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the parts may touch accurately at the dividing line at the bottom; the tail is about a quarter of an ell, hardly so much. The wild rein-deer grows to a much larger size than those which are tamed.*

It must be remembered by zoologists, that the horns of different individuals vary so much, that it has beeti asserted that no two, even of the same age and sex, have those weapons shaped exactly alike. Cuvier in his Ossemens Fossiles' has figured a series of the almost endless modifications of these horns from specimens in the Paris Museum; and the conclusion to which he came from these data is, that there is no character common to the whole species, but that of having the horns smooth and compressed in every part, except in the short portion immediately connected with the burr: that great zoologist has thus furnished the information that enables us to strike out several so-called species founded on this variety in the development of the rein-deer's horn.

The rein-deer is also subject to great variety of colour, particularly in a domesticated state, as is the case with most other animals; and spotted or mottled individuals are by no means uncommon in Lapland, and are of still more frequent occurrence in Siberia.

Heads of two old buck Caribou of the Barren Grounds. From Dr. Richard. son's cuts taken from Captain Back's drawings.]

It has been a question with some whether the Lapland Rein-deer, and The Caribou, or Rein-deer of America, and its varieties, are distinct species. Colonel Smith remarks, that a probable distinction, by which some, if not all, the varieties of Caribou may be distinguished from the reindeer of the Old Continent is, that their horns are always shorter, less concave, more robust, the palm narrower, and with fewer processes than those of the former. This is another instance of the danger of relying on the form of the The memoir is supposed to have been published by Linnæus under the name of his pupil.

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horns in this sub-genus as a distinguishing character. have had but little opportunity,' says Dr. Richardson, in his Fauna Boreali-Americana, of ascertaining how far these remarks apply to the woodland variety of Caribou; but I can with confidence say, after having seen many thousands of the Barren Ground kind, that the horns of the old males are as much, if not more palmated than any antlers of the European rein-deer to be found in the British museums.' The annexed cuts were made from drawings by Captain Back, of the antlers of two old buck Caribou, killed on the Barren Grounds, in the neighbourhood of Fort Enterprise. It is to be recollected, however, that the antlers of the rein-deer assume an almost infinite number of forms, no two individuals having them alike.

It is, then, the general opinion among zoologists, that the American, European, and Asiatic races of rein-deer, are varieties of one species, of which the following appear to be the

Synonyms. Rangifer, Reinthier, and Tharundthier, of Gesner and others; Tarandus, of Aldrovandus and others; Cervus mirabilis, Cervus palmatus, Rangifer, Reinthier, Tarandus, Tarandhthier, of Jonston; Caribou, ou Asne Sauvage, of Sagard-Theodat, La Hontan and Charlevoix; Carré-boeuf, or Caribou, of the French Canadians; Cervus Tarandus, of Linnæus, Sabine, Richardson, Ross, Harlan, and James Clark Ross; Rein-deer or Rain-deer, of Drage, Dobbs, Pennant, Cartwright, Franklin, Godman, and James Clark Ross; Rein-deer, or Caribou, of Richardson; Attehk, of the Cree Indians; Etthin, of the Chippeways and other Northern Indians; Tooktoo, of the Esquimaux (Richardson); Tukta, of the Greenlanders (Fabricius); Rhen, of the Swedes; Rhenne, of the French; Boetsoi, of the Laplanders; Common Deer, of Hearne, Parry, and Lyon (Richardson); Rhen-deer and Rein-deer, of the English.

Var. a. Arctica. Barren Ground Caribou (Richardson). Common Deer, of Hearne; Bedsee-awseh, of the Copper Indians and Dog-Ribs; Bedsee-choh (male), Tsootai (female), Tampeh (female with a fawn), of the same; Took-too, of the Esquimaux, Took-Took dual, Took-Toot plural (Richardson); Tukta, of the Greenlanders (Pangnek, male; Kollowak, female; Norak, young. Fabricius).

Var. B. Sylvestris. Woodland Caribou (Richardson). Caribou, of Theodat, La Hontan, Charlevoix, &c.; Reindeer, of Drage, Dobbs, &c.; Attehk, of the Cree Indians; Tantseeah, of the Copper Indians (Richardson).

