DEEH HUNTING. 



239 



DEER HUNTING. 



HE Common Deer of North Ame- 

 rica, Cervus Virginianus, differs en- 

 tirely from all the European or In- 

 dian varieties of this order. It is 

 smaller in size than the Red Deer — 

 Hart and Hind — of the British Isles 

 and the European Continent, and is 

 far inferior to it in stateliness of character, in bearing, and in 

 the size and extent of its antlers, which, m(n-eover, are very dis- 

 tinct in form from those of the stag. This distinction consists 

 in the fact that, while the main stem of the horn in the Red 

 Deer invariably leans backward from the brow, with all the 

 branches or tines pointing forward and downward, to the number 

 of ten or twelve, in the American Deer it points forward and 

 downward, with the branches arising from it backward and 

 upward. 



From the Fallow Deer of Europe, wliich I believe to have 

 been originally introduced from the East, it differs in being 

 much larger, and having branched, as distinguished from pal- 

 mated horns. 



Its flesh is much nearer akin, as indeed is its general appear- 

 ance, to that of the Red than the Fallow Deer, being very rarely 

 fat, and much drier, and less delicate, than that of the buck or 

 doe. It is sn very much larger than the Roebuck, and differs 

 from it so greatly in all respects, that it is needless to enter mi- 

 nutely into the difference. 



