The antlers render much more trustworthy information in the determination and expression of relationships; and their characterising features can be most readily grasped by having an ideal type in the mind wherewith to compare all aberrant and complicated specimens. This ideal type may be derived in one or other of two ways. The first of these is from the study of the antlers as they are each year developed in any given kind of Deer, commencing with its earliest age. For example, in the Common Red Deer: in the spring of the year following its birth the antlers are nothing more than straight, conical, and unbranched “beams,” the animal being then known as a “Brocket.” In the following spring the antler has, besides the “beam,” a small branch from its base, directed forwards, known as the “brow antler;” it is then termed “Spayad.” In the third year an extra front branch is formed, known as the “tres,” and the whole antler is larger. This “tres” is sometimes seen in the smaller antler of the Spayad. In the fourth year the brow-antler is doubled, to form the “brow” and “bez-tyne,” at the same time that the top of the main beam divides into the “sur-royals” of the “Staggard,” or four-year male. In the fifth year the sur-royals become more numerous, the whole antler of the “Stag” being heavier than previously, only to be exceeded in weight by those of the fully adult “Great Hart,” with ten or more “points,” each being larger and longer than the year before. In Great Britain the conditions of life and the food are not of the quality which develops first-rate antlers, at the same time that it is--in Scotland, at least--the habit to shoot those with the finest heads, and so leave the indifferent specimens to perpetuate their species. In some of the ancient forests of Germany superb heads of the Red Deer are to be obtained, whilst in several of the old castles of that country antler trophies are preserved as memorials of sport in times gone by, with as many as six-and-sixty points. Lord Powerscourt has in his possession a pair with five-and-forty tynes. The second way is from the study of the antlers of the species in which they are simple, in comparison with those in which they are particularly complex, both methods as they ought to do, leading to the same result. There are Deer--as, for example, the American Brockets, David’s Deer, and Reeves’ Muntjac--in which the antler is never more than a simple dag, like that of the “Brocket” stage in the Red Deer. There are others with never more than a single tyne besides the beam, as instances of which may be mentioned the Indian Muntjac and the Huamel. Others, again--and these form an important section of the family--are triply branched, as in the Spayad, the beam bifurcating some distance above the brow-antler. As instances of these we find the Sambur Deer of India, with its large and thus simple antlers; the closely-allied Javan and Swinhoe’s Deer; the Spotted Axis; the Hog Deer, and the Roebuck.