Geographical Distribution.-Northern Europe, Asia, and America. Captain James Clark Ross, in the Appendix to Sir John Ross's last voyage says, that although this animal was seen in great numbers on the Isthmus of Boothia, only one individual was killed in the course of their late voyage. It was a fine buck, of larger size than ordinary, and weighed 250 lbs.; the average of those killed at Spitzbergen and Melville Island did not exceed half that weight. The does arrive about the middle of April, the bucks nearly a month later; and herds of several hundreds were seen about the isthmus towards the end of May. Although they migrate towards the middle of September to milder climes, yet stragglers are occasionally seen in the winter. They are, indeed, spread, as Mr. Bennett observes, abundantly through all the habitable parts of the Arctic regions and the neighbouring countries, extending in the New Continent to a much lower latitude than in the old, and passing still farther south on all the principal mountain chains. In America, the southern limit of the rein-deer across nearly the whole continent appears to be about the parallel of Quebec; but the animal is most numerous between 63° and 66°. Passing westwards, it is said to be unknown in the islands interposed between America and Asia, but is again abundant in Kamtschatka, throughout nearly the whole of Siberia, in Northern Russia, Sweden, and Norway, and more especially in Finmark and Lapland. In these latter countries the numbers of the few wild herds that still exist are suffering a constant diminution, every art being put in practice by the hardy natives to reclaim and domesticate an animal which constitutes their sole property, the source of all their comforts, and the very means of their existence; without which their land would actually be, as at a first glance it seems, a bleak and uninhabitable desert. According to M. Cuvier, the Baltic forms in Europe its southern limit; in Asia, however, it extends along the Ural chain to the foot of the Caucasus; and we

