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Atlantic seaboard ; but that their habitat commenced with the prairie 

 country, say Illinois or Indiana. However, these States have long 

 ceased to know them ; for, like other large game, they have rapidly 

 retired before the tide of immigration. The upper waters of the 

 Missouri and the plains around the forks of the North and South 

 Saskatchewan, are where, at present, this mammoth stag will be found 

 most abundant." The stag of Canada, like the caribou, is essentially 

 gregarious, the herds frequently numbering hundreds. Those truly 

 grand animals, year after year, are growing scarcer. The skin-hunter 

 and the repeating rifle are doing their deadly work amongst them ; and 

 the time will shortly arrive, if legislatures in Canada and the United 

 States do not forthwith grasp the required work of protection with a 

 strong and relentless hand, when this stately ornament of forest and 

 prairie shall have left his last shed antlers to tell the people of no distant 

 day of the folly and improvidence which depi'ive them of a woodland 

 glory of which any country ought to be proud. 



The Virginian, or red deer {Cariacus virginiamis, (Bodd.)Gray), our 

 common species, is one of the most graceful and beautiful of deer. 

 Generally speaking the males only have horns. I have seen, however, 

 within the last three years, two does brought to the Ottawa market 

 each of which had horns somewhat resembling the antlers of a spike- 

 horned deer, and although the time was late in the season the velvet 

 still remained on the horns. These are the only instances in which I have 

 noticed horns on the female of this species. In form the virginian is 

 the most elegant of all the North American deer. The following correct 

 description is from Billings' " Canadian Naturalist and Geologist " : — 

 " It has a long, tapering, pointed head and large lustrous blueish black 

 eyes. The legs are slender and well formed, and in proportion to their 

 size possessed of prodigious muscular strength, while the body is 

 moderately stout and flexible. The horns are not large, .but they are 

 "well armed with strong and sharp spikes. They are, near the base, bent 

 backwards and in the upper part turned forward. They are usually 

 cylindrical, but they are also sometimes met with a good deal palmated. 

 They vary much in size and shape in different individuals. The prongs 

 are round, conical, sharp and directed upwards. Situated partly on the 

 inside of each horn near the base there is a short brow antler on most 



