American Big Game in its Haunts 



Ranglfer, as well as the water deer and the roe, a 

 broader meaning is given to classification by re- 

 taining the comprehensive genera Cervus and 

 Mazama, and recognizing the subordinate divi- 

 sions only as sub-genera. 



The one representative of Cervus inhabiting 

 America is the wapiti, or "elk" (C. canadensis), 

 which is without doubt an immigrant from Asia by 

 way of Alaska, and it may be of interest to state 

 the grounds upon which this conclusion rests, as 

 they afford an excellent example of the way In 

 which such results are reached. It is an accepted 

 truth in geographical distribution, that the portion 

 of the earth in which the greatest number of forms 

 differentiated from one type are to be found, is 

 almost always the region in which that type had its 

 origin. Now, out of about a dozen species and 

 sub-species of wapiti and red deer to which names 

 have been given, not less than eight are Asiatic, so 

 that Asia, and probably its central portion, is indi- 

 cated as the region in which the elaphine deer 

 arose; in confirmation of which is the further fact 

 that the antler characteristic of these deer seems 

 to have originated from the same ancestral form as 

 that which produced the sikine and rusine types, 

 which are also Asiatic. From this centre the 

 elaphines spread westward and eastward, resulting 



80 