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have the authority of a passage in Cæsar's Commentaries, | the gnat and gad-fly. In winter these intensely cold which can scarcely apply to any other animal, for its having mountains, whose tops reach high into the atmosphere, can existed in his day in the Hercynian Forest. The boun- no longer support them, and they are obliged to return to the daries of this immense tract of woodland are certainly not desert and subsist upon the lichens. Of these its principal very well defined; but this location would imply, at all food is the rein-deer lichen. There are, says Hoffberg, two events, a more southern European habitat than any that is varieties of this; the first is called sylvestris, which is exat present known. Again, crossing the ocean, we find the tremely common in the barren deserts of Lapland, and more rein-deer at Spitzbergen in Greenland, and in Newfound- particularly in its sandy and gravelly fields, which it whitens land; but it has been said by Pennant, and this has been over like snow; its vast marshes, full of tussocks of turf, and lately repeated by Dr. Richardson, in his valuable zoology its dry rocks are quite grown over by it. The second variety of the fur countries of North America, not to be known in of this plant, which is less frequent than the former, is named Iceland. This statement, which was scarcely true at the the Alpine; this grows to a greater height, with its branches time when Pennant wrote, is not by any means correct, as matted together: it has this name, because when those refers to the present day. About sixty years since, as we mountains are cleared of their wood the whole surface of learn from Van Troil's Letters on Iceland, thirteen of these the earth is covered with it; yet it is seldom to be found animals were imported from Norway, ten of which dying on their tops. When the woods become too luxuriant the on the passage, only three were landed. These were turned Laplander sets fire to them, as experience has taught him out into the mountains, and have since multiplied to such that when the vegetables are thus destroyed, the lichen an extent, in the interior and unfrequented parts of the takes root in the barren soil and multiplies with facility; country, that their progeny was estimated by Count Trampe, though it requires an interval of eight or ten years before the governor, in 1809, the period of Dr. Hooker's visit, at it comes to a proper height. The Laplander esteems himno less than five thousand head. Herds of forty, sixty, or self opulent who has extensive deserts producing this plant even a hundred individuals are said, both by Dr. Hooker exuberantly: when it whitens over his fields, he is under and by Sir George Mackenzie, who visited the island in the no necessity of gathering in a crop of hay against the apfollowing summer, to be not uncommon in the mountains. proach of winter, as the rein-deer eats no dried vegetable, They are, however, of little use to the inhabitants, who unless perhaps the river horsetail (Equisetum fluviatile). have made no attempts to domesticate them, and are too They root for this lichen under the snow like swine in a poor to purchase powder and ball for their destruction. It pasture; their foreheads, nose, and feet are guarded with a does not appear indeed that they are much sought after, hard skin closely attached to those parts, that they may not the cow and the sheep thriving extremely well upon the be hurt by the icy crust which covers the surface of the island, and supplying the place of the deer in almost every snow. The very strong shoes which the Laplander esteems respect. We may add that, according to Mr., (now Sir so much are made of these parts of the hide. It sometimes Arthur) Brooke, an importation of six bucks and twenty- happens (but very rarely) that the winter sets in with great four does took place in 1777, about seven years after the rains, which the frost immediately congeals; the surface of period of the first introduction of the animal into Iceland.' the earth is covered with a coat of ice before the snow falls, (Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society, vol. i.) and the lichen is entirely encrusted and buried in it: thus The size of the rein-deer, widely spread as it is, varies the rein-deer is sometimes starved, and a famine attacks very much according to the accidents of climate; and if the Laplanders. In such an exigence they have no other authors are to be credited, their weight ranges from 60 to resource but felling old fir-trees grown over with the hairy 400 lbs. The latter is probably an exaggeration, but it is liverworts. These afford but a very inadequate supply even evident that the weight increases in proportion to the for a small herd, but the greater part of a large one, in proximity of the animal to the Pole. According to Dr. such a case, is sure to perish with hunger. In the summer, Richardson, the bucks of the variety called The Barren- when the rein-deer ranges upon the Alps, a number of plants Ground Caribou weigh, exclusive of the offal, when in good afford it food. Hagstrom states that it refuses to eat fortycondition, from 90 to 130 lbs., whilst he describes the Wood- six species, the names of which he gives. Dr. Richardson land Caribou as much larger; and Captain, now Sir John states that the Barren-ground Caribou, which resort to the Franklin, makes the weight of the latter from 200 to 240lbs. coast of the Arctic sea in summer, retire in winter to the The buck killed on the Isthmus of Boothia was, as we have woods lying between the 63° and the 66° lat., where they seen, 250 lbs. ; while the average of three killed at Spitz- feed on the Usneæ, Alectoriæ, and other lichens which hang bergen and Melville Island did not exceed half that weight. from the trees, and on the long grass of the swamps. About The rein-deer of Norway and Sweden are diminutive when the end of April, when the partial melting of the snow has compared with those of Finmark and Lapland, which in softened the Cetrariæ, Cornicularia and Cenomyces, which their turn yield to those of Spitzbergen; and these again clothe the Barren Grounds like a carpet, they make short fall short of the more Polar races. The sledge-deer of the excursions from the woods, but return to them when the Laplanders is small, when compared with those reared by weather is frosty. In May the females proceed towards the the Tungusians of the north of Asia, who ride upon them. sea-coast, and towards the end of June the males are in Food, Habits, Chace.-The food of the rein-deer varies full march in the same direction. At that period the sun with the seasons and the climate. Lapland, says Hoff- has dried up the lichens on the Barren Grounds, and the berg, in the memoir above quoted, is divided into two caribou frequent the moist pastures which cover the bottoms tracks, called the alpine and woodland country. Those of the narrow valleys on the coasts and islands of the Arctic immense mountains, called in Sweden Fjellen, divide that sea, where they graze on the sprouting carices and on the country from Norway, extending towards the White Sea withered grass or hay of the preceding year, which is at as far as Russia, and are frequently more than twelve miles that period still standing and retaining part of its sap in breadth. The other, called the woodland division, lies Their spring journey is performed partly on the snow, and to the east of this, and differs from the neighbouring pro- partly, after the snow has disappeared, on the ice covering vinces of Norway by its soil, which is exceedingly stony and the rivers and lakes, which have in general a northerly barren, being covered with one continued tract of wood, of direction. Soon after their arrival on the coast the females old pine-trees. This tract has a very singular appearance. drop their young; they commence their return to the The trees above are covered over with great quantities of south in September, and reach the vicinity of the woods a black hanging lichen, growing in filaments resembling towards the end of October, where they are joined by the locks of hair, while the ground beneath appears like snow, males. This journey takes place after the snow has fallen, being totally covered with white lichens. Between this and they scrape it away with their feet to procure the wood and the Alps lies a region called the Woodland, or lichens, which are then tender and pulpy, being preDesert Lapmarc, of thirty or forty miles in breadth, of the served moist and unfrozen by the heat still remaining in most savage and horrid appearance, consisting of scattered the earth. Except in the rutting season, the bulk of the uncultivated woods, and continued plains of dry barren males and females live separately; the former retire deeper sand, mixed with vast lakes and mountains. When the into the woods in the winter, whilst herds of the pregnant mosses on part of this desert tract have been burnt, either does stay on the skirts of the Barren Grounds, and proceed by lightning or any accidental fire, the barren soil imme- to the coast very early in the spring. Captain (now Sir diately produces the white lichen which covers the lower William) Parry saw deer on Melville peninsula as late as pa ts of the Alps. The rein-deer in summer seek their the 23rd of September, and the females with their fawns highest parts, and there dwell amidst their storms and made their first appearance on the 22nd of April. The snows, not to fly the heat of the lower regions, but to avoid males in generai do not go so far north as the females. On

