42 Game of Europe, W. & N. Asia & America 



the hoof, but much paler than elsewhere on the legs. Another female, 

 March 1H97, is in much fuller coat, with hair much longer and every- 

 where lighter, owing to a ' frosting ' of white hairs. The lateral stripes 

 are not so well defined, and the feet are pure white. The horns ot this 

 specimen are in the velvet." 



THE EUROPEAN ELK 



{^Alccs via chili) 



(Plate I. Fig. 7.) 



By the ancient Greeks, to whom in all probability it was chiefly if 

 not entirely known by repute, the great stag we now call the elk was 

 regarded as the personification of strength, and was accordingly named 

 Alci\ from uXki]^ strength. From this comes the Latin alccs^ the German 

 clcnd^ the French clan^ and the English elk. The Boers of the Cape 

 Colony applied, however, the equivalent term in Dutch, eland, to the 

 largest antelope of South Africa, while by Americans the Englisli name elk 

 is invariably applied to the wapiti instead of the animal to which it properly 

 belongs, which is as invariably designated by its native title moose. There 

 may have been some justification for the Boers in calling the largest 

 antelope ot Atrica by the title of the largest of the deer of their father- 

 land, especially as deer are unknown in that part of Africa, but there was 

 none whatever tor the transference of the name elk to the American 

 wapiti, seeing that the elk itself is an inliabitant of tlie same country. 

 The transmutation ot names is, however, too firmly rooted amone 

 Americans of the present day to be righted, and tlie confusion whicli 

 not unfrequently arises therefrom must accordingly be accepted as 

 inevitable. 



