1896.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 181 



Mr. Miles, after careful inquiry about the elk in his region 

 writes me, " The last elk killed in West Tennessee that I can learn 

 of was at Reelfoot Lake about 1849. The late David Merri wether 

 of Madison County, Tennessee, killed it. In 1865 I heard that an 

 elk was killed in Obion County." 



In Putnam's History of Middle Tennessee, (page 127), there is 

 a foot-note which states that on the famous Belle Meade farm, south 

 of Nashville, General William G. Harding had "two hundred deer, 

 twenty buffaloes and half dozen elk " in captivity. I understood in 

 a conversation with gentlemen in Nashville, that these animals had 

 come of native Tennessee stock, and that their descendants had 

 been kept in this park until a recent date. Putnam's note applied 

 to a period anterior to the year 1859. I have been unable to get 

 any direct information from the Harding or Jackson families, now 

 living at Belle Meade, as to these facts, or whether the elk and 

 bison are still existing in their preserve. 



Order RODENTIA. 



Family LEPORIDiEI. 

 Genus LEPTIS Linnaeus. 

 5. Lepus aquaticus (Bachm.). Aquatic Hare. 



On the borders of Reelfoot Lake, in the closest proximity to the 

 water, I found this large hare. It preferred hiding among the 

 half-submerged vegetation and piles of driftwood, and when it 

 broke cover would run with bold, high leaps from log to log for so 

 great a distance that it was difficult to find it again. 



The following, relating to its habits in the vicinity of Browns- 

 ville, is from the pen of Mr. Miles : " Though resembling the 

 Cotton Tail closely in color and in diet, as well as in movements, 

 there the similarity of the Swamp Rabbit, as we term him, ends. 

 Never seen on the hills and seldom in the open, he is at home in 

 the canebrakes and deep woods, far from the homes of man. The 

 more desolate the situation, the more certain he is to be found, ever 

 wide awake and ready to test his speed and cunning with that of 

 any enemy ; and he has no friends. In. the overflow [spring freshets] 

 I have seen him for hours seated on a floating log, as much at 

 home as a raccoon, and when disturbed take the water for a 300 

 yard swim as readily as any land animal that I know. When hotly 

 pursued, he always takes the water, and, once there, I have never 

 seen him caught. Twice only, while hunting at night, have I seen 



