NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 81 



to command admiration, and indeed awe, on being first seen. 

 From such combined feelings many a hand has been stayed from 

 drawing the trigger, and many an elk has quickly disappeared 

 scatheless amongst the dense fir thickets through which it can 

 worm its bulky form and spreading antlers with such wonder- 

 ful facility. The American bull moose in its prime, in the early 

 days of autumn, with its glossy jet-black coat, golden brown legs, 

 and fawn coloured flanks, its great palmated horns all cleaned 

 from their recent skin covering, and polished by repeated rubbing 

 against young tree stems, is as different an animal as could be 

 imagined from the lank dispirited figure of the moose in winter, 

 at the conclusion of the rutting season, and when it is shorn of 

 its head ornaments which are dropped at Christmas. 



The concluding question of Mr. White, as to whether Mr. 

 Pennant thought still that the European elk and the American 

 moose are the same creature, may, I consider, be answered in 

 confirmation of the latter gentleman's opinion. I have carefully 

 examined, and taken both drawings and measurements of well 

 grown animals of this species bred in both hemispheres, and 

 am convinced of their identity an opinion shared by the best 

 German sporting authorities, and by a well known English 

 sportsman, 1 and correspondent of Land and Water, who has 

 studied the question during a residence of some years in the 

 British North American Provinces, and in Germany, in a par- 

 ticular forest of which country the elk is still found and strictly 

 preserved. 



I have found more variation of the woodland reindeer of 

 America in its distribution across the continent, than I am able 

 to perceive as existing between the elks of the Old and New 

 Worlds in the unimportant differences of size and shade of 

 colour of the hair. C. HAKDY, Lieut.-Colmiel, Royal Artillery. 



In Land and Water, No. 134, vol. vi., Aug. 15, 1868, will 

 be found an engraving, and a description by Colonel Hardy, of a 

 pair of European Elks, presented to his Royal Highness the 

 Prince of Wales, by Mr. Oscar Dickson, of Gothenburg. They 

 were kept some time at Sandringham. 



COMMON WREN, p. 101. "The common wren (Troglodytes 

 Europeans)," writes Mr. Napier, " is prolific, but I never saw a 

 well-authenticated instance of its laying more than ten eggs at a 

 sitting. The wren builds a very firm, compact, and comfortable 

 nest, which is made of a great variety of materials. I will 

 describe six in my collection. The first is built of moss and 



1 B. W. (Berlin). 

 VOL. II. M 



