As the weather becomes more propitious these knobs commence to grow, feel warm to the touch, and are evidently filled with actively-circulating blood, supplied by special vessels which are developed at the time. They do not increase regularly in all directions, for if they did the antler would be a sphere, but they sprout out, as it may be termed, around the above-mentioned scar; in most cases there being one branch which takes a direction forward, whilst a second larger one makes its way backward. These become, in the fully-formed antler, the brow antler and the main beam; and it is by other branches growing upon the beam, according to definite laws, different in different species, that the elaborate complications of the fully-developed structure are produced. As long as the antler, which is composed of genuine bone of very dense texture, is increasing in size, it will be found to be covered with the same warm black skin as is the knob from which it sprang; and as this skin is covered with short, fine, close-set hair, it has received the name of the “velvet.” It is this “velvet” which secretes the bony texture of the antler from its inner surface, just in the same way that the outer covering (the periosteum) of any long bone of the body is mainly concerned in the formation of the bone itself. As, also, in the same way, if we seriously graze our shins, and scrape off this covering, the bone exposed is very apt to die, so in the Deer any mishap to the “velvet” injures the growth of the antler in the part affected. The animals, therefore, during the time they are “in velvet” are more than usually careful to protect their cranial appendages, and are inoffensive even to strangers. [Illustration: HEAD OF RED DEER, IN WHICH THE ANTLER IS FULLY DEVELOPED AND THE “VELVET” HAS DISAPPEARED.] When their antler-growth has ceased their natures change. The “velvet” has performed its function and dries into a parchment-looking membrane, to get rid of which the Deer adopt a very simple method. They rub their antlers against any neighbouring trees, and force them into the soft earth until there is none left, and the bare bone, with scarcely any trace of hollow in the middle of it, is completely exposed. Now, in the glory of their full equipment, they go in search of others of their kind, having previously maintained a comparative solitude. They try their strength by butting at imaginary enemies, and choose their wives, unless prevented by others of their species mightier than themselves, with whom, if fairly matched, they enter into the most formidable contests, to win or to be driven from the herd with ignominy. During these contests the sound of their battering antlers may be heard for considerable distances, whilst now and then, by accident, they interlock themselves inextricably, and perish both, as is attested by skulls so found, and to be seen in more than one museum.