270 BULLETIN NO. VII. 



The original habitat as laid down by Allen is as follows: 

 Beginning with the region east of the Mississippi river, its 

 extension northward was limited by the great lakes, while the 

 Alleghanies may be taken as its general eastern limit. To the 

 southward it seems never to have been met with much south of 

 the Tennessee river. It is well known to have ranged over 

 northern and western Arkansas, and thence southward over the 

 greater part of Texas, and across the Rio Grande into Mexico. 

 Westward it extended over northern New Mexico and thence 

 westward and northward throughout the Great Salt Lake basin, 

 and probably to the Sierra Nevada mountains in California and 

 the Blue mountains in Oregon. 



North of the Uuited States its western boundary seems to 

 have been formed by the main chain of the Rocky mountains* 

 along the foot-hills of which it has been found as far north as 

 the Mackenzie river. Its most northern limit seems to have 

 been the northern shore of Great Slave lake. In the British 

 possessions its range to the eastward did not extend beyond the 

 plains west of the Hudson's bay highlands. It was hence 

 wholly absent from the region north of the Great Lakes. 



FAMILY CERVIDJE. 

 Alces americanus JARDINE. 



MOOSE DEER. 



PLATE V, 



This, the largest existing ruminant in North America is ex- 

 ceedingly uncouth and ungainly, and more ox -like in many 

 respects than any other member of the Cervidce. The body is 

 massive and compact and relatively short, being concentrated 

 anteriorly. The legs are very long and stout, especially the 

 forelegs. The hoofs are large and ox-like, and the ' 'dew-claws" 

 large and pendulous. The metatarsal gland is absent. Tarsal 

 gland small and covered with retrorse hairs. The head is 

 massive but narrow, and reminding somewhat of that of a horse, 

 the nose, however, is enormous and hairy, except a space be- 

 tween the nostrils. The ears are very large. The antlers, which 

 complete the bizarre physiognomy of the male, are relatively but 

 moderately large and spreading, forming, by the expansion of 

 the beam and coalescence of the lines, a broadly-palmate shovel- 



