Deer and their Horns

Abstract

THE question is often asked, What becomes of the horns shed every year in the deer forests? the number picked up or found hardly accounts for all those which have been shed. It is said that the deer themselves eat them. It is difficult to conceive how a deer, with its toothless upper jaw, can eat a hard bone—for such is a shed horn—but it seems probable, nevertheless, that they do so. I picked up a horn recently in the deer forest at Dunrobin which appears to show that it has been in great part eaten away; and this, I think, was the opinion of the members of the Zoological Society to whom I exhibited it last Monday. On inquiry from the head-keeper at Dunrobin, Mr. James Inglis, I find that it is the general belief that the deer do eat the shed horns, whilst the appearance of the specimen here referred to, confirms the popular belief. The marks on it are such as would be made by the broad incisors of the lower jaw, and the appearance generally suggests that the horn has been gnawed and mumbled by the cutting teeth of the lower and the toothless gums of the upper jaw. It would appear, therefore, I think, that deer do eat some at least of the shed horns, and this is rendered the more probable by the fact, according to Mr. Inglis, that there are no foxes or other a nimals in this particular forest to account for the mischief.