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the coast of Huason's Bay the Barren-ground Caribou migrate further south than those on the Coppermine or Mackenzie Rivers, but none of them go to the southward of Churchill. The lichens on which the Caribou prineipally feed whilst on the Barren Grounds are Cornicularia, tristis, divergens, and ochrileuca, Cetrariæ, nivalis, cucullata, and Islandica, and Cenomyce rangiferina. (Fauna Boreali-Americana.) In the Isthmus of Boothia the reindeer does arrived about the middle of April, the bucks nearly a month later; and herds of several hundreds were seen about the isthmus towards the end of May. Numbers of the fawns, which at that period are in a very weak state, are killed by the natives, who hunt them with their dogs; and the does themselves often fall victims to their attachment to their offspring. Captain James Ross states that the rein-deer feeds on the Usnea, Alectoria, Cetraria, and other lichens, in the early part of spring; but as the summer advances the young and tender grass fatten it so quickly, that in August they have been killed with several inches thick of fat on their haunches. In this state the meat is equal to the finest English venison, but is most tasteless and insipid when in poor condition. (Appendix to Sir John Ross's Last Voyage.)

That the lichen is not absolutely necessary as an article of food to the rein-deer, was proved by the length of time during which a female of the white variety lived at the gardens of the Zoological Society of London in the Regent's Park. She lived and throve through two successive winters, and died in 1830. Her food was principally dry provender, for the small quantity of grass which she could have cropped in the same small inclosure wherein she was always kept, must have been very small. The report drawn up by Mr. Yarrell on the morbid appearances, stated inflammation of the brain, lungs, and small intestines, which existed in a small degree in the latter. The mesenteric glands were diseased, but not to the extent that might have been expected in an animal that had been many years in an artificial state. The reporter stated that he had no doubt that the inflammation of the lungs was the primary cause of death. Whilst on the subject of the food of the rein-deer, we must not omit the propensity (a morbid one probably) attributed by Sir Arthur Brooke to the rein-deer of eating lemmings (Hipudaeus Norvegicus, Mus Lemmus, Linn.,) not habitually, but accidentally. The lemmings, it should be remembered, are said to feed on the rein-deer lichen. Captain Franklin mentions an analogous propensity in the American rein-deer, which, he says, are accustomed to gnaw their fallen antlers, and are said to devour mice.' The gnawing of the fallen antlers may be to correct acidity, as a cow may frequently be seen to gnaw bones for the same

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Our limits will not allow us to detail the different modes of hunting the rein-deer, however interesting the subject may be suffice it to say that the caribou travel in herds varying in number from eight or ten to two or three hundred; their daily excursions being generally towards the quarter from which the wind blows, and that the Indians kill them with bows and arrows or guns, sometimes approaching by means of a disguise, sometimes taking advantage of rocks or other shelter, and always greatly assisted by the curiosity and unsuspecting nature of the deer themselves. They also take the rein-deer in snares, or spear them as they are crossing rivers or lakes. The Esquimaux take them in traps ingeniously formed of ice and snow. A single family of Indians will sometimes destroy two or three hundred in a few weeks; and in many cases they are killed for the sake of their tongues alone. The reader will find a graphic account of the Esquimaux method of taking them in Captain Lyon's Private Journal,' p. 336; and a description of the deer found in use among the Chepewyans (Chippeways), in Hearne. Captain Franklin relates the ingenious methods pursued by the Copper Indians and Dog-Ribs. Captain James Ross remarks that the natives of Boothia seldom hunt the rein-deer in the spring, and then the bow and arrow is the only mode of killing it; but in the autumn, as the animal returns from the north in fine condition, they are destroyed in great numbers by parties of the natives driving them into the water, whilst others in canoes kill them with spears at their leisure. (Appendix to Sir John Ross's Last Voyage.)

