326 



UNGULATA 



for beneath the snow. The wild Reindeer grows to a much greater 

 size than the tame breed; but in Northern Europe the former 

 are being gradually reduced through the natives entrapping and 



domesticating them. 

 The tame breed found 

 in Northern Asia is 

 much larger than the 

 Lapland form, and is 

 there used to ride on. 

 Remains referable to 

 the existing species are 

 found in the cavern 

 and other Pleistocene 

 deposits of Europe. 



Alces. 1 The Elk or 

 Moose (Alces machlis) 

 has the same general 

 distribution as the 

 Reindeer, and is like- 

 wise the single existing 

 representative of its 

 genus. It is the largest 

 existing member of the 



Fio. 132. Hinder part of the base of the cranium of the family, attaining SOHie- 

 Virginian Deer (Cariacus virginianus). From Garrod, Proc. times a height of 8 feet 

 Zool. Soc. 1877, p. 13. ? , r 



at the withers. The 



antlers (Fig. 133) have neither brow nor bez tine, but form an 

 enormous basin-shaped palmation, primarily composed of an anterior 

 and a posterior branch ; their weight may be as much as 60 Ibs. 

 The nasal bones are very short, and the narial aperture of great 

 size. The Elk is covered with a thick coarse fur of a brownish 

 colour, longest on the neck and throat. Its legs are long and 

 its neck short, and as it is thus unable to feed close to the 

 ground, it browses on the tops of low plants, the leaves of 

 trees, and the tender shoots of the willow and birch. Its antlers 

 attain their full length by the fifth year, but in after years they 

 increase in breadth and in the number of snags, until fourteen of 

 these are produced. Although spending a large part of their lives 

 in forests, Elks do not suffer much inconvenience from the great 

 expanse of their antlers, as in making their way among trees 

 they are carried horizontally to prevent entanglement with the 

 branches. Their usual pace is a shambling trot, but when frightened 

 they break into a gallop. The natural timidity of the Elk 

 forsakes the male at the rutting season, and he will then attack 

 whatever animal comes in his Avay. The antlers and hoofs are his 

 i Hamilton-Smith, in Griffith's Animal Kingdom, vol. v. p. 303 (1827). 



