w 



THE ALCINE DEER OF THE OLD AND NEW WORLDS. 47 



great length of the head and ear, and the muscular 

 development of the upper hp ; the movements of which, 

 directed by four powerful muscles arising from the maxil- 

 laries, prove its fitness as a prehensile organ. In form it 

 has been said to be intermediate between the snout of 

 the horse and of the tapir. I am indebted to Mr. Buck- 

 land for the following description of a skull, which had 

 been forwarded to him from Nova Scotia : — 



*' This splendid skull weighs ten pounds eleven ounces, 

 and is twenty-four inches and a-half in length. The 

 inter-maxillary bones are very much prolonged, to give 

 attachment to the great muscle or upper prehensile lip, 

 and the foramen in the bone for the nerve, which 

 supplies the * muffle ' with sensation, is very large. I 

 can almost get my little finger into it. The ethmoid 

 bone, upon which the nerves of smelling ramify them- 

 selves, is very much developed. 'No wonder the hunter 

 has such difficulty in getting near a beast whose nose 

 will telegraph the signal of ' danger ' to the brain, even 

 when the danger is a long way off, and the ' walking 

 danger,' if I have read the habits of North American 

 Indians, is in itself of a highly odoriferous character. The 

 cavities for the eyes are wide and deep. I should say the 

 moose has great mobility of the eye. The cavity for the 

 peculiar gland in front of the eye is greatly scooped out. 

 The process at the back of the head for the attachment 

 of the ligamentum nuchse — the elastic ligament which, 

 like an india-rubber spring, supports the weight of the 

 massive head and ponderous horns without fatigue to the 

 owner, is much developed. The enamel on the molar 

 teeth forms islands with the dentine somewhat like the 

 pattern of the tooth of the common cow." 



