,'' bay,' and 'tray,' with upright-altogether upwards of two feet in length (Fig. 2). In his fourth year he had the same kind of antlers, with two points on top on one horn, and two and an offer on the other (Fig. 3). In his fifth year, antlers as before, with two points and an

offer on each horn (Fig. 4). In his sixth year, antlers the same, with three points on each top. In his seventh year, antlers as before, with four points on each top (Fig. 6). In his eighth year (when he was killed), antlers as before, though on one horn the points were not so perfect as in his seventh year. It will thus be seen that this deer had seven points on each horn, making together fourteen (Fig. 7).

"The age of the stag, or male red deer, which alone bears horns or antlers, may be pretty easily determined by the number of the branches till its seventh or eighth year; but after that period the increase of those parts is not subject to any fixed rule. The oldest have seldom more than ten or twelve branches.

"In England, at the present day, the red deer exists in a state of nature only on Exmoor, a wild tract of country on the borders of Devon and Somerset, from whence came the animal whose head and horns are here exhibited."

The above account is from the pen of Mr. J. Clarke, who has published a "Treatise on the Growth of the Horns of the Red Deer." (A. P. Wood, Bookseller, Barnstaple, 1866.)

Most deer and antelopes have curious depressions called "tear-pits" under the eye. They contain a waxy secretion. The use of this is probably sexual, as they rub the secretion on to the boughs of trees, &c.

MAN-TRAPS AND SPRING-GUNS, p. 17.-In Gilbert White's time mantraps and spring-guns were probably set for the benefit of the Waltham Blacks which he mentions. These instruments were made illegal in 1826. The drawing opposite is taken from a photograph of two mantraps that belonged to my late friend, Sir Robert Clifton, then M.P. for Nottingham; they act upon the principle of a rat-trap, with very strong springs at each end, and inflicted fearful wounds upon the human leg. Their size will be seen from the height of Sir Robert's gamekeeper, who has his hand upon the top of the trap. Sir Robert put this man into one of these traps and had a great difficulty to get him out again. In the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford there are three very fine specimens of man-traps, also a spring-gun. The spring-gun is about the size of an old-fashioned navy pistol. It turns upon a pivot; wires were attached to it, which were suspended in all directions among the bushes about the height of a man's knee; by a simple mechanism the gun revolved and went off exactly in the direction of the wire which was touched by the man's leg. Close to these traps in the Ashmolean Museum is the burnt end of a wooden stake, which was, without a doubt, used at the martyrdom of Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley.

RABBIT WITH DEFORMED TEETH, p. 18.-It often happens that rabbits are shot with teeth deformed in the manner represented in the engraving on page 290. It will be observed that the two lower teeth project upwards and forwards so as to come almost on a level with the top of the rabbit's nose. In order to understand how this deformity came about, the reader should examine the teeth of the next rabbit sent up to table. He will find that the tips are sharp and chisel-like, and that

The

the lower end of the tooth is filled with a gelatinous substance. rabbit, by continual gnawing, wears away the tips of these rodent teeth; as the tooth is continuously growing, the soft pulp at the root gradually hardens itself into true tooth structure. The four rodent teeth are thus regularly wearing each other down, and, as they all grow at a similar rate, they keep each other level.

Should any one of the four teeth get injured or knocked out of gear, the opposing tooth still continues to grow. In the rabbit now before us a shot or some other injury has partially dislocated the lower jaw; the lower teeth, therefore, do not correspond with those in the upper jaw, they have therefore continued to grow unchecked. Their length is grown to the length of one inch and a quarter.

There is great variey in deformities of rabbits' teeth, and I have in

U

my museum several fine specimens; some teeth are almost in the shape of a ring, others are spiral like a corkscrew.

The elephant's tusk grows from a socket in the skull outwards, exactly in the same way as does a rabbit's tooth.

Musket-balls are

often found inside elephant's tusks, completely grown over with ivory. If we drop a shot into the cavity of the tooth of a boiled rabbit, and imagine the tooth put back again into the rabbit's jaw to grow, it will give some idea how bullets are sometimes imbedded in solid ivory without any apparent hole by means of which they have obtained an entry.

The engraving represents a specimen of a remarkable abnormal growth from the hollow part of the tusk of an elephant. There was nothing in the cavity, but it is evident that nature was attempting to cover up a foreign body which probably was a bullet. The specimen

was presented to me by Messrs. Brooks & Co., of Cumberland Market, who cut up great quantities of ivory in their business.

I now give a note showing a novel use of crabs, viz., a new plan of bolting rabbits from their holes by means of them. Mr. Lambton Young writes me :

"I have met with a novel way of ferreting for rabbits in Jersey, On the estate of my friend is a rabbit-warren, but lately the rabbits were found to be diminishing in numbers very rapidly. A watch was set, but there were no guns heard, or suspicious persons observed to go on the ground; the only frequenter of the place was an old lame fisherman, who walked with a broomstick to aid his steps. At last suspicion attached to this old fellow, but on being questioned, he said