Utility to Man.-To the Laplander particularly, the reindeer is all in all. According to Hoffberg, the mountaineer very often possesses three or four hundred, or even a thou

sand head; the woodman very rarely above one hundred. As a domestic animal, yielding a quantity of the most delicious food, and occupying the place of the cow and the ox, it is invaluable. As a beast of burthen, its importance is equally great, and its organization is adapted to the icy wastes, over which it forms the Laplander's sole medium of communication, no less than that of the camel is framed for those arid deserts which, without the latter animal, would be impassable. The domestic economy of the Laplanders, as depending on the rein-deer, is a most interesting subject, to which we can here only advert, referring the reader for information on the subject to Hoffberg's interesting paper on the subject above quoted; to Sir Arthur de Capell Brooke's Winter in Lapland; and to the 1st vol. of The Menageries, published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, for details. The well-known and beautiful lines of Thomson, (Seasons-Winter') are no fiction, but a true summary of the benefits of this most useful animal. The weight which it can draw when harnessed to a sledge is said to be 300 lbs.: but 240 lbs. form the general limit of the burthen. The tales told of its swiftness, when thus employed, would appear almost incredible if not so well attested as they are. In a race of three deer with light sledges, started by Pictet, who went to the north of Lapland in 1769 to observe the transit of Venus, the first performed 3089 ft. 8 in. and in two minutes, making a rate of nearly 19 English miles an hour the second went over the same ground in three minutes, and the last in three minutes twenty-six seconds. One is recorded to have drawn an officer with important dispatches in 1699, 800 English miles in forty-eight hours; and the portrait of the poor deer which fell dead at the end of its wonderful journey, is still preserved in the palace of Drotningholm, in Sweden. Journeys of 150 miles in nineteen hours are said not to be uncommon.

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To the natives of North America the rein-deer is only known as a beast of chace, but it is a most important one: there is hardly a part of the animal which is not made available to some usefu! purpose. Clothing made of the skin is, according to Dr. Richardson, so impervious to the cold that, with the addition of a blanket of the same material, any one so clothed may bivouack on the snow with safety in the most intense cold of an Arctic winter's night. The venison, when in high condition, has several inches of fat on the haunches, and is said to equal that of the fallow-deer in our best English parks; the tongue and some of the tripe are reckoned most delicious morsels. Pemmican is formed by pouring one-third part of melted fat over the pounded meat and incorporating them well together. The Esquimaux and Greenlanders consider the stomach or paunch, with its contents, a great delicacy, and Captain James Ross says that those contents form the only vegetable food which the natives of Boothia ever taste. For further particulars, and they are many and interesting, we must refer to Dr. Richardson's Fauna Boreali-Americana, and the works of our gallant northern voyagers generally.

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nerations would be required before the migratory habits of the rein-deer could be got rid of, and possessing as we do the best venison, and the finest breed of horned cattle and horses, there seems no very good reason for repeating the experiments which have already been tried and have failed.

Upper antlers alone compressed.

THE FALLOW-DEER. (Daims, of the French.) Example. The common Fallow-deer. This well-known ornament of our parks is the Hydd (Buck), Hyddes (Doe), Elain (Fawn), of the antient British: Le Daim (Buck), La Daime (Doe), Faon (Fawn), of the French; Daino (Buck), Damma (Doe), Cerbietto, Cerbietta (Fawn), of the Italians; Gama, Corza (Buck), Venadito (Fawn), of the Spanish; Corza (Buck), Veado (Fawn), of the Portuguese; Damhirsch, of the Germans; Dof, Dof Hjort, of the Swedes; Daae, Dijr, of the Danes; Dama vulgaris, of Gesner; Cervus palmutus, of Klein; Cervus platyceros, of Ray; and Cervus Dama, of Linnæus.

It is not certain whether the common fallow-deer is the Tpóg of Aristotle. Buffon and others are of that opinion; but M. Camus, who seems very well disposed to coincide with such opinion if he could, gives good reasons for doubt. Pennant considers the Platycerata of Pliny (book xi., c. 37), and the Eurycerata of Oppian (Cyneg. lib. ii., lin. 293) to have been our fallow-deer.

