DEER. 



DENMARK. 



adult is of a deep brown in the spring, passing 

 as the season advances, to a grayish-brown 

 and grayish^white, and during the warrnes 

 portion of the summer, is almost white. 



The Rein-deer is the only animal of the deer 

 genus which has been subjugated by man 

 The Laplanders have large troops of them 

 The greater part of the males are castrated 

 and harnessed to sledges. The females fur- 

 nish milk, the flesh food, the skins clothing 

 cordage, &c. 



In America, however, the Rein-deer has 

 never been domesticated for use. The male 

 adults and sterile females lose their horns in 

 winter, and the new ones are not perfectly 

 hard and matured till August They carry 

 their young 33 weeks, at the end of which 

 time, generally in the month of May, they 

 bring forth. They abound in the northern re- 

 gions, but are not found in the United States 

 south of the state of Maine. 



3. The Elk (Cervus Canadensis) called also 

 the Canadian or American stag, inhabits Cana- 

 da, Missouri, and other western states. The 

 head of this species very much resembles that 

 of the common deer. Its height at the withers 

 is 4 feet ; length of its branched horns 3 feet 

 to 3 feet 10 inches ; length of the tail only 2 

 inches. A black spot or mark descends from 

 the corner of the mouth on each side of the 

 lower jaw. The prevailing colour of the body 

 above the flanks is a clear bloody-red. The 

 female has no horns, and its colours are less 

 strong. The elks associate in families. The 

 females bring forth in the month of July. A 

 fine specimen preserved in the Philadelphia 

 museum, 13 years old, measures from the tip of 

 the nose to the base of the tail 7 feet 7 inches. 



4. The Virginian Deer (Cervus Virginianus}, 

 is the common deer found throughout the 

 United States wherever extensive forests re- 

 main. It is met with as high north as Canada, 

 and passing southwards through the Isthmus, 

 is even seen on the river Oronoco, in South 

 America. Its total length is 5 feet 5 inches ; 

 the horns, measured following the curvatures, 

 are 1 foot 10 inches long; these are provided 

 with antlers or branches ; the tail is 10 inches 

 in length; the weight of the animal ranges 

 from 90 to 120 Ibs. Its form is light, and its 

 motions quick and exceedingly graceful. The 

 colour of the young animal is of a deep brown, 

 with small white spots; the adults in summer 

 are of a beautiful brown or fawn colour, whilst 

 the belly, insides of the thighs, and lower part 

 of the tail are white. They take their winter 

 coat in October ; their summer dress in March 

 and April ; their horns fall off in February ; 

 they carry their young nine months, and bring 

 forth in July or August. Towards autumn the 

 fawn loses its spots, and the hair becomes 

 grayish, a state to which the hunters apply the 

 phrase in the gray. The coat is shed in the 

 latter part of May and beginning of June, and 

 is then substituted by the reddish coat ; in this 

 state the animal is said to be in the red. To- 

 wards the last of August, the old bucks begin 

 to change to the dark bluish colour ; the doe 

 commences this change a week or two later ; 

 in this state they are said to be in the blue; this 

 coat gradually lengthens until it comes to the 



gray. The skin is said to be toughest in the 

 red, thickest in the blue, and thinnest in the 

 gray; the blue skin is most valuable. The 

 horns are cast in January; they lose the velvet 

 the last of September, and beginning of October. 



This species displays great enmity towards 

 the rattlesnake, which enemy they attack and 

 destroy with singular dexterity and courage ; 

 when the deer discover one of these reptiles, 

 they leap into the air to a great distance above 

 it, and descend with their four feet brought to- 

 gether, forming a solid square, and light on the 

 snake with their whole weight, when they im- 

 mediately bound away; they return and repeat 

 the same manoeuvres until their enemy is com- 

 pletely destroyed. 



In Pennsylvania, by act of Assembly, the 

 killing of deer is restricted to the period be- 

 tween the 1st of August and the 1st of January, 

 and similar enactments exist in other states. 

 Deer are very timorous animals, and the 

 hunter must be intimately acquainted with 

 their habits and haunts. To approach them, 

 even with the rifle, he exercises an instinct, 

 which he has patiently cultivated, but little 

 inferior to his dog. During or after a shower 

 is chosen as the most favourable season for 

 deer-stalking; both as a time when the deer 

 will be more readily met with on the ridges, 

 and that the noise made by the steps of the 

 hunter may be drowned in the droppings from 

 the trees. Their fondness for salt is also often 

 employed for their destruction. A rotten log 

 is salted, and when the hunter perceives that 

 it is much frequented, he conceals himself 

 within rifle-shot near it ; or if it bears the 

 marks of being recently visited, with a keen 

 and tutored eye, he traces them to their lair. 

 In October, November, and December the ve- 

 nison is best, if the weather has been mild ; but 

 after the country has been covered for some 

 time with snow, it generally acquires an un- 

 pleasant taste, from their browsing upon the lau- 

 rels (rhododenront and kalmias} of the swamps. 



5. Great eared Deer (the Cervus macrotis of 

 Say), and by others called the Black Tailed 

 Deer, and Mule Deer, inhabits the most remote 

 northwestern territories of the United States. 

 (Fauna dmer. ; also Long's Expedition to the 

 Rocky Mountains, vol. 2.) 



6. The sixth species of the American deer, 

 having become extinct, is now only met with 

 n a fossil state. Part of a skeleton having 

 been sent by President Jefferson to the late 

 Professor Wistar, the bones are described by 

 he latter in the Transactions of the American 



Philosophical Society, vol. i., new series. It pos- 

 sessed many of the characters of the elk 

 (Cervus Canadensis'). The bones of this fossil 

 elk have hitherto been discovered only in the 

 morass near the falls of Ohio, called Big-bone- 



ick, in company with the bones of the masto- 

 don, &c. (Harlan's Fauna Jlmericana.) 



DEER-NECK, in horsemanship, signifies a 



hin ill-formed neck. 



DENMARK. The agriculture of Denmark, 

 especially of the duchies of Sleswic, Holstein, 

 and Lauenberg, has been described by Mr. 

 Darr. A large portion of this extensive dis- 



rict is alluvial soil, of a very fertile descrip- 

 tion, composed of 



403 



