552 



UNGULATA. 



from running faster. His favorite position is in the middle of the herd, 

 surrounded by admiring females." It is therefore very difficult to get a 

 good shot at him. 



The Wapiti is a good swimmer, and even when very young, will 

 fearlessly breast the current of a wide and rapid river. Like many of 

 the larger animals, it is fond of submerging itself under water in the 

 warm weather for the sake of cooling its body and of keeping off the 

 troublesome insects. It is also a good runner, and although burdened 

 with its large and widely-branched horns, can charge through the forest 

 liaunts with pei-fect ease. In performing this feat, it throws its head well 

 back, so that the horns rest on the shoulders, and shoots through the 

 tangled boughs like magic. Sometimes a Wapiti will make a slight 

 miscalculation in its leap ; Mr. Palliser saw one strike a small tree so 

 forcibly with its forehead that the recoil of the trunk threw the Wapiti 

 on its back upon the ice of a stream which it had just crossed. 



The food of the Wapiti consists of grass, wild pea-vine, various 

 branches, and lichens. In winter it scrapes the snow with its fore-feet, 

 so as to lay bare the scanty vegetation below. When alarmed or excited, 

 it utters a peculiar whistling sound which may be heard at the distance 

 of a mile on a clear quiet day. The buck's call for the doe is a deep 

 bellow, said to be the natural E of the organ. 



The flesh is in great favor among hunters, and the skin is also very 

 valuable, being employed in the manufacture of mocassins, belts, thongs, 

 and other articles in which flexibility and strength are required. The 

 teeth are employed by the Indians in decorating their dresses, and a robe 

 thus adorned, which belonged to Audubon, was valued as worth thirt\' 

 horses. The horns also are used for various purposes, and it is said that 

 in no two individuals are the horns precisely alike. 



THE RED DEER. 



The Red Deer or Stag, Ccrvus Rlaplms (Plate XLII), is one of the 

 nearest kindred of the Wapiti. It is one of the most noble and stately of 

 animals, and exceeds in size all others of this genus except the Wapiti. 

 It is found in nearly every country of luirope except the far North, and 

 in a great part of Asia, extending southward to the Caucasus and the 

 mountains of Mantchooria. In all thickly inhabited regions it has been 

 either exterminated (jr very much reduced in numbers. It is still abun- 



