DEER. 



265 



at least probable that, though the wapiti varies in 

 colour from black to brown, there is another stag, 

 more of a mountaineer, in North America, to the 

 westward of the great central valley ; and though this 

 species displays very considerable variety in the ex- 

 tent of its range, it is probable that it occurs in the 

 Canadian mountains, and is the animal described as 

 the Canadian stag, more uniformly red in the colour, 

 and more light in its make than the wapiti. It has 

 been seen at different parts of the west coast, and 

 perhaps ranges along the Stony Mountains as far as 

 California, its horns are smaller than those of the 

 wapiti ; and it has a character somewhat peculiar, 

 namely, that the bezantler, or second on the beam, is 

 longer than the brow antler. The horns are about 

 three feet from burr to tip, very much furrowed and 

 pearled ; the brow antler turned downwards over the 

 face, the bezantler forwards or upwards ; and the 

 royal, or tip of the horn, consisting of snags from a 

 common centre, as in the stag. There are varieties of 

 colour, but the following is about the average : face 

 dark brown, cheeks and space round the eyes buff, 

 chin and inside of the limbs white, muzzle broad and 

 black, lachrymal sinuses long, ears long, dark outside 

 but inside and margin white, neck, back, Hank and 

 hams brown, legs ochre-yellow, tail in some of the 

 varieties long, in others short. Additional information 

 is wanted, however, in order to determine whether 

 there are several species or only one diversified by 

 climate. 



THE VIRGINIAN DEER Ccrvns Firgiwanus. This 



is what is usually styled the fallow deer of America. 



It is a very light and handsome species. It stands 



about three feet three inches in height at the shoulder. 



The horns are inclined forwards, with their points 



turned toward each other, so that they arc not further 



apart than the liases. The burr is small, and near it 



on the inner side of the beam rises a short antler 



inclining inwards. The first horn is a simple pricket 



The second has a forked summit, and then in the fifth 



year there are two or three snags on the posterior or 



curved part of the beam. On mature age the upper 



part of the beam becomes pal mated, and the snags 



become double pointed ; the burr also extends, and so 



does the brow antler, but the horns are subject to very 



considerable varieties. In summer, the hair of hot! 



sexes is of a bright yellow cinnamon colour, whicl 



changes to a fine brownish grey during the winter 



the hairs of that season being annulated with brow 



and buff. The belly, inside of the thighs, the inter 



nal face of the fore legs, above the knees, and the 



posterior, inner border of the buttocks, are white 



the throat, breast, and under part of the tail, of th 



same colour ; the upper part of the tail dark, and the 



legs fawn colour; the ears are long and pointed, out 



side of a brown grey, inside well lined with white 



hair; the forehead, face, and cheeks, brown with 



slight mixture of grey ; round the eyes, lips, and chin 



fawn colour ; the muzzle small and black, no spot o 



the corner of the mouth, but the winter hair of th 



belly and under part of tail long and silky, and th 



bristles on the inside of the hinder joint or tibi-tarsa 



articulation of a deep rust colour. In this animal th 



eyes are peculiarly bright, soft, and beautiful. Th 



fawn is of a lively fulvous brown, marked during th 



first year with numerous white spots. They rut i 



November and December, when the neck of the buc 



swells, and gestation lasts near nine months, th 



females dropping two or even three fawns. The buck 



ose their attire about the same period as the stags 

 f Europe ; they bray, but with less noise, and live in 

 erds from the southern confines of the great lakes 

 nd the St. Lawrence to the Floridas and westward, 

 n the interior to an immense distance. According 

 o Professor Harlan, this species displays great enmity 

 ovvards the rattle-snake,, which it contrives to crush 

 y leaping, with the fore-feet conjoined, and dropping 

 lerperidicularly on the serpent, bounding away again 

 vith great lightness, and repeating this attack till the 

 ineiny is killed. This species of deer is subject to con- 

 iderable variations, probably arising from difference of 

 tolour, but the specific distinctions are very uniform. 

 [ts flesh is very palatable and wholesome, and its skin, 

 which is soft and flexible, is used for many purposes 

 n domestic economy, and is said to resemble that of 

 the chamois more than the skins of any of the com- 

 mon deer of Europe. It is altogether an interesting 

 animal, and forms a very decided feature in the natu- 

 ral history of the districts in which it is found. It is 

 rather more of a lowland animal than the red deer of 

 the Rocky Mountains, but it possesses more elegance 

 of form and more activity of habit than our fallow 

 deer, at the same time its manners are gentle, and 

 there is no doubt that it could be easily domesticated 

 in its native country, and probably in Europe. 



THE MexiCAN DEER Cervus Mexicanus. This 

 is rather a doubtful species, or at all events the part 

 of America of which it is a native is not very clearly 

 made out, though it is probable that it inhabits the 

 table land, more or less, the whole way from Mexico 

 to the southern extremity of the American continent ; 

 and that though it is a mountaineer in the tropical 

 parts, it descends to the plains in Patagonia. The 

 animal itself is little if at all known, but the horns 

 have been in various museums for a considerable 

 time ; and as they are peculiar, it may not be amiss 

 to give in substance the description of them, partly 

 from Shaw and partly from the celebrated Grew, by 

 whom the animal is styled the Indian Roebuck. It 

 is probable that the same pair of horns still to be seen 

 in the British Museum are those mentioned by Grew. 

 They are of a bright yellow colour, so irregularly and 

 widely palmated as to cause a suspicion that they 

 once belonged to an unknown species of reindeer, or 

 to a second species of elk. They are nearly seven- 

 teen inches long, spreading diagonally from the head 

 and reclining back ; there is no burr at the base, only 

 a broad, ascending, tuberculated, and toothed beam. 

 At two inches from the base an antler issues from the 

 anterior part in a vertical direction, flat and ending 

 in two points ; about three inches higher the beam, 

 being somewhat prismatic in form, widens, and a 

 broad flat branch throws up four snags in the form of 

 a palm, the foremost plain, the next toothed, the third 

 plain, and the fourth bifurcated ; behind these a fifth 

 assumes a still more singular form, it ascends in the 

 same direction with the others, terminating in three 

 processes, and from its external posterior side throws 

 out an horizontal branch which bifurcates again, the 

 inferior being the longest and hanging downwards ; 

 this is the right horn ; the left, after the basal antler, 

 throws obliquely forwards a flat broad branch dividing 

 into two processes, then vertically one with three ex- 

 ternal processes, and then a third likewise with three 

 external processes, but these three branches flatten 

 also at the base into a kind of palm obliquely facing 

 the other. 



Cuvier describes the horns as strongly curved for- 