Pennant, speaking of the two varieties, the spotted and the deep brown, says, on the authority of Collinson, that they were introduced into this country by James I. from Norway, where he passed some time when he visited his intended bride, Anne of Denmark, and he remarks (citing Llywd) that one of the Welsh names of the animal, Geifr Danys, or Danish goat, implies that it was brought from some of the Danish dominions. James, who observed their hardiness, brought them first into Scotland and thence to Enfield Chace and Epping, to be near his favourite palace, Theobalds. When Pennant wrote, they were, according to him, scarcely known in France, but were sometimes found in the North of Europe. In Spain, he observes, they are extremely large, and that they are met with in Greece, the Holy Land, and in China. For the two latter localities he quotes Hasselquist, who says he saw it in Mount Thabor, and Du Halde. Pennant goes on to state that, in every country except our own, these deer are in a state of nature unconfined by man; but they are, and for some time have been, confined in parks on the continent as they are in England. In Moldavia and Lithuania they are said to be found wild. Cuvier observes that they have become common in all the countries of Europe, and that they appear to have come originally from Barbary. In a note to his last edition of the

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Règne Animal' he states that since the publication of the second edition of his Ossemens Fossiles he had received a wild fallow-deer (Daim) which had been killed in the woods to the south of Tunis.

The species is so well known that a lengthened description of the animal, its habits, &c., would be needlessly occupying space in a work of general reference. Besides the varieties above mentioned, there are many others, as is generally the case with reclaimed or half reclaimed animals: one variety is milk-white. Pennant remarks that in the old Welsh laws a fallow-deer was valued at the price of a cow, or, as some say, a he-goat.

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[Dama vulgaris.]

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Horns sessile, with the antlers, both basilary and median, conical.

THE TRUE STAGS *

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Old continent and its islands.

Example.-The Common Stag, or Red Deer; Caru (Stag), Ewig (Hind), Elain (Young or Calf), of the antient British; Le Cerf (Stag), La Biche (Hind), Fuon (Young or Calf), of the French; Cervio, Cervia, of the Italians; Ciervo, Cierva, of the Spanish; Cervo, Cerva, of the Portuguese; Hirtz, Hirsch (Stag), Hind (Hind), Hinde Kalb (Calf), of the Germans; Hart (Stag) and Hinde, of the Dutch; Hjort, Kronhjort (Stag) and Hind, of the Swedes; Kronhjort, Hind, Kid or Hind kalv, of the Danes.

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This noble species is doubtless the apoc of Aristotle, and was well known to the antients generally. It is a native of the forests of the whole of Europe and Asia, where the climate is temperate. In England it is intimately blended with the old oppressive forest laws which valued the life of a man at less than that of a stag, and with some of our legends of deadly feud: Chevy Chace for instance. Of the hunting we could say much, and of the old southern and stag-hounds that were employed in the more dilatory pursuit, and of the gallant grey-hounds, especially those of the north, that were wont to pull it down, nor do we forget the tinchel, identified with rebellion. But we must not indulge in a treatise on the forest-laws or on wood-craft here, and shall only observe that in the south of England his Majesty's pack now stands alone. The stag-hounds that formerly roused the deer on the moors of the west of England, are at present dispersed and if this noble sport is to be again enjoyed in Somerset and Devon, we fear some time must elapse before a pack can be got up. In Scotland it is the rifle of the deer-stalker principally that now brings the stag down. The red-deer is so well known that we need not repeat here the description of the animal and its habits, which will be found in most books of natural history. It has canine teeth in the upper jaw. Of the size to which the species sometimes grow the following record will serve as an example: When I was at Invercauld,' says Pennant, 'Mr. Farquharson assured me that he knew an instance of one that weighed eighteen stone Scots, or three hundred and fourteen pounds, exclusive of the entrails, head, and skin.' The same author states that in the old Welsh laws a stag was valued at the price of an ox.

New Continent.

