RECREATIVE NATURAL HISTORY. 



RECREATIVE NATURAL HISTORY. 



THE DEEB FAMILY. 



A HISTORY of field sports would bo an instructive as amusing. 



It mu-t, ine\ it .!. v il.-xi-li'p I mill tho evil and tho good of human 

 nature, xh.iwiu.' much courage and daring associated with no 



.si>lunhni!*M anl cruelty. Hunting would, beyond doubt, 

 take up tho ^renter portion f such a work, from tho chase of 

 ; > tho rather inglorious pursuit of a har. 



: devote. I to the various tiold sports of tho UniUid King. 

 loin woul.l tir-t treat of the nUitf-himt before condescending to 



tho lini.l fox-hunter or the skilful manager of harriers. 

 ( >ur present object 

 is not, however, to 

 write il treatise On 



hunting, but to give 

 some account of an 

 important family of 

 animals whieii have 

 in all ages been the 

 special objects of the 

 hunter's craft. 



This being our third 

 paper on the Rumi- 

 nants, no special re- 

 marks on this order 

 of mammalia are re- 

 quired. It may be 

 sufficient to call at- 

 tention to the fact 

 that all the Cervidce, 

 or deer family, have 

 solid horns, a marked 

 distinction between 

 them and the ox, 

 sheep, and antelopes. 

 The deer alone, of all 

 the Ruminants, shed ^ 

 their horns yearly, a B^^H 

 physiological change M^HT 

 of sufficient import- 

 ance to give the ani- 

 mals a prominence in 

 natural history. 



Some brief descrip- 

 tions of the more re- 

 markable Bpecies are 

 necessary before we 

 examine into the 

 growth and structure 

 of the horns and other 

 peculiar organs. 



The epecies of the 

 so-called Irish elk is 

 now extinct, though 

 some writers assert 

 that individuals ex- 

 isted up to the middle 

 of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury. The bones of 

 this gigantic deer are 

 frequently found in 

 the bogs of Ireland 

 and in the Isle of Man. A perfect skeleton is in the Museum 

 of the Royal Dublin Society, and the spread of the vast antlers, 

 no less than six feet, may give some notion of the magnificent 

 power of this stag when living. Mr. Mantell possessed a pair 

 of horns which extended " thirteen feet from tip to tip." Can 

 the reader picture to himself a deer, six feet high and nine feet 

 in length, carrying aloft such a forest of spreading antlers ? 

 The animal is improperly called an elk, the form of the horns 

 proving it to bo closely allied to our elegant fallow-deer. 



The best living example of the true elks is the moose-deer 

 (Alces Americanus) of North America. The noble horns of 

 this species expand towards the summit in a manner somewhat 

 resembling those of tho fallow-deer, but without antlers at the 

 base or in the middle of the stem. The great weight of these 

 head-weapons, often about fifty pounds, compels the elk to hold 

 78 N.E. 



up its head when running, to M to throw the heavy mass boob* 

 ward- orer the nock. The great length of the legs, the heigh* 

 of the shoulders, the heavy, shambling trot, huge sise of the 

 animal, sometimes seven feet high, and the odd snapping sow*' 

 of tho joinU, giro to the motions of this deer a peculiar awk- 

 H. The moose spreads far orer the northern regions 

 ica, poshing its journeys, at some point*, within the 

 Arctic circle, and offering, in the depth of winter, a splendid 

 prize to the Indian huntor. The elks of Norway and Swede* 

 iitl'.-r I, ut little, if at all, from the moose ; bat they are rapidly 

 diminUhing in number before the rifles of enterprising sporU- 

 Even deer-stalking in the Scottish Highlands mast yield 



to sulking the elk in 

 the (fraud nolitudes of 

 the Norwegian 



THE RED DEER, OR TRTTE STAG (Cervus Elaphus). 



It may be supposed 

 that fable has left 

 these deer alone. Not 

 so : the men of old 

 times were too food 

 of the marvellous for 

 that. It was believed 

 that the legs of the elk 

 were without joints; 

 that antlers grew from 

 the eyelids ; and that 

 the animal was forced 

 to walk backwards as 

 it fed. The very pe- 

 digree of the crea- 

 ture was involved in 

 mystery. It wae said 

 to be descended from 

 the camel and the 

 deer; thus being, in 

 fact, a most wonder- 

 ful mule. Such an 



Animal could not be 



allowed to live a very 

 happy life ; it was 

 therefore made sub- 

 ject to severe epileptic 

 fits, which were con- 

 stantly bringing its 

 tall form to the 

 ground. No wonder, 

 then, that the old 

 Germans named tho 

 animal " Elend," ot 

 the wretched one '. 

 Amidst all these cala- 

 mities, one comfort 

 remained ; the elk 

 always had ita medi- 

 cine at hand. When 

 prostrated by a fit, 

 the patient had only 

 to smell or lick ita 

 hoofs to ensure 

 speedy recovery. 



The Rein-deer can- 

 not be entirely passed 



over by us, though it has been so often described that we shall 

 be pardoned for not entering hugely into minute details. We 

 must also be excused for declining to discuss the much-disputed 

 mode of spelling this deer's name, whether Ehen-deer, Rain- 

 door, or Rein-deer, leaving that important matter to the taste 

 of each reader. The various Indian and Esquimaux names are 

 too many for enumeration, amounting to a dozen at least. It 

 is also a question whether the rein-deer, or Caribou, of North 

 America is not a different species from that of the Laplanders. 

 The two are, probably, only varieties of the same species. No 

 inference can be justly drawn from the diversities in the horns, 

 for in no animals are these variations so numerous as among 

 the rein-deer ; indeed, it has been said that it is difficult to find 

 two individuals with horns exactly alike. The American rein- 

 deer was probably called Caribou (Carre-boraf) by the early 



