American Elk 
beast, preferring to escape by flight rather than turn upon its pur- 
suers, though its sharp teeth and well-developed tusks would make 
it a rather formidable enemy. 
DEER AND THEIR ALLIES 
Family Cervide 
To this family belong the majority of our American hoofed 
animals. As has already been explained, their most distinctive 
characteristic lies in their solid horns or antlers, which are shed 
once a year. The new horn grows rapidly and is for a time soft, 
full of blood vessels and provided with a downy covering known 
as the ‘‘velvet.’’ When the full growth is attained the horn 
becomes hard and the velvet wears off. The first antlers are 
very simple, but each succeeding pair is, as a rule, more and 
more branched, so that a large number of ‘‘ points” indicates to 
the hunter an old individual. 
American Elk 
Cervus canadensis (Erxleben) 
Also called Wapziiz. 
Length. 8 feet. Height at shoulder, 5 feet 4 inches. Length of 
antler, 50-65 inches. 
Description. Body above yellowish brown, beneath nearly black, 
head, chest and neck dark brown, legs clove brown, a yel- 
lowish white area on the rump about the base of the tail. 
Female rather lighter coloured. The antlers borne only by the 
male curve outward and backward with curved branches or 
tines projecting forward at nearly uniform distances, the lowest 
pair directly over the forehead. 
Range. Formerly throughout the Northern states and Canada, ex- 
tending southward in the mountains. Now nearly extinct in the 
East. In the Northwest its place is taken by the closely related 
Roosevelt’s elk and in the Arizona Mountains by Merriam’s elk. 
This splendid game animal is now all but extinct east of the 
Mississippi river; a victim to the advance of civilization and the 
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