This

Example.-The Wapiti Stag, of Pennant, Arctic Zool.; Wewaskiss, of Hearne; Waskeesews, or Red-deer, of Hutchins; Red-Deer, of Umfreville; the Elk, of Lewis and Clark; the American Elk, of Bewick; Wapiti, of Barton and Warden; Le Wapiti, of F. Cuvier; the Wapiti (C. Strongyloceros), of Smith; Red-deer, of the Hud son's Bay Traders; La Biche, of the Canadian Voyagers; Wawaskeesho, Awaskees, and Moostosh, of the Cree Indians (Richardson). It is also Le Cerf du Canada, of Cuvier, who makes it the Cervus Canadensis, of Gmelin (Buffon), and C. Strongyloceros, of Schreber; and Cerf Wapiti, of Lesson, who states it to be Cervus Wapiti, of Mitchell, and Cervus major, of Ord. It may be also the Stag of Carolina, of Lawson, but he describes it as not so large as in Europe, but much larger than any fallow-deer,' and he says they are always fat with some delicate herbage that grows on the hills, whereas the modern travellers describe the Wapiti as frequenting the savannahs or the clumps of wood that skirt the plains. There is hardly any doubt that it is the Stag of America (Cervus major Americanus) of Catesby. beast,' says the author last named, nearest resembles the European red-deer, in colour, shape, and form of the horns, though it is a much larger animal, and of stronger make. Their horns are not palmated, but round, a pair of which weighs upwards of thirty pounds. They usually accompany buffaloes (Bisons), with whom they range in droves in the upper and remote parts of Carolina, where, as well as in our other colonies, they are improperly called elks. The French in America call this beast the Canada Stag. In New England it is known by the name of the Grey Moose, to distinguish it from the preceding beast (the true Elk), which they call the Black Moose.' Dr. Richardson states that it is without doubt the Canada Stag, of various authors, but, as M. F. Cuvier has observed, the want of a pale mark on the rump in Perrault's figure is sufficient to excite a doubt of its being the Cervus Canadensis, of that author. Indeed he does not think it at all improbable that this figure is that of the Cervus Macrotis, which may hereafter prove to be an inhabitant of Upper Canada.

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Geographical Distribution.-Dr. Richardson says that this animal does not extend its range farther to the north than the 56th or 57th parallel of latitude, nor is it found to the eastward of a line drawn from the south end of Lake Winipeg to the Saskatchewan in the 103rd degree of longitude, and from thence till it strikes the Elk River in the 111th degree. To the south of Lake Winipeg he thinks it may perhaps exist farther to the eastward. He adds that they are pretty numerous amongst the clumps of wood that

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skirt the plains of the Saskatchewan, where they live in small families of six or seven individuals, and that they feed on grass, on the young shoots of willows and poplars, and are very fond of the hips of the rosa blanda, which forms much of the underwood in the districts which they frequent. Description.-Height at the shoulders 44 feet, more than a foot exceeding that of the common stag. All the upper parts and the lower jaw of a somewhat lively yellowishbrown; a black mark from the angle of the mouth along the side of the lower jaw; a brown circle round the eye. The first antlers depressed in the direction of the facial line. Neck, mixed red and black, with coarse black hairs descending from it like a dewlap, deeper in colour than the sides. From the shoulders to the hips French grey; a pale yellowish patch on the buttocks, bounded on the thighs by a black line; tail yellowish, 24 inches long, whereas it is nearly seven in the European stag. The hair of a mean length on the shoulders, the back, the flanks, the thighs, and the under part of the head; that on the sides and limbs shorter, but the hair is very long on the sides of the head posteriorly and on the neck, particularly below, where they form the kind of dewlap above alluded to. On the posterior and outer aspect of the hind leg there is a brush of tawny hair which surrounds a narrow long horny substance. Ears white within and clothed with tufted hair, externally of the same colour as the neighbouring parts. A naked triangular space round the larger lachrymal sinus near the inner angle of the orbit. Hoofs small. Like the common stag, the wapiti has a muzzle, upper canine teeth, and a soft tongue. The quality of the hair is brittle, and there is a short wool beneath it. Dr. Richardson thinks that the Crees give it the name of 'Stinking Head' on account of the large suborbital opening.

Habits. Hearne gives them a character for stupidity surpassing that of all the deer kind. He says that they frequently make a shrill whistling and quivering noise, not very unlike the braying of an ass. Mr. Drummond, who saw many in his journeys through the plains of the Saskatchewan, informed Dr. Richardson that it does not bell like the English deer. F. Cuvier describes the cry as prolonged and acute, consisting of the successive sounds a, o, u, (French), uttered with so much strength as to offend the ear.

Utility to Man.-Dr. Richardson describes the flesh of the wapiti as coarse, and little prized by the natives, principally on account of the fat being hard like suet. It seemed to Dr. Richardson to want the juiciness of venison, and to resemble dry but small grained beef. Its hide, when made into leather after the Indian fashion, is said not to turn hard in drying after being wet, and in that respect to excel moose or rein-deer leather.

The velvety covering of the horns, according to the same author, shrivels and is rubbed off in the month of October, at the commencement of the rutting season, but the horns themselves do not fall until the month of March or April.

The pair shed by Monkey,' (one of the wapiti kept by the Zoological Society of London in the Regent's Park) on the 4th March, 1837, weighed 26 lbs.

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[Wapiti.]

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