88 The Common Deer, — Cerviis Vlrghiianvs. 



different individuals. Tlie prongs are round, con'cal, sharp, and directed 

 upwards. Situated partly on the inside of eacli horn near tl;C base there is 

 a short brow antler on most of the specimens. A large pair of horns weigh 

 about six pounds, but there are few over four or five pounds in vvelght. 



The colour of this animal varies with tlie season ; iji the autumn and 

 winter it is bluish gray, in the spring reddish, becoming bluish in the 

 summer. Beneath the chin, throat, belly, inner surface of legs, and under 

 side of tail, r/hite. The fawns are at first reddish brown, and spotted with 

 white along the sides. In the autumn of their first season thev lose the white 

 spots, and thereafter are the colour of the old ones. The hair is flattened and 

 angular, that upon the under side of the tail long and white. 



The average length of this species is, from the nose to the root of the 

 tail, 5 feet 4 inches ; length of tail without the hairs, G or 7 inches ; with the 

 hairs, a little more than one foot. 



The females bring forth in ISIay or June, one or two, rarely three at a 

 birth. 



In Canada this deer spends the winter in the cedar and spruce swamps, 

 where, like the Moose, it "yards," as it is called in considerable herds. The 

 yard is simply that tract of the swamp, where a herd of the deer have taken 

 up their quartern, and is marked by a multitude of paths through the snow 

 in all directions. At this season their tracks are seldom seen on the hard 

 wood lands, bat in the spring as soon as the snovv has thawn away they 

 leave the swamps and thereafter during the summer and autumn they reside 

 in the uplands, and frequent the fields during the night. In the swamps their 

 food consists principally of the buds of the birch, cedar and spruce, with 

 same of the mosses. In the summer they feed upon leaves, tender grasses, 

 berries, peas, turnips, and even commit extensive robberies upon the potatoe 

 fields. They seem to prefer peas and turnips to all other agricultural pro- 

 ductions. They are fond of lingering all day in the neighbourhood of the 

 fields. The buck generally makes a comfortable bed for himself in a clump 

 of low bushes where there are plenty of soft leaves or grass, and there sleeps 



No3lF,^'CLATURT:. — (Cerv?(s,) Latin, a deer. The Virginian or Common 

 Deer has been varioiiiily described by authors and travellers under the iianus of 

 {^Avieri kail iscker Hlrsch .') German. American IVer ; ( Vi rgniischcr ILrsd/.) Ger- 

 man, Vir^inan Deer; {Ctrf dela LuHisiaiia.') French, "the Staj of l.ouisiana,^' 

 Fallow D^er and American ^\u^. Tlie appellation {Cervus Vtrgijuai/ns,) Vir- 

 ginian Deer, is that bestowed upon it by tlie American Naturalist (Say,) whose 

 name is appended above. In the new classification of the deer given in tlie En^jfHsh 

 Cyclopa;dia, this species is called {Cariarns Virgnilainis.) We shall give '.his 

 new arrangement of the Cer cider, entire at the end of the next article. 



The following are the difl'erences between the four Genera of Deer described 

 in this work : — 



1st. Genus {Cervus!) The males only have horns, and there are no canine 

 teeth in either sex. 



2nd. Genus {Eh2)iLus.') The males have horns and canine teeth, Ike 

 females have neither. 



3rd. Genus {Tarand/is.) Both the males and the females have horns and 

 canine teeth. 



4th. Genus {A/ces.) Horns and teeth the same as in the grniis (Ci'r)-tts,y 

 but the horns are very broadly palmated, r.nd the whole anterior of the animal, 

 including the head and the neck, very different in structure from any otber Deer* 

 We have met with no description of the genus {Aires.) 



