The National Collection 



It would have been easy to have devoted my first efforts with horns of the 

 Deer Family to Xorth American species, especially the Moose; but I elected 

 to give precedence to the rare and little known foreign species, especially those 

 of Asia. The result thus far is a list of Asiatic species which may justly be 

 surveyed with a feeling akin to satisfaction. The horn collections which con- 

 tain specimens of Pere David's Deer, Schomburgk's, Eld's, the Altai Wapiti, 

 Pekin Sika Deer, the Marsh Deer, Guemal and Philippine Deer, are not 

 numerous. In fact, I know of only one other in America which possesses all 

 the species named above that of Mr. Robert Gilfort, of Orange, X. J. 

 Mr. Gilfort has collected with a keenness of zoological perception and a devo- 

 tion to scientific completeness that is most praiseworthy. As a result, his col- 

 lection is now very rich in species, and highly valuable. 



Of the thirty-one species of the Deer Family represented in the writer's 

 collection, it is possible to mention here only a few of the most interesting. 



There are no horns of American Moose (or "Elk" of European authors) , 

 but in lieu thereof we have horns of two Old World species, the European 

 Moose, Alces machlis (Plate VII, Fig. 4), and still more important, the rare 

 and new East Siberian Moose, Alces machlis bed fordiae (Plate VII, Fig. 1). 

 The antlers of the latter species develop no palination ichatcrer, and in size and 

 general appearance they strongly resemble the baby antlers of a three-year- 

 old American Moose. It seems as if bedfordiae is the parent stock of the Euro- 

 pean Moose, going westward, and the American Moose, trending eastward. 



The most gigantic, aye, even magnificent, of all head weapons now car- 

 ried by four-footed game are the antlers of the adult bull Moose of Alaska. 

 Attaining a maximum spread of nearly seven feet (78V-2 inches), a weight of 

 92 pounds, and a shovel-width of 18 inches, they fairly "stagger the imagina- 

 tion." Even of all known fossil animals, the so-called Irish elk, which in 

 reality was a species related to the fallow deer, was the only one with antlers 

 or horns surpassing those of the Alaskan Moose. Nature was a million years 

 or more in fashioning Alces americanus; and is it not saddening that despite the 

 Alaskan game law as strong a measure as its originators dared submit to Con- 

 gress that grand species is now being ruthlessly slaughtered to feed railway 

 laborers and miners, and idle Indians! The Indian epicures prefer cow Moose, 

 because their flesh is more tender and delicate than that of bulls. The inhabitants 

 of Alaska seem determined that the big game of that territory shall be wiped 

 out; and in the absence of paid game wardens and actual protection, the end 

 seems very near. In Alaska we are now face to face with this question: Is it 



