64 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 



Moose, Alee Americanus. Hunters now seek Canadian covers 

 or the wilds of Maine to kill these magnificent animals, which 

 are even there becoming scarce. They were once numerous in 

 this section, but withdrew before the advancing settlers. The 

 well-known moose yards on sheltered slopes and thickets of the 

 neighboring mountains, especially in Deerfield and Nottingham, 

 were visited by early colonial hunters, the deep snow making 

 the herded moose an easy prey. 



Deer, Cervus Americanus. This is the common fallow-deer, 

 known generally as the red or brown deer. One hundred years 

 ago and earlier deer were more common than cattle are to-day, 

 and were especially valuable, serving both for food and clothing. 

 The skins were home-tanned and made into jackets, mittens, 

 leggins and boots, or made useful in a great variety of ways, in 

 making chair seats, snow-shoes, etc. While the deer was at first 

 killed solely for these purposes, there came a time when they 

 were hunted nearly to extermination, at the close of the Revo- 

 lution, on account of the great scarcity of grain. The crime of 

 the deer consisted in their eating and tramping down the grow- 

 ing crops of wheat, corn and rye. So much mischief was done 

 in this way that many towns offered a bounty for their destruc- 

 tion, and the office of "deer keeper" was created, the duty of 

 that official being to abate the deer nuisance. They are still 

 common in the northern part of the state, and have been seen 

 even within the city bounds during the last twelve-month. 



Caribou or American Reindeer, Tarangns zangifer. This is a 

 woodland ranger, now confined to Canada and northern Maine, 

 or found in the region of the great lakes. 



Beaver, Castor fiber. This wonderful animal has furnished 

 the world with an example of intelligent instinct scarcely paral- 

 elled in the whole range of the brute creation. Engineer, sur- 

 veyor, architect and builder, his achievements are comparable to 

 those of men supplied with the tools of civilization. The exist- 

 ence of beaver-meadows and the finding of logs knawed asunder 



