274 Merriam A New Elk from the Olympics. 



the terminal prong of the antlers is much longer than usual, ap 

 proaching the normal condition of the Rocky Mountain animal. 

 But it by no means follows that the antlers in question belong 

 to the head on which they were mounted, for many taxidermists 

 have a reprehensible habit of grafting handsome antlers on 

 handsome heads irrespective of zoological or geographical ob 

 stacles. During the past three months I have seen more than 

 a dozen mounted heads of Elk, Deer, and Antelope bearing 

 horns which the taxidermists admitted were selected from stock 

 in hand, without reference to the heads on which they grew. 



Other specimens. In the taxidermist shop of L. F. Richolt & 

 Co., at Centralia, Washington, I examined a very beautiful hide 

 of a Wapiti killed in winter in Chehalis County. The color of 

 the back and sides was a beautiful clear bluish gray, with a 

 tint suggesting lavender, and the legs where they had been cut 

 off were abruptly black. The amount of black on the head 

 varies considerably in different specimens. Probably part of 

 this variation is due to age and part to season. All of the adult 

 winter heads were black from nose to ears, with more or less 

 black on the neck. Some had the entire neck black, the black 

 reaching back to the breast and nearly to the shoulders. The 

 development of the mane seems to be much as in the Rocky 

 Mountain Wapiti. 



Geographic distribution. Roosevelt's Wapiti inhabits the dense 

 coniferous forests of the humid Pacific coast strip from near the 

 northern end of Vancouver Island southward through the coast 

 ranges of Washington and Oregon to northwestern California, 

 In 1860, according to George Gibbs, it followed the coast "all 

 the way down to San Francisco " (Pacific Railroad Reports, vol. 

 XII, Pt. II, p. 133). This is a very natural distribution, corre 

 sponding with that of many other species. Through the agency 

 of man the southern part of the range has now been cut off, but 

 just how far I am unable to say. Mr. Charles H. Townsend, in 

 his important ' Field Notes on the Mammals, Birds, and Reptiles of 

 Northern California,' published in 1887, says that the Wapiti 

 " still exists in moderate numbers in Mendocino, Humboldt, 

 and Trinity counties, along the upper courses of the Eel, Elk, 

 and Trinity rivers. Two large Elk were shot in Humboldt 

 County in December, 1885, and brought to Eureka, where I saw 

 them."* 



. IT, S, National Museum, X, pp. 168-169, 1887, 



