RUMINANTIA CERVINAE ALCE AMERICANUS. 631 



ALCE, Ham. Smith. 



Alee, HAM. SMITH, Griffith's Cuv. V, 1827, 303. 

 Akes, GRAY, Knowsley Menagerie, 1850, 56. 



Muzzle very broad, produced, covered with hair, except a small moist naked spot in front of the nostrils Neck short 

 and thick ; hair thick and brittle ; throat rather maned in both sexes ; hind legs have the tuft of hair rather above the 

 middle of the metatarsus ; the males have palmate horns. The nose cavity in the skull is very large, reaching behind to 

 a line over the front of the grinders ; the intermaxillaries are very long, but do not reach to the nasal. The nasals are 

 very short. 



In the preceding carefully prepared diagnosis, horrowed from Dr. Gray's elaborate article on 

 the Kuminantia in "Knowsley's Menagerie," are embodied the chief peculiarities of the 

 European elk and American moose. 



ALCE AMERICANUS, Jar dine. 



Moose. 



Cervus akes, HAELAN, F. Am. 1825, 229. (Description from European animal?) 



GODMAN, Am. N. H. II, 279. 



RICHARDSON, F. B. A. I, 1829, 232. 



DEKAY, N. Y. Zool. I, 1842, 15 ; plate xxix, fig. 2. 



ATJD. & BACH. N. Am. Quad. II, 1851, 179 ; plate Ixxvi. 

 Akes americanus, "JARDINE, Nat. Library, III, 1835, 125.'" 



BAIRD, Rep. U. S. Pat. Office, Agricultural for 1851, (1852,) 112. 

 Alces machlis, OGILBY, Pr. Zool. Soc. Lond. IV, 1836, 135. 

 Akes malchis, GRAY, Pr. Zool. Soc. Lond. XVIII, 1850, 224, (in part.) IB. Knowsley Menagerie, 1850, .67, (in 



part.) 



Cervus orignal (DIERVILLE,) REICHENBACH, Vollst. Naturg. Saugt. Ill, Wiederkauer, 1845, 10 ; plate i, figs. 4, 5, 6. 

 Cervus lobatus, AGASSIZ, Pr. Bost. Soc. N. H. II, Dec. 1846, 188. 

 Akes muswa, RICHARDSON, Zoology of Herald, Fossil Mammals, n, 1852, 101 ; plate xx, xxii, xxiv. (Detailed 



account of osteology.) 

 L' Orignal, CUVIER & ST. HILATRE, Hist, des Mammif. IV, 119 ; plate. 



In the generic diagnosis I have given the chief characteristics of the American elk, as distin 

 guished from the other American deer. It is not in my power to give any full description of 

 the species, as the collections of the Smithsonian Institution embrace nothing but horns. This 

 is of the less importance, however, as the description of external form and of habit by Audubon 

 and Bachman leaves but little to be desired. 



Authors disagree very much as to whether the moose of America is different or not from the 

 Swedish elk. The prevailing opinion is, however, in favor of their identity. 



Sir John Richardson, in the article on Fossil Mammals in Zoology of the Herald, calls our 

 species Alces muswa. He gives a very elaborate account of the osteology of the species, and is 

 quite inclined to believe, from actual comparison of skeletons, that the American and European 

 species are distinct. Among other facts ; he mentions that the breadth of the face at the most 

 protuberant part of the maxillaries is less in the American than in the European animal. 



As far as I can ascertain, a distinct and specific name was first applied to the moose by Sir 

 Wm. Jardine, in 1835, in the name of americanus. I have not the work quoted above at hand, 

 but boriow the reference from Reichenbach. 



1 I make this quotation from Reichenbach, not having the volume of Nat. Lib. at hand. 



