«5'1 FRANK FORESTER'S FIELD SPORTS. 



Its G^ross weight was 7041bs. ; its length, from the tip of the 

 nose to the hinder hoof, 11 feet ; height at the witliers, 5 feet 4 

 inches — sixtcrn //a//<Is \ length of antlers, 4 feet 2 inches ; width 

 of antlers from tip to tip, 2 feet 6 inches. 



Tt appears to me, however, that the great male Elk, exhibited 

 nndrr the name of Wapiti, in the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, 

 which was trained to draw a gig — the females being broke to 

 the saddle — was yet laro^er than this animal. If I err not, it mea- 

 snred nearly eighteen hands. 



I had the good fortune, while a boy, at Eton, to enjoy fre- 

 quent opportunities of observing a small hei'd of these magnifi- 

 cent Deer, in the paddocks of Lord Glenlyon, at Datchet. 

 There were, if I remember rightly, two great Stags, and ten or 

 a dozen Hinds, the latter being so tame as to eat anything, par- 

 ticularly bread or apples, of which they were very fond, out of 

 the hand. They were imported, as I understood, for the pur- 

 pose of being naturalized in his lordship's highland estates ; 

 but Avhether that project was carried out, I cannot state. They 

 were kept within very lofty and very strong enclosures ; and I 

 was told that, during the rutting season, the males were exceed- 

 ingly dangerous and savage, and that they would attack a man 

 during their oestrum, without any provocation. This I by no 

 means doubt, as the common Red Deer, and sometimes even 

 the Fallow Bucks, which are so much smaller and more timid, 

 will, at the same season, occasionally attack intruders on their 

 haunts. 



In the description I have quoted above, of this animal, from 

 Godman's America?i Natural Histori/, there is a long description 

 of, and discussion conceiTiing, the subocular sinuses, or longi- 

 tudinal mucous slits beneath the eye in this animal. I have only 

 to ol)serve, in relation to this, that similar sinuses exist in almost 

 all animals of this gemis, and that it is universally believed that 

 they do contain an apparatus to facilitate inspiration and ex- 

 halation during moments of great exertion. That singularly 

 ingenious and observant naturalist, the Rev. Gilbert White, of 

 Selborne, whose work on the natural history of his own parish 



